Episode 47 - Did Twitter Hack Expose Shadowbanning？ Lincoln Project is Now the Putin Project. Flynn Rising.
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Summary
Join Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-GA) as he talks about the hijacking of millions of people's accounts on the social media platform, and the new MSNBC host Joy Reid's defense of Bill Maher and his opposition to boycotts.
Transcript
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Welcome to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz. Let's talk about the news. There is
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a hijacking in progress online. Hijackers on Twitter, in fact, have convinced Twitter
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employees to help them take over accounts, change tweets, create tweets, take over ownership
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of certain accounts. The story is brought to us by Vice News, and we see virtually no major part
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of American life unscathed, whether it's politics or business or sports or media. People like Elon
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Musk, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, former President Obama, Uber, Apple, they've all seen major
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alterations to their accounts. There was a major Bitcoin scam as a part of this with Bitcoin wallet
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holders and operators having their accounts taken over for fake promotions to cause people to send
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in money. And the story from Vice News is that apparently these hackers were able to pay an
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insider to get a tool to make these changes to accounts and tweets and the ownership of those
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accounts. Twitter has responded. Jack Dorsey in a tweet saying that it was a rough day for Twitter,
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but that they are diagnosing. A Twitter corporate said in a tweet that this was a coordinated attack
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by people who were in fact targeting their employees. You'll remember some time ago that it was in fact
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a Twitter employee who briefly took President Trump off the platform. And screenshots that have been
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posted as a result of this hack. Maybe tell us a little bit more about what's going on at Twitter.
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There's a feature where someone can blacklist a trend or search a blacklist. What the hell is the
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Twitter blacklist? Is it a blacklist for people's thoughts or behaviors? Is it a blacklist that is
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dependent on how other people interact with accounts? Years ago, it was in fact Vice News who exposed that
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Twitter had shadow banned Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan and myself and Devin Nunes, four people
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very involved in the defense of the president during the Russia hoax. So we have to ensure that we find
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out everything we can about this hack. Senator Josh Hawley already firing off a letter to Jack Dorsey so
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that Twitter could be as transparent as possible with Congress. But we're also seeing people have to
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conduct substantial audits on their Twitter accounts. Some celebrities even reporting that
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going back years, there are now tweets that they didn't send, that they didn't create, that are
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racist or misogynist or homophobic or whatever that are put into their timeline. So I think a lot of
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verified accounts are going to have to go back through their messages and ensure that they in fact
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created all of them for publication and that they aren't tucked in to go and harm somebody later.
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I also suspect this may create a new defense for people like Joy Reid, right? The new host of the
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7 p.m. Eastern time slot for MSNBC. Joy Reid had some old blog posts, old internet content where
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she'd said some real homophobic things, some transphobic things, and even, I think most
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astonishingly, she had made the claim that 9-11 was an inside job that was conducted by the U.S.
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government. Now, initially, Joy Reid came out and said, oh, this was all a hack. These were other
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people who created these messages. But then, of course, there was no evidence of a hack. And Joy
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Reid later came out and apologized for the content of those messages. And now she has a 7 o'clock show
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on MSNBC. Sean Hannity actually defended Joy Reid and his opposition to boycotts during a period of
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my interview with Sean last evening. Here was the point he was making.
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I don't call for anyone's firings. I don't support boycotts. I never will. Because it's really an
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effort to silence speech you don't agree with. I think people are smart enough they make decisions
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with shows they watch, radio stations they listen to. This boycott is viral. I'm going to buy Goya
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Foods and give it to my local food pantry. I don't like Jimmy Kimmel. I don't like Bill Maher. I've
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defended them and fought against firings. Now they want to go after everybody. What you said 25 years
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ago, 30 years ago. And, you know, I supported Joy Reid when they wanted to fire her. I said,
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give her another chance. I don't support boycotts. I don't support firings. I support giving people
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other chances. Maybe I'm just living in an old fashioned world where I understand people are
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flawed, make mistakes and, you know, right to redemption. And nor do I support censorship or
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trying to silence political views. I too am not a supporter of boycotts. And I do support the
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boycott of Goya. I think folks should buy a little bit of Goya and make it up. I had some Goya black
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beans with dinner last night. They were fabulous. MS-13 is one of the most dangerous transnational
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criminal organizations in the world. Certainly one of the most dangerous in our hemisphere.
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They're El Salvadorian by nature, but they have truly expanded out the enterprise to include
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murders, drug trafficking, rapes, human trafficking. The president received a briefing
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on MS-13. Let's listen in. We believe the monsters who murder children should be put to
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death. We seem to have quite a good agreement on that. These people murder children and they do it
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as slowly and viciously as possible. We will not allow these animals to terrorize our communities
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and my administration will not rest until every member of MS-13 is brought to justice.
