The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz


Episode 44 LIVE： Voting Problems (feat. Reps. Andy Biggs & Chip Roy) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz


Summary

In this episode of Firebrand Live, I discuss the ongoing fight between the Freedom Caucus and leadership in the House of Representatives over recorded votes and the need for all-night voting sessions. I speak with Rep. Chip Roy of Texas and Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona.


Transcript

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. You are in the right place.
00:00:31.000 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.
00:00:51.000 Welcome to Firebrand Live.
00:00:57.000 We are simulcast streaming out of my congressional office in Washington, D.C. on Capitol Hill.
00:01:01.000 We're going to get to the voting problems and the counting problems in Pennsylvania.
00:01:06.000 We're going to delve into the war that's been reignited in Somalia
00:01:10.000 without Congress ever having voted on it.
00:01:12.000 The latest on January 6th and the DOJ and their collusion together to try to criminalize
00:01:19.000 and go after a political movement they fear,
00:01:21.000 and even more information on the Biden administration's war on farmers.
00:01:26.000 But first, there were some sharp words last night among some Republicans
00:01:32.000 regarding the need for an all-night voting session regarding the matters before our legislative body.
00:01:39.000 So, in fact, it's not just Pennsylvania. Congress, too, has a voting problem.
00:01:44.000 Let me explain.
00:01:46.000 I bet you didn't know that millions, billions, sometimes trillions of dollars are spent,
00:01:52.000 your money, without your representatives having to cast a vote
00:01:56.000 either in favor or in opposition to the measure or the spending.
00:02:01.000 It's corrupt and it's on purpose.
00:02:04.000 They're called suspension bills.
00:02:07.000 Sometimes they require suspension of logic and reason.
00:02:10.000 Leadership from both the majority and the minority negotiate a special portion of the legislative agenda
00:02:16.000 each and every week where both agree not to call for a recorded vote.
00:02:22.000 Collusion. Political collusion.
00:02:24.000 The result is much more power for leadership.
00:02:27.000 They get to act as the gatekeepers and way more power for the lobbyists who fund them.
00:02:33.000 Less review and scrutiny by elected lawmakers.
00:02:36.000 Less ability to make change or to analyze downstream effects of legislation.
00:02:42.000 Well, a rambunctious bunch from the House Freedom Caucus opposes this clandestine method of legislating.
00:02:51.000 So they sit on the floor day and night and they demand recorded votes.
00:02:56.000 The result of those demands this week has been marathon voting sessions.
00:03:01.000 Fine by me. I'm a bit of a night owl anyway.
00:03:03.000 But the establishment, the leadership of both parties hates having to cast votes on matters that they had negotiated under suspension.
00:03:14.000 Some have even threatened retaliation against the Freedom Caucus.
00:03:20.000 Let me repeat that.
00:03:21.000 Some Republicans have threatened to retaliate against members of the Freedom Caucus for demanding recorded votes.
00:03:29.000 And again, we're in the minority.
00:03:31.000 It's not like we have an unlimited number of tools.
00:03:33.000 Demanding a recorded vote is one of the few things we can do to hold this corrupt administration and the Pelosi Democrats accountable.
00:03:40.000 Now, moments ago, I spoke with former Freedom Caucus chairman Andy Biggs of Arizona and Texas Congressman Chip Roy about the fight brewing between the Freedom Caucus and the leadership on the matter of suspension voting and recorded votes.
00:03:57.000 Take a listen.
00:03:59.000 I'm here with Congressman Chip Roy of Texas, Congressman Andy Biggs of Arizona.
00:04:02.000 They've been calling for recorded votes on the floor of the House of Representatives.
00:04:06.000 Chip, explain why.
00:04:08.000 Well, first of all, I think the American people understand it's our job, right?
00:04:11.000 The baseline for what we do here as representatives of the people should be to vote.
00:04:15.000 There can be exceptions to that.
00:04:17.000 We can agree as a body to voice vote something, unanimous consent something.
00:04:21.000 But it ought to be when there's general agreement.
00:04:23.000 It ought to be when we're in the chamber.
00:04:24.000 And we ought to have the time to vote.
00:04:26.000 I mean, to review bills, look at them, have a debate over it before we're voting.
00:04:29.000 And that's not the way this process works.
00:04:31.000 It is designed by a cadre of leadership to jam bills through in order to curry favors and to have power in this town instead of us being able to represent the people.
00:04:42.000 And, Andy, why do you think it's important for people to actually record a vote rather than simply allowing voice votes to be the imprimatur of approval of the body?
00:04:51.000 You have to let the people know who you represent, how you're voting.
00:04:55.000 You cannot just come up here and mask what you're doing behind this mob mentality of voice votes.
00:05:02.000 And that's really what happens.
00:05:04.000 So the people need to know what you're doing.
