The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - Episode 44 - Attempted Cultural Genocide. Mask Politics. ESPN Political Profanity. Hispanic Patriotism.

00:00:00.000 You ever watch this guy on television?

00:00:03.940 You all were not telling the truth and you should not be trusted.

00:00:06.920 Congressman Matt Gaetz, thank you for what you did for your country tonight.

00:00:09.280 Be offended with the Democratic whip, not House of Republicans.

00:00:12.240 Like a machine, Matt Gaetz.

00:00:16.240 Welcome to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz.

00:00:19.200 Let's talk about the news.

00:00:21.000 Roger Stone is in the news as a consequence of his commutation from President Trump.

00:00:26.200 But if you listen to this podcast, the fact that Roger Stone's not going to jail isn't news to you

00:00:31.980 because I told you, gosh, weeks ago that I expected this outcome,

00:00:36.760 that Roger was disproportionately bearing the burden of the Mueller probe.

00:00:41.740 And speaking of Mueller, Robert Mueller awakens from whatever slumber he had been in

00:00:47.660 following his testimony to the House Judiciary Committee

00:00:50.020 to come and write an op-ed criticizing the president for commuting Roger Stone's sentence.

00:00:55.880 And, you know, I mean, let's start with this.

00:00:58.880 Robert Mueller didn't write that op-ed.

00:01:01.220 Robert Mueller barely knew where he was when he was in the House Judiciary Committee.

00:01:05.780 So this was obviously something written by somebody else with Robert Mueller's name attached to it.

00:01:12.700 In that regard, I guess it's a lot like the Mueller report itself.

00:01:16.080 I mean, it was astounding to me that when we had Mueller in the committee,

00:01:19.740 he did not know what was in his report.

00:01:21.640 And it showed what a sham the whole process was.

00:01:24.640 He was clearly not up for it.

00:01:27.120 But the Democrats used the credibility of Mueller as a basis to punish the president and his allies

00:01:34.320 and people who worked in the White House and people who helped the campaign with this nonsense.

00:01:39.340 And the process was the punishment in the Mueller investigation.

00:01:44.760 And so for Mueller to now pop up and say, oh, well, you know, this was a proper prosecution of Stone

00:01:51.860 and, you know, here are all the bad things Stone did.

00:01:54.480 How about all the bad stuff the Mueller team did?

00:01:56.760 You know, how about the way that intelligence was altered before a FISA court by folks at the FBI,

00:02:03.460 information that was ultimately used by the Mueller team?

00:02:06.300 How about the way they treated George Papadopoulos and Carter Page?

00:02:09.800 How about the way that General Flynn was treated?

00:02:12.200 You know, these are far more egregious process crimes than what Roger Stone was accused of.

00:02:18.480 So I'm glad Roger's having a good day.

00:02:21.120 Quite something that Mueller is back penning work that he probably wouldn't be able to explain or be aware of.

00:02:28.580 I guess Robert Mueller is the only guy that makes Joe Biden look alert.

00:02:32.240 But I'm certainly alert to the fact that justice was done by this commutation.

00:02:37.660 And I'm glad the president did it.

00:02:41.840 The McCluskeys are back in the news. 0.98

00:02:45.200 This was the St. Louis couple that you saw with firearms outside their home after a,

00:02:51.500 I guess you could call it a protest, but seemed more like a riot to them,

00:02:56.160 was taking place outside their home.

00:02:58.080 They took up arms, they went outside, and they let it be known that they were not going to be the victims here.

00:03:05.100 Their house was not going to be overrun.

00:03:07.940 And following this, there was sort of a meme, and they put out a statement through their lawyer

00:03:12.920 that was like, oh, you know, we're Black Lives Matter supporters.

00:03:18.080 These protesters were white.

00:03:20.280 As if that matters, right?

00:03:21.860 Like, when you're protecting your home, no one's skin color should be relevant to what force protection you're allowed to use

00:03:29.240 to ensure that your family and your place of abode is safe.

00:03:35.860 Now the McCluskeys are in the news because officials have shown up with search warrants to take their guns away from them.

00:03:43.900 This is crazy.

00:03:44.980 Like, where are the officials to go and arrest every single person that has defaced, destroyed, torn down one of America's statues?

00:03:54.860 You know, why haven't we arrested every single person who has gone and set fire to a house of worship

00:04:01.400 or thrown a cinder block through the storefront in a town in our country?