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We've done a great job with MS-13, but now we're stepping it up even to a higher level. This has never
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happened before. There's never been any move like this before. Much of it's already taken place,
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otherwise we wouldn't be talking about it. So when Biden and the radical left want to open borders
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for MS-13 and others, we want strong borders. We want, as I've said, we want borders. Without borders,
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you don't have a country. And we have a great country. And it's coming back stronger than ever,
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from job numbers to every other number. It's coming back stronger than ever before.
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Now, ABC News yesterday invited me on an interview to discuss a wide range of issues. And one of the
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things they pushed back at was my characterization of Joe Biden's America. Here's the question in my
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response. Recently, a couple in St. Louis pointed guns at protesters, prompting you to post on Facebook
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saying, in Joe Biden's America, your job is illegal. You're locked in your home. Borders don't exist.
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MS-13 lives next door. And the police aren't coming when the mob arrives. This is all of us. So
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do you think that that couple pointing guns at peaceful protesters is the best depiction of
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all Americans? Well, you've mischaracterized the photograph. I don't see them pointing guns at any
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other people. I see them standing outside of their home with firearms. I don't see any humans that
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they're pointed at in the photo that I posted. But I certainly think that there's a dynamic in our
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country where regular Americans feel like Democrats are trying to pass bills so that police won't
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arrive. And if they do arrive, that they won't get out of their car and engage in proactive policing.
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That's not just my critique. That's, in fact, the critique of Rahm Emanuel when he was saying that
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some of these reforms could potentially limit the ability to have proactive policing. So I think that
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that was the point I was trying to make. And gosh, when you look at Joe Biden's open borders policies
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and his desire to, I think, make our communities less safe, it's certainly a fitting critique.
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So if you want to live in safe communities, if you want strong borders, and if you want the
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preservation of America, I wouldn't sign up for Joe Biden's America.
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Conservative journalist and filmmaker Michael Cernovich is exposing the Lincoln Project.
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You may have seen advertisements from a group called the Lincoln Project.
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It is a group of largely failed Republican consultants who adopt, I think, a very antiquated
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view of Republicanism. There's sort of the invade everywhere, invite everyone group of Republicans
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that sold us on the Iraq war, that believes in amnesty, that kind of hangs out around the
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country club and licks the boots of conservative ink, rather than engaging in the exciting populist
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of the Lincoln Project, a reformation of our government that serves our country and Americanism
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and progress and success ushered in by President Trump. So one of the founders of the Lincoln Project
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has actually registered as a foreign agent for Russia. That's right, for a Russian company.
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And by the way, what is that Russian company engaged in? Uranium products, uranium provision,
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uranium enrichment. Well, isn't that interesting? Russia's interest in uranium, yet again weaving
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into the anti-Trump circles of American politics. And was this something that happened long ago? Was
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it back in the 80s or 90s, early 2000s? No, it was in 2019. So as the never-Trump forces were telling us
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that the president was an agent of Russia, the members of the Lincoln Project were literally an
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agent of Russia with the paperwork. We'll repost the reporting from Michael Cernovich, but it leads
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one to the question, is this the Lincoln Project for America or is this the Putin Project for Russia?
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I think we should take this important context into consideration whenever viewing the content
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of the Lincoln Project. Shame on them. Keep fighting for America, President Trump.
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I don't believe that in America, people should have any more or any less of an expectation from
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their government based on the color of their skin. But that's apparently not what they think in
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Asheville, North Carolina, where The Daily Caller's Jeff Dima has a report that the city council has
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created a commission to consider reparations. That's right. In a resolution passed by the
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Asheville City Council on a unanimous vote, the city creates a commission to determine how compensation
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will be distributed to the black community. Here's my hot take. Reparations will only increase division
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and resentment in our country. America is founded on the principle that we should all expect the government to
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treat us equally. The laws should be applied equally. The money that they collect from us should be
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equal. The money that they distribute through social safety nets should not change because you're white
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or black or brown or Hispanic, whatever the racial category may be. It does not alter one's interface with
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the government, whether that's the federal government, state government or city governments. But they want to
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cross the rubicon on that fundamental American value in Asheville, North Carolina. And this is crazy.
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It is insane to suggest that in America today, where we've had a black president, where I sense that we are
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one of the more inclusive and accommodating and egalitarian societies of humans that has ever existed,
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that we would make the decision to take money away from one group of Americans to give it to another
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group of Americans as a consequence of something that has happened hundreds of years ago. Now,
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the response from the woke left to that argument is, well, this isn't just hundreds of years ago.