00:05:06.000 And if you're actually recording your vote, guess what else happens?
00:05:10.000 Members actually read the bills and they study them.
00:05:13.000 Yeah.
00:05:14.000 And I can't tell you.
00:05:15.000 I know all of you have experienced this.
00:05:17.000 People come and say, hey, what's this bill about?
00:05:19.000 Because they haven't read it.
00:05:21.000 And if they can get by with a voice vote and hiding, then it doesn't matter.
00:05:25.000 There's no culpability there.
00:05:27.000 No responsibility.
00:05:28.000 The leadership of both parties has said to us, these aren't controversial matters.
00:05:31.000 This is the naming of a post office.
00:05:33.000 This is some ceremonial matter.
00:05:36.000 But, Chip, you were informing a number of members last evening on the floor of very substantive things that conservatives might reasonably have objections to.
00:05:45.000 Any examples of that for folks?
00:05:47.000 Yeah.
00:05:48.000 I mean, first of all, just real quick, just the people know how this works.
00:05:50.000 We go home to our districts on a Friday.
00:05:52.000 Some email goes out.
00:05:54.000 And we're coming back in for votes on Monday.
00:05:56.000 And if we show up for a vote that night at 6 o'clock, they've already voice voted a bunch of stuff on the floor of the House of Representatives with nobody in the chamber but like three people.
00:06:04.000 So that's what the American people need to understand what we're actually talking about.
00:06:07.000 All we're doing is having one of us volunteer to come in on a Monday, represent the rest of us to, you know, enforce our rights, and then say, hey, guys, we're just demanding the yays and nays.
00:06:17.000 Now, the kind of bills we're talking about to say, oh, they're non-controversial bills.
00:06:21.000 Well, there was one that was a naming of a post office, for example, in which an individual judge had been a part of a ruling of banning prayer in schools.
00:06:29.000 Now, we have a debate about those things, but we wanted to say, hold on a second, should we be naming a federal courthouse after a judge that did something so directly out of line with the people?
00:06:37.000 Or how about the literally, I think, $300 million worth of items that I know would have been attributed to our friend Thomas Massey, for example, if you compare how he voted actually voting versus voice votes, $300 million worth of stuff.
00:06:52.000 There were a number of bills that had diversity, equity, inclusion.
00:06:55.000 There was a, I think it was a veteran's contraception bill, which, look, I'm pro-contraception, but it had some funding in there that was controversial.
00:07:03.160 We ended up, that got passed by voice vote last Congress.
00:07:06.100 This Congress, we ended up stopping it, and then they had to do a rule on it, which means you actually have to debate it on the floor.
00:07:12.080 Debate it, and we should.
00:07:14.020 You know, I noticed that it wasn't just the Democrats that were very upset about this.
00:07:18.520 There were a number of Republicans who really objected to having recorded votes on the floor.
00:07:25.220 What do you think motivates Republicans to not want to cast a yay or a nay on some of these matters?
00:07:31.460 And I think you're right, Chip.
00:07:32.440 I think the American people would be shocked to know that $300 million was to be spent without members of Congress actually ascribing their name to that approval of dollars.
00:07:42.600 But what's been the reaction?
00:07:43.680 Let me add one thing to that and then you answer.
00:07:45.280 It was billions in the last Congress because of the CARES Act and so forth.
00:07:48.880 I mean, I'm talking billions, right?
00:07:50.160 I mean, Thomas Massey famously objected to almost $2 trillion that they forced through on a voice vote without us being in the chamber.
00:07:57.480 Yeah.
00:07:58.220 So when we consider why do they not want a voice vote, or excuse me, why they don't want a recorded vote, it's hard to get through everything.
00:08:06.840 But one of the guys that was in my face last night, a Republican, was telling me he's got better things to do than be on the floor in voting.
00:08:14.900 And I said, well, like what?
00:08:16.260 He said, well, you know, I can't do my social media and I can't do media hits.
00:08:19.800 And I said, well, shoot, you're on the floor.
00:08:22.420 You can do it.
00:08:22.900 You got your phone.
00:08:23.600 You can do social media here.
00:08:25.800 I think it boils down to this.
00:08:28.280 There's either lassitude.
00:08:29.500 They're lazy.
00:08:30.780 They don't want accountability.
00:08:32.080 Maybe there's a more malevolent intention.
00:08:38.420 You know, maybe leadership wants to control a little bit.
00:08:41.760 But I can tell you what.
00:08:42.620 They do hide these bills.
00:08:44.740 I mean, one of the bills that actually changed our banking system was in a voice voted bill.
00:08:50.700 I mean, so there's a whole series of this that goes on.
00:08:53.240 I just don't trust them.
00:08:56.220 All three of us.
00:08:57.660 Did you serve in state legislature?
00:08:59.120 I did not.
00:08:59.560 Okay.
00:08:59.920 So Matt and I did.