00:04:07.000 But no, it's the McCluskeys that officials want to come after. 0.98

00:04:12.040 Pretty ridiculous, if you ask me.

00:04:13.540 In the state of Florida, we have something called the Castle Doctrine, which means that your home is your castle. 0.85

00:04:19.920 And if someone comes to your home seeking to commit a felony or to hurt you, you are able to respond with force, including deadly force.

00:04:29.340 I support the Castle Doctrine. 0.82

00:04:31.340 I think more states should adopt it.

00:04:33.320 And we certainly shouldn't be going after the people who, in these times of great peril,

00:04:38.660 are taking responsibility to protect themselves and protect their homes.

00:04:44.500 I'm Team McCluskey.

00:04:46.040 Maybe not for the statements they released through their lawyers,

00:04:49.180 but for the fundamental American right to defend what is yours.

00:04:53.340 Who knew that the political symbol of 2020 wouldn't be a MAGA rally or whatever Joe Biden does with his time in between naps?

00:05:07.120 But the mask, I mean, the mask has become political.

00:05:12.000 And I really don't understand why.

00:05:13.540 When I'm in public, I wear a mask.

00:05:15.640 I, you know, think that when you're outside in an open-air environment,

00:05:20.100 it's probably less necessary than when you're at a grocery store or a gas station or somewhere where people are enclosed together.

00:05:28.140 But the mask science, I think, is still up for debate in terms of, you know, does it help you?

00:05:36.660 Does it really stop the spread of droplets if you're super confined, like in a car?

00:05:42.820 Or, but it's not going to hurt.

00:05:44.840 And so I'm willing to do it.

00:05:46.600 And the president's willing to do it.

00:05:48.300 He wore a mask at Walter Reed.

00:05:49.920 Thought he looked pretty good in the mask.

00:05:51.360 I had a lot of people asking me, where do you get the presidential seal mask?

00:05:55.720 While I can get the presidential seal M&Ms and occasionally a presidential seal letter,

00:06:02.980 I do not have access to the presidential seal coronavirus mask.

00:06:07.740 But the president wore it.

00:06:09.040 No big deal.

00:06:09.820 But you wouldn't believe that from listening to the left.

00:06:12.220 Here's an exchange with Dana Bash and Nancy Pelosi.

00:06:14.860 Madam Speaker, before I let you go, just one word after you saw the president wearing a mask, your reaction?

00:06:21.800 Well, I'm so glad that he obeyed the rules of the Walter Reed.

00:06:26.980 You can't go see our veterans who are there without wearing a mask.

00:06:32.980 Now he's crossed a bridge.

00:06:34.920 That's an admission.

00:06:35.800 An admission, Nancy Pelosi says, trying to generate political advantage out of the mask. 0.97

00:06:41.780 Give me a freaking break. 0.97

00:06:43.120 OK, the president was going into an environment with medically frail people. 0.99

00:06:47.360 He was happy to wear the mask when doing so.

00:06:49.980 I think that we ought to depoliticize this.

00:06:53.140 People ought to wear masks when it makes sense.

00:06:55.400 People ought to not be shamed when they don't wear masks.

00:06:57.920 You know, out at a beach where you've got sunlight and air.

00:07:01.300 But I think we can all come together, be more successful.

00:07:04.920 I'm glad the president did what he did. 0.87

00:07:06.940 And, you know, the the reaction from Nancy Pelosi and others to try to draw the president into some virtue fight over the masks is quite silly.

00:07:15.880 I was on Judge Jeanine Saturday night talking about the need to reopen America's schools.

00:07:24.620 Here's our exchange.

00:07:25.580 In Florida, we are going to reopen schools.

00:07:28.040 But across our nation, there's never been a more important time for us to embrace parent empowerment.

00:07:33.860 And of course, parents should be empowered with a in-person instruction option at public school with the sanitation and requisite social distancing and testing that is necessary to ensure that that,

00:07:45.700 in fact, is a safe environment.

00:07:47.340 But we should also do more to make sure that parents can keep more of their own money to raise and educate their own kids how they choose.

00:07:55.400 What about the teachers?

00:07:56.440 There's a resistance, obviously, from the teachers union, which is historically aligned itself with the Democrats.

00:08:03.520 How is that going to impact this whole fight?

