In this episode of Firebrand Live, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-GA) delivers a blistering attack on President Joe Biden and the deep state, and explains why they should be worried about a potential Democratic wave election this fall.
00:01:25.000The only issue that we see him above water on, 56% approval rating on his handling of COVID-19.
00:01:30.000The problem for Democrats and Biden is that that happens to be the issue that voters are telling us is the least likely to be animating their vote this fall.
00:01:37.000And that's also spilling over into an enthusiasm gap that's developing.
00:01:41.000You see this in our poll with Ipsos, 13-point edge for Republicans in terms of people that say that they are very enthusiastic, very eager to vote this fall.
00:01:49.000You're seeing independent voters largely sitting out the midterm so far.
00:01:52.000Now, that enthusiasm gap is a little narrower than it was last time we polled on it two months ago.
00:01:57.000But still, those are the kind of numbers that have Democrats worried about a potential wave election.
00:02:02.000Since 1938, the Republican two-point lead on the generic congressional ballot is the best position for Republicans at this point in any midterm cycle in over 80 years.
00:02:14.000It beats 2010 when Republicans were up a point.
00:02:17.000It beats 14, 2002, 1998 where Democrats led by a point.
00:02:22.000And in all of those four prior examples that make this list of the top five, look at that.
00:02:29.000It was the Republicans who won a majority.
00:02:32.000The very worst political environment Democrats have faced in 80 years.
00:02:42.000When people tell you that your representatives in the minority can't do anything, can't pass any bills, just up here to be extras in the movie.
00:02:51.000See the value of the direct action we've taken to show the American people that the Biden administration is corrupt.
00:02:58.000That they are purposefully making things worse on the border with the economy, with crime.
00:03:04.000And yet here we sit poised for a potential massive Republican wave.
00:03:08.000And the question is, will we be worth it?
00:03:12.000Will we advance the policies that make life better for the American people?
00:03:16.000It's really interesting in that segment I just showed you from the mainstream media.
00:03:20.000Joe Biden tries to put guns and abortion into the national political matrix for the upcoming midterm.
00:03:28.000And yet he has an approval rating on those issues that is just cataclysmically low.
00:03:34.000And the only thing he's doing well on, presumably, is COVID, which I totally don't get because he's been the lockdown president, the basement president.
00:03:42.000And yet that is declining as a voting issue.
00:03:47.000Inflation, gas prices, and Joe Biden has become an anchor around the neck of every Democrat in Congress.
00:03:56.000And he is so toxic politically, even these Democrats and Republicans who want gun control, which is a terrible idea that we should summarily reject.
00:04:06.000They don't want Biden out there talking about it.
00:04:09.000I've talked to Republicans and Democrats who say that the worst thing that can happen for an agenda item at this point is Joe Biden endorsing it because he has had such a bad track record.
00:04:19.000The only thing that he got passed was the American rescue plan, which even the Obama era economists are saying contributed greatly to this inflation.
00:04:29.000So it's sleepy Joe, failed Joe, and we're here to hold him accountable.
00:04:34.000We're broadcasting this episode of Firebrand Live out of our congressional office, room 1721 of the House Longworth office building here on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
00:04:45.000Make sure you're subscribed. Make sure you got your notifications turned on.
00:04:49.000And, you know, I was thinking about this horrific environment that Democrats find themselves in politically.
00:04:55.000And it harkened back to remarks I made at the Republican National Convention.
00:05:01.000And keep in mind, you know, I just thought, look, I've got an opportunity to go present the candidate of my choosing.
00:05:08.000Democrats have presented the candidate of their choosing.
00:05:10.000And I wanted people to understand what the world would be like if Joe Biden was president.
00:06:57.000It is true that we don't just have Democrats in our way for the America first agenda.
00:07:01.000We are very much in a battle with some of those rhinos.
00:07:05.000And a lot of folks concerned about the Second Amendment.
00:07:07.000And that is important to see as well, because that's going to be at issue on the floor of the House of Representatives this week.
00:07:15.000I want to take a moment to talk about some news we've seen recently regarding Saudi Arabia.
00:07:20.000The New York Times has reported that Joe Biden is planning a visit to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
00:07:26.000And if he does, this will be a total 180 from Joe Biden's campaign message.
00:07:33.000Here's Joe Biden calling Saudi Arabia a pariah and vowing to hold them accountable for the murder of Muslim Brotherhood member and opinion journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
00:10:50.000And I think that humans contribute to that change.
00:10:52.000And there's a lot of just sensible stuff we could do to reduce the negative impact we have on the environment.
00:10:57.000That said, Joe Biden is so beholden, so totally beholden that he goes out there and says our goal is to eliminate the need for oil and gas.
00:11:07.000And then out of the other side of his mouth, he says use it or lose it to American energy entrepreneurs.
00:11:13.000So what would you do if you owned an oil and gas company?
00:11:16.000Would you go out and drill for oil, invest potentially $100 million in capital costs and rigs and personnel only to then find yourself years later with Joe Biden trying to make it illegal for you to operate?
00:11:31.000The way he talked about energy as a candidate and in the opening months of his presidency informs on how the energy market reacts.