00:09:00.900 Were you ever able to hide just behind a voice vote?
00:09:04.700 It was always, we called it the board of truth is what we called it because you were going
00:09:09.280 to be recorded because people say, oh, yeah, I'm with you.
00:09:11.480 I'm with you.
00:09:11.900 And then all of a sudden they're not with you.
00:09:14.200 You need accountability.
00:09:15.920 And I think these people, by and large, they like the office.
00:09:19.660 They like whatever perquisites they think they have in the office.
00:09:22.740 But sometimes they just don't want to do the work.
00:09:25.160 Yeah.
00:09:25.500 I'll lay out.
00:09:26.100 I think it's all about power.
00:09:27.480 And you and I have talked about this.
00:09:28.700 This is about the ability of a small group of people to control everything that goes
00:09:32.040 through the floor.
00:09:33.140 And then they're able to essentially hide the large growth of government, hide the things
00:09:37.640 that they're able to do.
00:09:38.240 And frankly, curry favors, as I said before, buying and selling votes, essentially.
00:09:42.240 Hey, I'll take care of you.
00:09:43.560 We'll get that done.
00:09:44.740 How many bills have you gotten passed by suspension, Matt?
00:09:47.500 Zero.
00:09:48.580 Zero.
00:09:49.400 How many?
00:09:49.780 No, no, they took it to a rule.
00:09:52.780 They took it to a rule.
00:09:53.740 Right.
00:09:54.200 This is my point.
00:09:55.300 You know who gets the favors.
00:09:56.800 It's the committee chairs.
00:09:57.820 It's the leadership.
00:09:58.860 It's all the people who do the right things.
00:10:01.780 So not allowing actual votes on the floor functions as the currency for the political
00:10:07.720 corruption of Washington.
00:10:09.440 Buying and selling votes.
00:10:10.540 And I would add, doing favors for the lobby corps.
00:10:13.180 The lobby corps gets a lot more votes on suspension than any of the three people at this table.
00:10:17.720 You know, and nobody elected them.
00:10:19.960 And so I want to express my gratitude to Congressman Roy, Congressman Biggs, for actually calling
00:10:24.740 for votes.
00:10:25.480 And I don't think anyone in Congress should be ashamed or inconvenienced by that which
00:10:30.680 is our job.
00:10:31.280 So I'm grateful for the two of you.
00:10:32.900 I'm grateful for the Freedom Caucus showing leadership on this.
00:10:35.460 And you know what?
00:10:36.120 If it makes the establishment and the leadership and the lobbyists uncomfortable to have recorded
00:10:40.680 votes on that board of truth, then so freaking be it.
00:10:43.220 Thank you guys for joining me.
00:10:44.240 Thanks, Matt.
00:10:44.500 That's Chip Roy and Andy Biggs making the accusations of laziness, lack of accountability, leadership
00:10:53.320 control, centralization of power.
00:10:55.760 And they're not making those accusations against the Democrats.
00:10:59.360 They're making those accusations against the Republicans who feel particularly aggrieved when
00:11:05.320 they are required to cast a vote.
00:11:07.260 We got the live stream.
00:11:08.720 We got the live chat fired up.
00:11:10.100 A lot of you weighing in on Getter, a victory rider, saying that suspension makes for corruption.
00:11:15.520 And I agree with that.
00:11:16.640 And on Facebook, Charlotte Currie saying the Democrats are evil, which may or may not be
00:11:21.560 true.
00:11:21.960 But certainly when Republicans are working in concert with the Democrats to prohibit the
00:11:27.660 transparency and accountability and oversight that must be central to the mission of the
00:11:32.500 minority, we have a problem, not just with the Democrats, but with the uniparty, with the corrupt
00:11:38.820 collaboration that oftentimes leads the American people, but leaves them behind.
00:11:43.500 And it's really unfortunate.
00:11:44.860 And I completely stand with my colleagues, Chip Roy and Andy Biggs and anyone that wants
00:11:49.620 to make Congress actually get back to doing its job and not just trading favors with the
00:11:54.700 leadership and doing the bidding of the lobby corps.
00:11:58.120 Now, to get great representatives in order to do that, to have a body full of more folks like
00:12:02.800 Chip Roy and Andy Biggs, we must have fair elections.
00:12:07.040 A lot of folks in the comments talking about the 2000 Mules documentary.
00:12:10.900 Believe me, this is very big.
00:12:12.740 We've already made a lot of hay about this film by putting some of the content out on our platforms.
00:12:18.780 And I've been in discussions with Dinesh D'Souza, who's the producer of that film, regarding the
00:12:24.920 critical next steps to get Congress activated and informed and to find somebody in some state,
00:12:31.060 in some law enforcement capacity, willing to take this evidence and then trace it back to these
00:12:37.000 nonprofits that were laundering ballots.