00:08:05.740 There may be some teachers that need the opportunity to retire early.

00:08:09.320 Of course, we don't want people to make choices that they feel are unsafe.

00:08:12.740 But I think with the right amount of testing on the front end, with the right amount of, I think, sanitation and social distance where applicable,

00:08:20.700 we can keep teachers safe and we can ensure that students are not vectors for the disease.

00:08:25.260 And afterwards on social media, there were so many folks concerned and all contorted about the fact that I said that there are some teachers with extended service that should be given the opportunity to retire early.

00:08:39.400 I mean, think about it. If you've got some teacher who's like in their late 50s, early 60s, maybe they've got some underlying health condition.

00:08:48.900 Maybe they're just a few years away from their retirement goal.

00:08:53.000 Why wouldn't we be flexible?

00:08:54.680 Why wouldn't we allow teachers to buy into their retirement sooner so that we protect them?

00:09:01.300 And frankly, I think that there's a win-win here to create some churn in the workforce and get new people engaged.

00:09:08.640 I also think that if there's a teacher, maybe who's younger, maybe who's not closer to retirement, but who has an underlying health condition,

00:09:16.780 that school districts need the opportunity to let those instructors do more of their work digitally and online.

00:09:23.000 And if you have teachers that are younger, healthier, more resilient, those could be the folks that provide in-person instruction.

00:09:31.600 Districts will likely have to renegotiate their union contracts to do this.

00:09:37.080 And, you know, you heard Judge Jeanine say, oh, well, the teachers unions, they're opposed to reopening school.

00:09:42.500 Look, I have never seen a teachers union in America that has lobbied for more time with children.

00:09:49.560 OK, it is usually that they are lobbying in their contracts for less time with children.

00:09:54.960 And so it is no surprise that teachers unions are going to try to get all they can get.

00:09:59.720 But I think at an arm's length negotiation, you can actually create tools for early retirements,

00:10:06.880 for accommodations with teachers that have unique medical risks.

00:10:11.360 And you can kind of weave together a tapestry of educators and platforms, whether it's in-person instruction or digital instruction, that will work.

00:10:20.980 And that's the type of creativity that we need to demand out of districts.

00:10:24.980 And I think it, frankly, helps school districts go back and renegotiate those union contracts that Betsy DeVos is out there saying that their funding could be imperiled if they don't.

00:10:34.080 So let's get everybody at the table.

00:10:35.800 Let's work out a solution.

00:10:37.140 And I think that retirements could be one part of that package.

00:10:41.740 And we could also look to sports as a guide.

00:10:45.220 You know, in sports, you see the news that Buster Posey, fellow Seminole Buster Posey, New York Giants star catcher, just a phenomenal player, can hit, can defend, calls a great game.

00:10:57.400 He is not going to be calling any games for the upcoming abbreviated Major League season because he and his wife have adopted babies, little premature babies that are medically fragile.

00:11:09.200 And he doesn't want to be a vector for the disease back into his family.

00:11:13.080 And so Major League Baseball has created special categories where if you've got a pregnant spouse, if you've got young children in the home, if you've got a multi-generational family, that you've got an ability to opt out of the season.

00:11:23.600 And so I think that if we align people's personal family medical circumstances with the needs in the workforce, you could actually take a lesson from baseball, apply it to education, get the teachers who could teach in the classroom there, have others working online.

00:11:40.720 And if there's some that need to move on from the profession as a consequence of these realities that we face, we should not make that difficult.

00:11:48.600 Like we should not put a teacher in the position where they got two, two and a half years to retirement, but they're unable to get the full suite of their retirement benefits because of coronavirus.

00:11:58.120 That would be unfair. So we can do better. We could solve these problems. Let's get to it.

00:12:02.860 Also on Judge Jeanine's show, I got a question about the destruction of our statues and our history. Here was that exchange.

00:12:13.060 They're tearing down Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Frederick Douglass. So this isn't about slavery or fascism or even race.

00:12:21.220 There is an attempted cultural genocide going on in America right now, and it calls for patriots to stand up and say, this is a great country.

00:12:29.240 It is worthy of our pride and our defense. The left wants us to be ashamed of America so that they can replace America.

00:12:37.280 I love this country, and I think that we ought to do a lot more to push back against the hate that we're seeing.

