Episode 43 - More Cowbell： Democrats' Impeachment Fever. Worship is Essential. Goya Stands Strong.
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Summary
In this episode, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-GA) talks about Democrats' investigation of Attorney General Bill Barr, former U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Berman's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, and why Goya Foods is being boycotted by the White House.
Transcript
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Welcome to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz. Let's talk about the news.
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And the news in the House Judiciary Committee is that the Democrats have impeachment fever
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and it seems the only cure is more cowbell. Democrats are engaged in their investigation
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to ultimately impeach Attorney General Bill Barr. Yesterday they brought in as their principal
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witness Jeffrey Berman who had been fired from his position as the U.S. Attorney from the Southern
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District of New York and here's how the Berman story goes. He gives testimony that on the 19th
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of June the Attorney General calls him up to his hotel suite and tells him that the Attorney
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General wants to make a change at the Southern District of New York. Berman is then offered
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a position at the Department of Justice to lead the Civil Division. He's also asked later on
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if he would be interested in serving as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and
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the reason is that the administration would like to move Jay Powell who had served as the
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Security and Exchange Commission chairman into the role of U.S. Attorney for the Southern
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District of New York. This obviously deeply upsets Berman. He doesn't agree to it and then he gets
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fired. So now he's disgruntled, probably a little embarrassed, his feelings are hurt, and he shows up
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to the House Judiciary Committee to try to lay blame on Bill Barr. The reality is that Jeffrey Berman
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was never confirmed by the United States Senate to lead the Southern District of New York. He was there
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in an acting capacity and when you're acting, the Attorney General has the ability to move you out
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and move someone else in awaiting confirmation of the person that the President has ultimately picked
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to lead the office permanently. Jeffrey Berman believes that only his deputy would be an acceptable
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choice. Instead, the Attorney General initially contemplated moving in another U.S. Attorney from New
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Jersey, but that was scuttled and the deputy was named. What does it all mean? Why does it matter?
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I don't think it matters much at all when evaluating the service of Bill Barr because he acted within the
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scope of his authority. I don't think that it matters much in terms of evaluating Jeffrey Berman,
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frankly. It's not as if there was some terrible allegation of wrongdoing on the part of Berman. It simply
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was that they thought his skill set stack would align with different positions in the administration.
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But the real reason that I think it doesn't implicate the office in a negative way is that there was no
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pressure. There was no discussion of witnesses, cases, defendants, persons of interest. There was no
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articulation by Bill Barr that if Berman changed his behavior or prosecutorial conduct in any of these
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cases that it would be a different outcome. It would be improper for an Attorney General to sit down
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a U.S. Attorney and say, hey, look, I want you to take these following steps on these following cases
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for political reasons, and if you don't take those, I'm going to remove you. Here, the conversation was
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much different. The Attorney General said, I'm removing you. There was no negotiation. There was no bargain.
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Berman was ultimately removed, and I think history will judge this less as some cataclysmic impeachable
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offense and more as a disgruntled former employee with hurt feelings wanting to trash his boss. It
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shouldn't indulge the work of the United States Congress to become the HR board for the administration,
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but nonetheless, Democrats, addicted to impeachment, can't get enough of it, lost impeaching the
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president. Now they're going to Bill Barr. Goya Foods is one of the largest companies in America
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owned and operated by Hispanics, and the CEO of Goya Foods was at the White House sharing the
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president's vision for building and construction and development and economic success in the Hispanic
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community. Here's Robert Wanaway in the Rose Garden with the president.
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We're all truly blessed at the same time to have a leader like President Trump, who is a builder.
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And that's what my grandfather did. He came to this country to build, to grow, to prosper. And so we have
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an incredible builder, and we pray. We pray for our leadership, our president, and we pray for our country
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that we will continue to prosper and to grow. So after this meeting, after this strategy session
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on building up the Hispanic community and creating more opportunities for success, what was the result
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from the radical left? Was it engagement? Was it assistance? Was it ideas? Was it some element of
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their agenda that they thought would dovetail nicely with the administration's goals to see
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a great prosperity for Hispanics in the United States? No. It was an effort to boycott Goya Foods.
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This is so crazy. Now, if a leader in business and industry even takes an audience with the
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president of the United States and works together towards goals that I think should be virtuous to
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all of us, to see communities thrive and prosper and achieve really the pinnacle of their American dream,
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if that's not allowed, what is anymore in this country? You see, President Trump is always accused by
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the left and the media of being divisive and, you know, being a person who tries to pit the country
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against each other. But nothing could be further from the truth. Here, the president is trying to
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create really, I think, the right dynamic by highlighting a business owned by a person of Hispanic
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heritage in our country and then doing all he can as president to see that the business, the sector,
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and the opportunity created for people. The other important point here is that there is political
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opportunity in the Hispanic vote. Let me bring you back to the Florida governor's race in 2018.
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That was Ron DeSantis, who's now the governor of Florida, against the Democratic nominee Andrew Gillum.