00:12:38.920 I mean, I'm good friends with Dinesh D'Souza.
00:12:41.100 I think he's a great intellect, a great commentator.
00:12:43.440 I think it's a great film.
00:12:44.260 But if there's any criticism of 2000 Mules, it's that it lets a lot of these ballot stash
00:12:50.800 houses off the hook.
00:12:52.760 We know that there were groups, for example, just in my state, like Andrew Gillum's group
00:12:57.760 that he stood up to, you know, Stacey Abrams' eyes, the state of Florida.
00:13:02.860 They were, in many cases, submitting fraudulent requests for absentee ballots that they were
00:13:09.080 going to use to taint the election, to empower the Mules, to give them the votes, and then
00:13:15.540 to drop them off at the ballot boxes that Mark Zuckerberg got a lot of government entities
00:13:20.280 to put in as a condition for the funding that he wanted to provide.
00:13:23.580 So it's a full ecosystem of fraud.
00:13:25.640 2000 Mules is part of it.
00:13:26.880 But another part is the total failure of the elections infrastructure in some states to actually
00:13:33.280 be able to effectively conduct elections, count the votes, and deliver a timely result.
00:13:39.220 Check out this news report on what's going on right now in Pennsylvania.
00:13:43.740 In our election coverage with the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race, it is too close to call between
00:13:48.780 the top two candidates, and it may stay that way for some time with mail-in ballots still
00:13:53.420 left to be counted.
00:13:54.660 Here's where the race between Mehmet Oz and David McCormick stands right now.
00:13:58.320 Both are at 31%, with Oz leading McCormick by just over 2,600 votes.
00:14:06.180 They have exchanged the lead throughout the early morning hours.
00:14:09.440 Some precincts waited until today to start counting mail-ins.
00:14:13.520 And then there is the issue in Lancaster County.
00:14:15.540 It could take days to process at least 21,000 mail-in ballots there that cannot be read by a
00:14:21.160 machine due to an ID error.
00:14:23.560 The department recommends the best practice of assigning two-person teams to hand
00:14:28.240 mark new ballots.
00:14:29.860 One will read out the markings from the original ballot.
00:14:32.860 The second party will mark the ballot.
00:14:35.280 There is also an observer who watches the process to make sure that the remarked ballot is accurate.
00:14:41.240 The tight race between Oz and McCormick could trigger an automatic recount if the winning
00:14:45.780 margin is within half a percent.
00:14:48.540 Acting Secretary of State Lee Chapman is required to order the recount no later than 5 p.m.
00:14:53.660 on the second Thursday following the election.
00:14:56.320 Recount?
00:14:58.620 They haven't even finished the actual count.
00:15:00.700 And it's the day after the election.
00:15:02.780 Pennsylvania has a vote counting problem.
00:15:05.180 And it spans multiple elections.
00:15:06.940 And it should be fixed.
00:15:09.060 Of course, it involves vote by mail, which is the easiest form of voting to infect with
00:15:15.600 fraudulent ballots.
00:15:16.740 2,000 mules was one example of that.
00:15:18.840 I mean, where do you think those ballots came from that ended up getting muled into those boxes?
00:15:22.640 They were vote by mail requests.
00:15:24.440 So that's a key link in the ecosystem of fraud.
00:15:29.260 We still don't know who won the Senate GOP primary in Pennsylvania the next day.
00:15:33.520 The problem in Pennsylvania lies with how the vote by mail votes are counted.
00:15:39.940 I don't care if Republicans made these rules.
00:15:42.300 Matter of fact, if Republicans in the Pennsylvania legislature voted for this crazy system, then
00:15:47.780 they should change those laws.
00:15:49.760 And here's how it works, right?
00:15:51.500 In the state of Florida, where we fixed a lot of our problems with the elections, we
00:15:56.340 count the votes as they come in by mail.
00:16:00.180 So you have a manageable number of ballots.
00:16:02.620 And you have people that can verify the signatures, verify that the person is still alive, verify
00:16:08.040 that the person is a citizen of the United States eligible to vote.
00:16:10.920 And you can do that in small batch counts as the mail vote comes in.
00:16:15.800 Now, do they do that in Pennsylvania?
00:16:16.940 No, as the mail comes in, oddly, they stack up in boxes like hundreds of thousands of vote
00:16:26.340 by mail votes, and they do nothing with them, leaving them vulnerable to fraud or tainting
00:16:32.000 or infection or bad chain of custody until election day.
00:16:36.460 And then only on election day do they actually open the mail and start counting the votes.
00:16:41.960 And so, of course, then it's total pandemonium.
00:16:44.840 And that's what they're counting on to execute on fraud.
00:16:49.140 Election laws can change quickly.
00:16:51.420 We saw that during coronavirus.
00:16:53.440 We saw that in Florida, where we went from the laughingstock in the country to the model
00:16:56.860 for America.