00:12:41.980 The great irony, Judge Jeanine, is that the organizers of Black Lives Matter who pledge allegiance to the destruction of America have a lot more in common with the Confederate generals that they hate than they would like to admit, 0.52

00:12:53.860 because it was in fact the Confederacy that initially wanted to kick out federal officials who wanted to destroy America and change it to something different.

00:13:02.420 I think America was worth defending in the 1860s, and she's certainly worth defending today. 0.93

00:13:07.620 And it's true. There was a group of people in the United States of America well before the CHAZ who wanted an autonomous zone,

00:13:16.740 who wanted to throw out federal officials, who wanted to reject American values and substitute them with the values of their own,

00:13:25.540 which were fundamentally un-American. That group was the Confederacy.

00:13:30.680 And so for now the Black Lives Matter organizers to perhaps have more in common with the Confederacy than they would like to admit is a really rich irony.

00:13:39.720 I think that the organizing principle of both the Confederacy and the Black Lives Matter movement was to do away with the inclusive, pluralistic, accepting America

00:13:53.540 and replace it with America that is defined by identity.

00:13:56.940 Now, obviously with the Confederacy, the tools of that identity-based existence were brutal and awful and deadly and were a great stain on humankind generally. 0.89

00:14:09.720 And in the CHAZ, we've seen, I think, a failed effort at this autonomy and a recognition now, finally, from officials that you cannot block the police or ambulance or other entities from being able to help people.

00:14:28.960 It seems obvious. So I guess the left was a little triggered, but I stand by the comparison.

00:14:33.940 Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is now political commentator with ABC News.

00:14:41.340 This last Sunday, he had a really interesting perspective on the importance of the upcoming presidential debates between President Trump and former Vice President Biden.

00:14:51.600 Here's Governor Christie.

00:14:52.360 The vice president's struggling with articulating his vision, struggling with answering direct questions.

00:14:58.100 And that gives us a preview for what I think will be the most important presidential debates since 1980.

00:15:04.980 Because there was real uncertainty, you'll remember, about Ronald Reagan in 1980.

00:15:08.880 Was he up to the job? Was he ready for the job against an incumbent who was having difficulties?

00:15:13.540 That was a very close race until that debate in 1980.

00:15:16.280 When Ronald Reagan assured people, reassured them, that he was going to be OK as president of the United States, that race turned into a blowout.

00:15:24.200 Joe Biden's going to have the same opportunity, but the same risk.

00:15:27.740 If Reagan hadn't performed well in 1980, that race probably would have gone to Carter.

00:15:32.000 And so I think the debates are going to be something, because Biden's hidden so much, that are going to be even more important this time than they were at any time in recent memory.

00:15:40.140 And in a way, I think he's right with competence and awareness and alertness and vigor and capability being central themes in the upcoming presidential contest.

00:15:50.200 I think that a lot of people are going to tune in to these debates to see how Biden stands up, how President Trump articulates a vision for the future.

00:16:00.840 And there is a word of caution here I have for the president.

00:16:05.640 It is typical for first term presidents going into their first debate with a challenger to underprepare.

00:16:13.240 To assume that each and every day in the presidency is debate preparation itself, and that if you just go out there, walk on the stage, that you'll be able to wipe the floor with someone who hasn't been president for the last four years.

00:16:26.360 And that has not been the case.

00:16:28.300 If you look at Bush's first debate in his election against Kerry, he gets beat pretty bad.

00:16:34.600 If you look at Obama's first debate against Mitt Romney, he gets beat pretty bad.

00:16:39.120 So let's buck the trend, let's overprepare, and let's go whoop Joe Biden in these debates.

00:16:45.080 I'll help you if you need it, Mr. President, though I doubt you will.

00:16:48.260 But preparation will undoubtedly, I think, show the contrast between a leader who is ready to drive our country to our highest summits of success and someone who I think needs multiple naps throughout the day.

00:17:02.780 President Trump was in my beloved Florida for meetings with Hispanic leaders.

00:17:10.960 One such leader is my friend, Maximo Alvarez.

00:17:14.460 Maximo is someone who I think understands the true threats of communism and socialism, having seen them in our hemisphere from his perspective.

00:17:23.820 Now he's the very successful leader of Sunshine Gasoline here in Florida, a big time business guy.

00:17:30.540 Here's the message he had to share with the president and the country.

00:17:34.220 Look at our backgrounds.