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And just just Google Andrew Gillum if you want to see how his story ended. We don't have time to get
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into that today. But suffice it to say, Andrew Gillum, an African-American candidate, utilized race
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as really the organizing principle of his campaign. And he would repeatedly call Ron DeSantis a racist in
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one form or another. And, you know, he did it in kind of a clever way. He said, oh, well, I don't
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think you're a racist, but the racists think you're a racist. I'm not calling Mr. DeSantis a racist.
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I'm simply saying the racists believe he's a racist. And when Gillum did that, we just happened to have
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a poll out in the field during this debate sequence when Gillum tried to label DeSantis a racist. And we saw
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just dramatic turnaround in the polling, particularly with working class Hispanic men with Hispanics
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across the board. But working class Hispanic men do not want to see African-Americans just accusing
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white people of racism all the time. I don't know why. I don't know what it is. That's not my experience.
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But I could just tell you as a political scientist and someone who knows how to read polling,
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that African-Americans do not do themselves political favors with Hispanics when they are
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constantly playing the race card against white people, against anybody, really. And so I think
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that the president is playing on the right goals for the country when he tries to build up Hispanic
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businesses. I think also he leans into a political vulnerability for Democrats. If it's all about race
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all the time and it's not about success and it's not about unifying the country, I think that will
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really cost Democrats. I think it will really cost them with Hispanic voters. I'm proud of my president
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and I'm proud of Goya Foods for accepting the outreach and working together to build one strong,
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great nation for everyone. NFL player Deshaun Jackson is an electric wide receiver,
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a diminutive guy, at times a slot guy, very fast. He started his career at the University of Southern
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California. He then goes and plays for the Eagles and he's back with the Eagles now making news with
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some anti-Semitic and racist posts on his social media that have been deleted and some quotes that had been
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falsely attributed to Adolf Hitler. So you never want to be quoting Hitler. You never want to be
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falsely quoting Hitler in a social media inflamed moment. That has led to a substantial amount of
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backlash. But I think it's worth noting Deshaun Jackson is an interesting guy with an interesting
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history with the Philadelphia Eagles. So they take him out of the University of Southern California
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in the draft. He plays there. He's a good player. And then just very suddenly he gets cut from the
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Eagles. And they release a statement that they're cutting him because they are concerned about his
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relationship with criminal gang activity in South Central Los Angeles, I guess stemming back from his
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connections or time at the University of Southern California. And so he gets cut. He ends up playing
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and getting opportunities at other NFL franchises because, again, he is a very electric playmaker at the
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wide receiver position. And now, later in his career, not quite the player he was after some
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time with the Buccaneers and the Redskins. He's back with the Eagles. I guess they're satisfied that
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there's no criminal gang activity that they're going to be worried about. But now it's not the gang
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activity. It's the online mob that Deshaun Jackson seems to have joined. Again, quoting Farrah Khan, who we've
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discussed on this program as an explicit racist who seems to get a pass from the left, and then also
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quoting falsely Adolf Hitler. So the posts have been taken down. A fellow NFL player, I guess ex-player
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now, Chris Long called it an effing disaster for the NFL, for the Eagles, and for Deshaun Jackson. And I
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just think it's quite something that you seem to see an uneven application of the outrage culture
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in the NFL with some of their players. Look, I'm not for the cancel culture. I think it does highlight
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the double standard. It does highlight the problem the NFL has as they try to cater to the most extreme
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political whims of some of their players. And it's my hope that we'll all just get a little more
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capable at dealing with each other's ugly moments online, and that it won't lead us all to go clutch
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our pearls, cancel everyone, and then attempt to live in some antiseptic society where no one says
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mean things. There are bullies in the world. There are mean people in the world. There are folks who have,
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I think, flawed values. And we don't erase those people. We don't cancel them. I think we use it as an
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example to say, you know, no, these are not the values we have. We confront bad speech with better
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speech. And ultimately, that's how we become more enlightened, not by pretending that bad views don't
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exist. We've got to acknowledge them. We've got to deal with them. We've got to deconstruct them.
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There's no need to cancel everyone all the time for every stupid thing online.
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On the podcast, I've covered this Russia bounty allegation. I've given, I think,
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the right context and the right frame that there are always Russians and, frankly, other countries
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in Afghanistan who use the turmoil and the chaos to try to harm Americans. We had a hearing on this
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before the Armed Services Committee with Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint
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Chiefs General Milley. Here are Secretary Esper and General Milley in their opening statements.
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We take very seriously any threats to our forces, whether in Afghanistan or anywhere else across
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the globe. I want our adversaries to know that we will always do our utmost to ensure their safety
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and security. In closing, I want to assure the American people that the Department of Defense
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takes seriously our oath to defend the Constitution. With many having paid the ultimate sacrifice to
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protect the sacred rights and freedoms, this document guarantees all of us.
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I'm incredibly proud of the professionalism exhibited by the citizen soldiers to make up our National Guard.