00:16:57.840 And so I'm calling on the Pennsylvania legislature, clean up this mess.
00:17:02.160 Stop holding the place as, like, this total quagmire of elections.
00:17:09.600 Count the votes as they come in.
00:17:11.260 Give us reliable, secure results.
00:17:14.260 That's what the American people deserve.
00:17:16.440 Another matter that has not been voted on but that's deeply troubling to me
00:17:20.340 is Joe Biden's new war in Somalia.
00:17:23.740 That's right.
00:17:24.020 President Trump ended United States hostilities in Somalia and supported this decision with
00:17:29.320 reason and the America First foreign policy.
00:17:33.220 I counseled with the former president on this matter quite a bit in the final days of his
00:17:37.080 first term.
00:17:38.960 My suggestion was that we do everything we can to get those troops out of Somalia, close
00:17:42.580 that down, and then my hope was that Joe Biden wouldn't reignite our hostilities there.
00:17:46.260 Now, unfortunately, Joe Biden has reversed the Trump decision on Somalia, and he is sending
00:17:52.520 hundreds of American troops to Somalia with no approval from Congress.
00:17:57.440 This from Breitbart.
00:17:58.780 President Biden sends U.S. troops back into Somalia.
00:18:01.300 And just quoting briefly from the piece, it says, quote,
00:18:04.840 The president has authorized the Department of Defense to return a small, persistent U.S.
00:18:10.420 military presence in Somalia.
00:18:12.100 You know, it always starts with a small, persistent presence, right?
00:18:15.900 We had a small, persistent presence in Syria under President Obama before our involvement
00:18:21.480 there expanded well beyond what Congress had authorized or what the American people even
00:18:25.500 wanted.
00:18:27.000 It is foolish to re-engage in hostilities in Somalia.
00:18:30.480 It is not in service of America's interests, and it is consistent with the Biden administration
00:18:35.140 legacy of failure at home and embarrassment abroad.
00:18:39.200 I objected to the Biden-Somalia unauthorized war yesterday in the House Armed Services Committee.
00:18:46.920 I called out the progressives who acted like it was a big deal to flex congressional muscle
00:18:52.420 on war powers during the Trump administration.
00:18:55.000 But now, hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.
00:18:58.760 Take a listen.
00:18:59.240 We learned through a New York Times leak last night that America is going to re-engage in
00:19:06.660 the war in Somalia.
00:19:08.600 This as we are sleepwalking into a war with Ukraine.
00:19:12.800 And the authorization to go into Somalia is presumably linked back to the 2001 AUMF.
00:19:20.160 And it just seems crazy to me that we would have a re-engagement of hostilities in Somalia
00:19:27.060 after the Trump administration withdrew us from that conflict, not just without a congressional
00:19:32.080 vote, but without even really a clear statement from the administration as to our goals.
00:19:36.660 But through New York Times leaks now, are we starting wars through New York Times leaks?
00:19:41.780 I think there are fewer members of Al-Shabaab than there were like viewers of CNN Plus.
00:19:47.800 And yet, here we are re-engaging.
00:19:51.080 We are at a briefing, I understand, on the Army's military modernization.
00:19:55.060 Sadly, despite the good and needed efforts here, the Army that we've modernized the most
00:19:59.300 is the Taliban's during this administration.
00:20:01.660 It's probably not even close.
00:20:03.340 And I used to be able to count on progressives in the Congress who joined me in opposing
00:20:08.660 a war in Yemen, who joined me in pushing back against presidential war powers with Iran,
00:20:13.940 who agreed that it would be crazy to start World War III over the Kurds.
00:20:18.220 But on the issue of Ukraine, the progressives are signed up for the $40 billion plus to fund
00:20:23.540 the war.
00:20:24.520 We didn't hear a peep from them on Somalia.
00:20:27.900 Progressives in the House were anti-war on matters that related to the Middle East, but
00:20:32.800 presumably not on similar matters that relate to Europe and Africa.
00:20:36.400 And so I know it's not particularly pertinent to the modernization of the Army, but we are
00:20:42.100 having to make zero-sum funding decisions.
00:20:44.920 I think many of the projects we've been briefed on today are critically important to preserve
00:20:49.220 our ability to fight our pacing adversaries.
00:20:52.720 And when we get into these skirmishes and sand dunes all across the world, I think that
00:20:57.980 it deviates from the important work that the subcommittee is being briefed on today.
00:21:01.140 War without winning, war everywhere, victory nowhere.
00:21:07.060 That's the Biden foreign policy.
00:21:08.920 We're back streaming live in my congressional office on Capitol Hill.
00:21:11.460 We are on Getter.
00:21:12.600 We're on Twitter.
00:21:13.420 We're on Rumble, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram.
00:21:16.220 Make sure you have notifications turned on because we don't go live at the same time every
00:21:19.960 day.