00:17:35.420 Just think that in 1961, as a 13-year-old, by myself, in my way to Spain, I wasn't even coming here.

00:17:42.920 I arrived in this great country.

00:17:44.560 And almost 60 years later, I'm sitting next to the president of the United States, talking about the American dream, the only country in the world, no other country in the world,

00:17:53.020 that you can start a business from the trunk of your car.

00:17:55.660 And within a very few years, with hard work, commitment, and all the core values that we learn from this very culture of ours, we can become very important to our future.

00:18:08.560 We can become those people who make the next generation better than the one before.

00:18:15.100 Sports and politics are two of my favorite things, not because I'm particularly good at sports.

00:18:23.540 Matter of fact, my own sports career ended early due to a complete lack of talent.

00:18:28.780 But nonetheless, I enjoy both.

00:18:30.440 And so when they collide in the culture war, we want to talk about it on the podcast.

00:18:34.600 And Josh Hawley seems to have gotten the worst out of ESPN's Adrian Wojnowski.

00:18:41.580 And the Woj, man, he is an institution in basketball.

00:18:45.600 I mean, oftentimes you'll just see, like, Woj, the, like, WOJ, on the bottom third, on the chyron, on ESPN,

00:18:53.120 and the latest news from players or coaches or owners in basketball.

00:18:57.200 But he apparently does not share the politics of Josh Hawley, though in this particular circumstance, I sure do.

00:19:03.860 Josh Hawley had sent out an email indicating his opposition to the NBA's decision to limit the messages

00:19:11.280 that players could wear on their jerseys to some approved, like, Woketopia social justice messages.

00:19:18.840 And they were specifically excluding messages that would be supportive of law enforcement

00:19:25.180 or that would be patriotic or that would criticize the Chinese Communist Party.

00:19:29.960 So apparently you can criticize America from the NBA standpoint.

00:19:35.920 But if you criticize the Chinese Communist Party, well, that's just totally off limits. 0.99

00:19:41.200 And it just shows what hypocrites they are. 0.98

00:19:43.180 It's not about the social justice. 0.99

00:19:45.400 It's about the money.

00:19:47.120 And because the Chinese Communist Party provides a very lucrative partnership with the NBA,

00:19:53.420 they are not going to imperil that.

00:19:55.060 But, like, I mean, if you want to look at where people really are being kept in concentration camps,

00:20:01.120 it's in China.

00:20:02.240 You look at what's happening to the Uyghurs, those are straight-up concentration camps. 1.00

00:20:05.900 They have 1.5 million ethnic minorities, like, functionally enslaved in their country.

00:20:11.320 And so it's my belief that if the NBA is going to utilize their players as billboards for social justice,

00:20:17.860 that China should not be spared from that criticism, Josh Hawley holds that view as well.

00:20:25.300 He sends this email talking about the letter he's going to send to Adam Silver to outline these views.

00:20:31.720 And what do you get from Wojnowski?

00:20:33.860 A reply that's just two words.

00:20:36.700 F-U.

00:20:37.880 And, of course, it's spelled out in Wojnowski's email.

00:20:41.320 So that gets acknowledged, that gets publicized, Wojnowski issues an apology.

00:20:48.580 And you know what? 0.92

00:20:49.320 As hypocritical as the NBA is, as hypocritical at times as ESPN can be, 0.91

00:20:55.400 and as left-leaning as their talent has become with the purging of people like Curt Schilling 0.90

00:21:00.860 and others who held a conservative viewpoint,

00:21:03.560 I do think that, you know, we shouldn't judge people on their worst moments,

00:21:07.600 on their worst emails, on their worst tweets.

00:21:09.460 So Wojnowski's apology should be accepted,

00:21:12.440 but the NBA's policy, which was the underlying criticism that Hawley offered,

00:21:18.720 should not be accepted.

00:21:20.120 We should continue to call out that blatant hypocrisy.

00:21:24.460 Thanks so much for listening to Hot Takes.

00:21:26.560 I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz.

00:21:28.240 Don't forget, subscribe, rate, leave us a review,

00:21:32.320 and make sure to join us tomorrow for more Hot Takes.

00:21:39.460 Thank you.

00:21:40.780 Thank you.

The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - July 13, 2020

Episode 44 - Attempted Cultural Genocide. Mask Politics. ESPN Political Profanity. Hispanic Patriotism.

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