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You know, Jim Crow happened more recently. And I think that that is a fair characterization of historical
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events. But it is most certainly not a justification for the remedy of reparations,
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which will inherently foster, I think, a lot of anger in our country, a lot of concern over
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grievance culture, because then what you'll what you'll see is beyond race. You'll see people saying,
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well, because I meet a different immutable characteristic, I deserve reparations. And that
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becomes infinitely regressive, infinitely reductive, and I think fundamentally un-American. I will stand
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against reparations because I stand for the equal treatment of all Americans under the law. It's what
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our country was founded on. It is what has built success in our country for all people. And I think the
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great reparation is a economic system that raises wages for everyone. If you live in a time as we have
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during the Trump presidency of the lowest African-American unemployment in history, the lowest Hispanic
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unemployment in history, the lowest Asian-American unemployment in American history, then I think
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that you really do see a unified country moving toward circumstances where everyone can lay out a
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prosperity plan for themselves, for their family, for their future. That is the greatness of America,
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not reparations based on skin color and experiences from hundreds of years ago.
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Sean Hannity may have had the hottest take of the night. I was on his program alongside Dave Rubin,
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always funny and entertaining and engaging. Here's Sean and Dave.
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Roger Stone, Dave, announced his support for Matt Gaetz running for president.
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I want to know if you think Matt Gaetz is going to run for president. Prediction.
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If he'll run? Well, I like the platform that he was just running on right there. So let's see. Maybe.
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I'm only worried about one presidential election, and that's for president Trump in 2020.
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I am predicting one day Matt Gaetz will run and has a pretty good shot at winning. Here's my prediction.
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Wow. Sean Hannity will be my chief of staff. If Matt runs, I'll be press secretary.
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Sean Hannity is going to be long retired. Good luck with that. You're on your own.
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As I've said, the only presidential campaign I'm interested in is President Trump's for re-election.
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It's awful kind. Sean and Dave said such nice words.
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Is Michael Flynn coming back to service of our country through the Trump administration?
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That is the question posed by The Daily Caller's Mary Rose Corkery, the president saying he's gone
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through hell and that he may want Michael Flynn back in the White House. Here's my hot take. The
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president raising the prospect of Flynn returning to the government focuses a lot of attention on just
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the absurd, unfair hoax of a Russia investigation. Remember, it was Democrats saying that the president
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was an agent of Russia and that he was acting at their behest and nothing could be further from the
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truth. The Trump administration has been tough on Russia. And when we saw the transcript of the
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conversation that General Flynn had with the Russian ambassador, Kislyak, we see that Flynn is
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right on target with his foreign policy views. Russia is a declining power. And sure, she may be
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dangerous, more dangerous, in fact, in her decline than she was in her ascent as a communist power
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broker of that region of the world. But China is the real threat. And when we focus on the declining
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Russia, I think we lose the the requisite attention that we need to pay to China. Flynn has that view.
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I think it could potentially help. I don't know if the right role is an official role, an unofficial
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role. I leave human resources to the president. But Michael Flynn certainly has demonstrated tremendous
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service to the country. He has been through hell. And he's right about the fact that we need to focus
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more on China and perhaps have less of a Cold War attachment to a Russia conflict that does not appear
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to be spiking at this point. If you had Berkeley, California, on your defund the police bingo card,
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you're winning. Berkeley making the decision to have their funding of police cutting it by 50%.
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The report comes to us from Fox News' Morgan Phillips. And the corresponding impact on the
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community in Berkeley, California, is that police will no longer be available to
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engage in traffic stops. And instead, civilian patrols will be conducting traffic stops. This is
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an insane idea. Who believes that civilian patrols are going to be better than trained police at
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interacting with the public in traffic stops? Civilian patrols will be less equipped. They'll be less
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trained. They'll be more vulnerable. And you've got a potential to have more of a vigilante spirit in a
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civilian patrol than in a highly professionalized law enforcement agency. I mean, you don't have to
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look too far in the past to remember that George Zimmerman was a member of a civilian patrol. He was
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the person who shot and killed Trayvon Martin. Now, specifically in the George Zimmerman case, he was
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able to present the defense of self-defense. And that ultimately was successful for George Zimmerman. So
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we don't want to act as if he was guilty of something when the legal system and justice
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system didn't find that to be the case. But nonetheless, the liberal media, the woke left,
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were all willing to convict George Zimmerman in their eyes. And he, in fact, was part of a civilian
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patrol. And so I think that out in Berkeley, they've really conceived of this incorrectly. They're
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moving the wrong direction as Democrats, even in Congress, are trying to say, no, we need a better
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trained police force. As Democrat leaders such as Rahm Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago, say
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that we need proactive policing. We need police that are willing to go out and engage the community.
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Here you see the opposite in Berkeley. And I certainly hope that's not a trend that is going
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to leave California, leave the liberal bastion of wokeness that is Berkeley, and infest the cities of
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America that need and deserve honest and proactive policing. Thanks so much for listening to today's
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episode of Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz. Give us a five-star rating, leave us a review,
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let us know what you'd like to hear on the show, and make sure to tune in tomorrow for more Hot Takes.