00:21:20.580 This way, you will be the first to get this critical information.
00:21:23.740 You'll know exactly what's happening in the United States Congress.
00:21:26.020 And leave us some comments.
00:21:27.300 The comments are fired up in Pennsylvania.
00:21:29.920 We've got a lot of Pennsylvania viewers today.
00:21:32.620 We've got Mike saying, I've seen them cheat with my own eyes.
00:21:36.160 And a lot of people are actually saying that.
00:21:38.400 Filling out fake ballots in Pennsylvania, we need to open our eyes to what's going on.
00:21:44.000 And as Joe Biden is engaging in just the reckless utilization of our military, sending hundreds
00:21:49.260 of America's best and bravest to Somalia, they are abandoning our own border here in the
00:21:56.040 United States of America.
00:21:57.360 Homeland Security Secretary Ali Mayorkas testified before the House Judiciary Committee that he
00:22:02.540 has, quote, operational control of the border.
00:22:06.920 If you have eyes and ears and can watch any type of news, you know that is obviously bullshit.
00:22:14.040 234,088 people were encountered at the border just in April.
00:22:26.100 It is the most in a single month in America's history.
00:22:31.020 But operational control, am I right?
00:22:32.700 117,000 of these people were released into the interior of our America.
00:22:40.820 And they call us racists if we argue that these policies are harmful to Americans of all color
00:22:46.380 and kind.
00:22:48.280 You know what?
00:22:49.260 If we love this country as we should, we should love our border.
00:22:52.560 And when we have these historic invasions, when we have these numbers like we've never seen
00:22:58.740 before, it shows that the word is out, not just in Latin America, but all over the world
00:23:04.060 that our border is a turnstile.
00:23:06.780 They have no operational control.
00:23:08.340 If this is their definition of operational control, the most people ever in a single month
00:23:13.000 encountered 117,000 released into our country.
00:23:15.640 Though, by the way, we'll like never have to go home.
00:23:17.900 Then they don't even know what operational control means.
00:23:21.480 It's on purpose.
00:23:22.940 They're hurting us.
00:23:24.780 Another bad element of the week for the Department of Homeland Security has been the ministry of truth.
00:23:30.940 You've seen Secretary Mayorkas testify about the need to have the U.S. government fight disinformation.
00:23:38.320 And don't worry if you encounter something that isn't factual.
00:23:42.600 The Department of Homeland Security, Ali Mayorkas, the person who cares nothing for our border,
00:23:47.900 he's going to be there with his ministry of truth to save you from disinformation.
00:23:52.640 Well, hot breaking news right now.
00:23:55.560 R.I.P. to the ministry of truth.
00:23:58.380 That's right.
00:23:58.820 Secretary Mayorkas putting out word that the disinformation board, chaired by Nina Jankiewicz,
00:24:04.600 is now officially on pause.
00:24:06.980 And I want to thank the American people for this.
00:24:09.420 Because, you see, what's going on with the ministry of truth and COVID disinformation and deplatforming and targeting political movements,
00:24:18.480 it's all connected.
00:24:19.960 But this Nina Jankiewicz was such a nut.
00:24:22.860 And you all saw that.
00:24:24.320 And you amplified it.
00:24:25.620 And you exposed it.
00:24:26.900 And then, you know what?
00:24:28.240 The Biden team, they saw the polling.
00:24:30.100 They saw that the American people don't want to be told what's true or false from a bunch of woketopians.
00:24:36.220 And the result has been that they backed down.
00:24:38.980 So, you see, you do have agency.
00:24:41.720 We have a say in what goes on in our government.
00:24:44.460 Too often, the Republicans up here in Washington think that, well, we're just relegated to the minority,
00:24:49.340 so there's nothing we can do.
00:24:50.580 No, we can do the oversight.
00:24:52.480 We can expose the terrible decisions that are being made,
00:24:57.600 the people that are being given the empermata of government to harm our fellow Americans.
00:25:02.040 And when we do that, we can actually get some wins for our people.
00:25:05.540 It's a win that the disinformation board has been put on pause.
00:25:08.820 It should be relegated to the dustbins of history and all the better for it.
00:25:13.900 But don't think that the radical left is stopping there or giving up.
00:25:18.500 There's been a whole lot of activity with the January 6th committee as they prepare for public hearings in the summer and fall to lead up to the midterms.
00:25:27.140 Why?
00:25:27.900 Because the Democrats and their sad little Republican puppets, Cheney and Kinzinger,
00:25:33.340 well, they know that there's not really an agenda or a narrative that the American people will run to to vote for Democrats in the upcoming midterms.
00:25:43.940 And so they're trying to scare people.
00:25:45.440 They're trying to act like anyone who is MAGA or ultra MAGA.
00:25:50.180 We covered that in our last episode.
00:25:52.440 They're dangerous.