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Since their formation, they have operated in support of local and state governments
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throughout history, responding to hurricanes, forest fires, health crises, COVID-19, the pandemic,
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and many forms of civil unrest throughout the years. By my research, I count at least 19 times
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that National Guard and militia troops were used in support of the Insurrection Act,
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and it's important to note the Insurrection Act was not invoked in the last several weeks.
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The United States military comes from the people of our nation, and we remain dedicated to the
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Constitution. We will never turn our back on that document. We swore an oath of allegiance at the cost of our
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lives to an idea embedded within that document, and we will always protect it.
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When I had the opportunity to question them, I thought it was important to point out
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what other nations are creating problems for us, and also the need to solve those problems not by
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entangling ourselves further in Afghanistan, but by leaving. And here's my exchange with the senior
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leadership of our military. General Milley, I'll allow you to respond to Congressman Moulton
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specifically as it relates to the depth, duration, and extent of the Russian malign influence campaign
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in Afghanistan, and perhaps the extent to which that well predates the current administration.
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Specifically to the bounties. That is a unique, discrete piece of information that is not corroborated.
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You've all been briefed on it. I have too. And I am, I and the Secretary and many others are taking it
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serious. We're going to get to the bottom of it.
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I'm glad you mentioned the other countries. September 5th, 2010, this is from the Times of
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London. Iran pays the Taliban to kill U.S. soldiers.
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Then also following up on that, there's a December 2nd, 2015 report from Fox News report Iran paying
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Taliban to kill U.S. troops. Is it safe to say, given these reports along with the testimony you just
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provided that the environment in Afghanistan, the very nature of the place and the very nature of
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the entities involved, means that our presence there does create these risks where our foreign
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adversaries create incentives and resources and opportunities for our service members to be harmed.
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Any time you commit U.S. military forces anywhere on earth, there's going to be risk.
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We went to Afghanistan for a single purpose to prevent Afghanistan from ever being a platform to attack
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the United States of America with terrorists. And we've been there ever since to do that.
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We are drawing down forces in accordance with the agreement that was signed with the Taliban.
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It's a risk I know you both appreciate, given your service to the country.
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It's a risk I know the President appreciates. I've had the occasion to join him at Dover when my
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constituents have come back for a dignified transfer. And that risk being so ever present,
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presence seems to accentuate the importance of your mission to draw down troops, to create some
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semblance of normalcy in Afghanistan to the extent to which that's even possible. And I believe that it
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is an unrealistic goal to say that we have to chase every terrorist into every cave forever and stay
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there forever in order to protect the homeland.
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And it's just worth noting that, you know, the Obama administration goes and gives Iran these
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billions of dollars. They're flying cash over there. At the conclusion of this financial transaction
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between the Obama administration and Iran, we see a massive increase in military spending. We see
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resources funneled out to, you know, Hezbollah and to other Iranian proxies at a far higher volume
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than previous. And when you see these these bad countries and these bad entities more resourced
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as a consequence of bad U.S. policy, then American lives are endangered. So it's quite rich for Democrats
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who loved up on Iran following President Obama's nuclear deal and delivery of cash to Iran,
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then turn around and act as if they're just, you know, incensed that the Russians are engaged in malign
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activity when in fact that malign activity is also occurring from Iran and essentially funded by
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the United States. So let's be consistent. And I think that the right approach here isn't to stay
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in Afghanistan for another 20 years while we try to figure out who to blame for funding proxy violence
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against our service members. It's to bring those service members home to fly over Afghanistan at a high
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altitude, bomb the hell out of them when necessary, when they're creating the capability to strike our
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homeland. But the answer is not another 20 years in Afghanistan.
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Let my people worship, especially during the time of strife, especially during a time of pandemic.
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Religious services are essential and no government should be standing in the way of an American and
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their access to their church, their faith, their fellow parishioners, their pastor, and certainly
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their God. The United States Navy had taken a position just weeks ago that restricted the ability
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of military families, Navy families, to access worship services during this pandemic. I opposed this
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decision. I supported the, I think, more realistic view that the Air Force took and the Army took,
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that worship is an essential service and that that would not be constrained by the United States
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military. But the Navy took a different position. And very quietly, a number of congressional offices,
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ours included, shared our thoughts with military leaders about the Navy deviating from this practice
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that the other service branches had adopted. And that particularly at bases like mine, where it's not
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a bunch of people getting on and off a ship and coming off of it after being at some port,
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but it's really a naval aviation and technology training center. And then with joint installation
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with the Coast Guard, that would not justify this type of restriction of worship and religion and faith.
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And so a number of members of Congress reached out to the Navy just yesterday. The Navy has reversed
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their position and our great sailors are going to be able to worship and congregate. And we hope that
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everyone, regardless of their military service or how they worship or where they worship, we really
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hope everyone takes some social distancing into account. Wash your hands and make sure that you give
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folks space as you worship and access the full complement of your First Amendment rights. Good job,
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Navy. Way to reverse the decision. Good news for our sailors and their families.
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Thanks so much for listening to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gates. If you subscribe to
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