00:25:53.240 They could harm you.
00:25:54.400 They're bad for our democracy and our politics.
00:25:57.180 Nonsense.
00:25:58.600 Many in the media and on the political left have been calling for greater criminalization of political activity from January 6th and beyond.
00:26:06.520 Frank Figluzzi is a frequent guest on MSNBC.
00:26:09.620 And admittedly, while they call him a former prosecutor, he's a total hack.
00:26:13.480 But just listen to him today on Morning Joe.
00:26:17.640 We'll break it down on the other side of the clip.
00:26:18.980 NBC News has confirmed that the Justice Department asked the House Select Committee investigating the attack to share transcripts from their closed-door interviews.
00:26:30.520 The committee's chairman, Congressman Betty Thompson, says his panel is willing to talk to the DOJ,
00:26:36.600 but they cannot give investigators full access to their work just yet, and labeled the request premature.
00:26:45.380 The Justice Department has already charged nearly 800 people in connection with the attack.
00:26:50.360 More than 280 have already pleaded guilty.
00:26:54.600 Joining us now, former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI and MSNBC national security analyst, Frank Figluzzi.
00:27:04.480 Frank, first of all, how big a development is this?
00:27:08.260 And I guess, can they say no?
00:27:11.140 We won't give you the documents?
00:27:12.340 All of this tension and frustration we've kind of sensed between the committee and DOJ may have been a deliberate effort by DOJ to stay out of the business of the committee,
00:27:24.220 to avoid any public perception that the committee is dictating to DOJ or vice versa.
00:27:30.240 DOJ is allowing the committee to do their investigative work for them.
00:27:33.400 I don't think that that's the case.
00:27:34.980 So I think it's a deliberate DOJ doing their thing, committee doing their thing.
00:27:38.900 And now to your question, can the committee say no?
00:27:42.160 They have, but they haven't said no.
00:27:47.160 Can the committee say no?
00:27:49.260 You know what?
00:27:49.860 That's not going to happen.
00:27:51.480 We've got William Ross on Facebook who says, well, can they run the Ministry of Truth in secret?
00:27:56.760 We've got to watch out for that.
00:27:58.200 Very good note.
00:27:59.320 And we'll keep you posted.
00:28:00.740 But it leads into this discussion with Frank Figluzzi.
00:28:04.260 You see, the January 6th committee has functionally been operating in secret with a large number of their depositions and investigation materials and review of documents.
00:28:12.800 And they learned something during the Ukraine impeachment, during the failed, aborted, Russia hoax impeachment.
00:28:20.560 They learned that if all the information comes out, then we can dissect it, analyze it, put it in context, and make our reasonable argument fairly to the American people.
00:28:33.520 Well, they don't want that.
00:28:34.700 They want to specially curate and select and basically put on legislative theater before the American people.
00:28:41.620 But it's not just theater for theater's sake.
00:28:44.060 The signal that you just got from Frank Figluzzi is that the January 6th congressional committee is actually hustling up evidence, making subpoena requests and demands.
00:28:56.520 And then they're funneling that information to the Department of Justice to criminalize politics and political disagreement.
00:29:04.100 So don't view the January 6th committee and the Department of Justice as separate entities going about their own thing.
00:29:10.760 What you just saw there from MSNBC, from Morning Joe, from basically the talking points of the radical left,
00:29:17.720 is this effort to fuse the legislative activity with criminal investigations intended to crush people, to bankrupt people,
00:29:27.500 and really to get people to self-censor.
00:29:29.940 Oh, gosh, I didn't have a MAGA sign in my front yard.
00:29:33.900 Oh, no, gosh, I just donated to President Trump for his policies, not because I support him.
00:29:38.960 You see, that's the whole thing, is to get people who think America first to retreat from their First Amendment rights,
00:29:47.060 to be engaged and involved and to drive change.
00:29:51.280 One place the Biden administration is creating a lot of negative change is on America's farms.
00:29:57.180 The Biden administration is in war with America's farmers.
00:30:02.760 Here's the latest battle in that war.
00:30:04.100 Recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced a new rule aimed at clenching its grasp on private industry
00:30:11.580 in the name of, of course, climate change.
00:30:16.180 Many people, including me, openly acknowledge that the Earth is warming.
00:30:19.880 You may remember my Green Real Deal legislation, which calls for free market solutions to address and mitigate carbon emissions.
00:30:27.180 By contrast, the Biden SEC is attempting to transform the Securities and Exchange Commission,
00:30:35.060 an independent federal regulatory agency charged with protecting investors
00:30:38.620 and maintaining fair and orderly functioning marketplaces, facilitating capital formation,
00:30:44.020 into the Scientific Environmental Committee.
00:30:46.660 This is the latest attempt by Joe Biden through this, like, you know, appointed SEC chair,
00:30:54.280 Gary Gensler, to politicize innocuous federal agencies and to convert them into arms of the Woketopia for enforcement.
00:31:04.140 This climate rule harms businesses in America, especially the smallest businesses,
00:31:09.300 who don't have economies of scale to manage these extraneous and unnecessary burdens of reporting and greenhouse gas emissions
00:31:17.400 and assessment of physical risks to their operations from natural disasters.
00:31:22.640 You know, they even want in this rule for businesses to assess their transition risks as a result of climate change.
00:31:30.620 And again, this isn't just like the biggest companies.
00:31:33.080 Oftentimes, smaller companies want to be in the position to be acquired,
00:31:36.100 and so they have to start complying anyway.
00:31:37.800 The SEC estimates that half of their, I'm sorry, the SEC estimates that their plan will raise top-line compliance disclosure costs
00:31:46.120 from $3.9 billion to $10.2 billion.
00:31:50.420 That's an average of $420,000 a year for a publicly listed company.
00:31:56.540 You know who stands to lose most from this rule?
00:31:59.140 The farmers, who have already been the victim of increased tariffs on fertilizer imports
00:32:04.700 and sanctions that they're oddly having to pay the price for.
00:32:09.020 The increasing price of essential agricultural inputs has also been very damaging to our farmers.
00:32:14.600 We did a segment on this with Shannon Nixon from Nixon Farms from our district.
00:32:18.760 You should check it out.
00:32:20.180 Now, as for reporting greenhouse gases, there are basically three scopes that are mandated in this new rule.
00:32:25.820 Scope one would require reporting of direct emissions.
00:32:28.780 I guess that would, like, require our farmers to be out there sniffing the farts of their cows.
00:32:34.800 Second, they are supposed to analyze the scope of requiring indirect greenhouse gas emissions
00:32:41.380 from the generation of electricity and steam and heating and cooling reported by the company.
00:32:47.640 So basically, you have to become, like, Sherlock Holmes to figure out the carbon footprint of the electricity you buy.
00:32:53.340 Now, reporting of this would also be extended to include indirect emissions that occur both upstream and downstream,
00:33:01.400 including on-farm data, day-to-day operations.
00:33:06.140 This would happen for all publicly listed agriculture companies of varying sizes,
00:33:10.220 and the recording requirements are burdensome, costly, and unnecessary.
00:33:14.640 Now, why are they doing it?
00:33:16.800 Are they trying to push medium-sized, small farms out of business?
00:33:20.680 Are they trying to stop them from being able to be acquired?
00:33:23.340 Are they stopping them from being able to exist and pass along from one generation to the next?
00:33:28.800 Only the largest agricultural companies who are well-equipped for compliance and reporting will make it out of this.
00:33:35.060 It could lead to consolidation in agriculture that's already occurring at an alarming rate
00:33:40.200 and that is harming our supply chain and that is really contributing greatly to inflation.
00:33:44.300 The SEC has exceeded its regulatory authority, not to mention the farmers across America
00:33:50.780 who already comply with crazy regulations from the Department of Agriculture and the EPA.
00:33:56.500 Our farmers need feed, fuel.
00:34:00.660 They need this to drive America, to feed America.
00:34:04.300 Our farmers plant seeds and kill weeds.
00:34:06.740 Our farmers, bureaucrats in the grimy halls of D.C. and New York are great at inventing rules and restrictions,
00:34:16.580 but I wouldn't count on any of them to make our food unless you want a diet of nothing but the impossible burger.
00:34:24.660 We must push back against this war against our farmers for the sake of our great country.
00:34:29.260 One other thing I wanted to note before we check out today, there's been an explosion in congressional podcasts
00:34:35.300 and I think that's a great thing.
00:34:37.100 The reason we give you these reports is because we think that our constituents deserve a direct, unedited version
00:34:44.100 of what the heck is going on in Washington, D.C.
00:34:47.060 We're here to pull back the veil and let you know what's up.
00:34:50.920 And so if more members of Congress, like Andy Biggs, who started the What's a Biggs Idea podcast,
00:34:56.280 or Tim Burchett, who started Tennessee Talks, or Mike Johnson has a podcast with his amazing wife, Kelly.
00:35:03.340 You should check that out as well.
00:35:04.620 If we have more of this, if we build up an ecosystem of congressional podcasts,
00:35:10.080 well, then you'll be able to see directly what your lawmakers are thinking and working on,
00:35:15.140 and that will drive the accountability and transparency and oversight that we are fighting for every single day in Washington.
00:35:22.140 Thanks so much for tuning into the show.
00:35:23.920 Make sure you are subscribed, however you're participating today.
00:35:27.480 Make sure you keep those comments coming.
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00:35:36.120 Have the notifications turned on and join us for the next Firebrand.
00:35:40.060 Roll the credits.
00:35:40.620 We'll see you next time.