00:11:41.000And right now, even American energy companies holding drilling permits will not go out and drill.
00:11:48.000And so it's not, you know, they want to blame everything on Vladimir Putin.
00:11:52.000They've been trying to do that since the 2016 election.
00:11:55.000And certainly this war with Ukraine and Russia is not helping when it comes to gas prices.
00:12:02.000But undeniably, Joe Biden's like fear porn around U.S. energy has created a far worse situation.
00:12:10.000And that's what brings us to Saudi Arabia.
00:12:13.000The absurdity that somehow we're doing right by the environment by burning Saudi oil instead of U.S. oil or U.S. natural gas is crazy.
00:12:21.000Actually, liquefied natural gas that we have in tremendous abundance in the United States is far cleaner than the crude that we would get out of Saudi Arabia.
00:12:30.000But the radicals in the Biden administration are so out of touch with the conditions that are faced by the American people, like gas prices, that they're not equipped to meet the challenge.
00:12:42.000They know you can't afford a trip to the pump.
00:12:46.000In fact, there's some who think it's good.
00:12:48.000It helps them advance their boneheaded environmentalist feel-good America-last policies.
00:12:53.000The more it hurts you, the more it will coerce you to buy the car they want you to buy, take the route they want you to take, use the modality of transportation that they think is best for you.
00:13:04.000But the Biden administration also sees the writing on the wall.
00:13:08.000They know that gas prices are out of hand and they know the American people are pissed about it.
00:13:14.000And they're going to vote against Democrats probably as a consequence.
00:14:08.000First, the notion that Democrats are going to be able to break through by hiring TV producers and putting on this spectacle in prime time defies what I've just been talking about.
00:14:18.000The American people can't pay for groceries, gasoline.
00:14:22.000They're concerned that companies are starting to offshore more because of what Biden is doing at the IRS.
00:14:27.000They're concerned that there's not going to be the growth in the economy that allows all ships to rise with that rising tide.
00:14:36.000And I think it's going to be a real hard time for them to get January 6th into the issue matrix when people are worried about paying bills at the end of the week, at the end of the month, right in the here and now.
00:14:47.000Politicians always look detached when they're not in the present with their voters and then also casting a positive vision for the future.
00:14:56.000Nothing about this January 6th select committee is about a positive image for the future.
00:15:00.000So there was this like bizarre hire that the January 6th committee made.
00:15:08.000This is the curious case of former Congressman Denver Riggleman.
00:15:12.000Now, Denver Riggleman was a low IQ member of Congress from Virginia who was elected to one term and was largely unremarkable, unsuccessful.
00:15:21.000Matter of fact, he did such a bad job in Congress.
00:15:24.000After only one term, his own Republicans refused to renominate him for the job.
00:17:27.000Denver Riggleman saying that Marjorie and I need to be removed from the Republican conference.
00:17:31.000As I said, Denver Riggleman was removed from the Republican conference by his own voters, by his fellow Republicans.
00:17:39.000So in a way, there's a whole lot of loser kind of dripping over that entire statement.
00:17:45.000But what he seems particularly aggrieved by is that I said that Americans have an obligation to use the Second Amendment,
00:17:50.000not to hurt anyone else, but to ensure that we preserve our liberties.
00:17:54.000Look, the way the Second Amendment works is not that you go down and gun anybody down or harm anyone or commit an insurrection.
00:18:01.000The founders believed that with a well-armed citizenry in the United States of America, our nation would curate a balance of power
00:18:09.000and would reserve within the power of the individual the ultimate might to be able to protect liberty if that ever were infringed upon by its tyrannical government.
00:19:02.000Take a look at this tweet from Denver Riggleman.
00:19:04.000He puts out there, it's been the honor of a lifetime to assist the January 6th committee, Benny Thompson and Liz Cheney, and now onto the next mission to help Ukraine.
00:19:27.000It'll be Vladimir Putin against Denver Riggleman.
00:19:30.000Except it actually doesn't turn out that way at all.
00:19:33.000I don't believe the video I'm about to show you is live on location in Ukraine.
00:19:39.000I think it's in a comfortable CNN studio.
00:19:42.000Take a listen to this recent interview with Denver Riggleman, not in Ukraine, not working on the January 6th committee, but auditioning for CNN.
00:19:51.000Your former Republican colleague, Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who is the vice chair of this committee, she said this about the Republican Party airing this weekend.
00:20:04.000We have too many people now in the Republican Party who are not taking their responsibility seriously and who have pledged their allegiance and loyalty to Donald Trump.
00:20:14.000It is contrary to everything conservatives believe to embrace a personality cult.
00:20:20.000And yet that is what so many in my party are doing today.
00:20:50.000And I think that's something that I've, you know, I've had to grapple with even behind the scenes.
00:20:54.000What I've seen behind the scenes has even pushed me further away that the party has moved away from conservative principles to this cult of personality that Liz Cheney is talking about.
00:21:04.000And when you see it behind the door, when you see the data, when you see the investigation, when you see those smart people and what they come up with, Jake, it's absolutely stunning that cult of personality, but also the belief systems that I don't think any real conservative could follow at any point.
00:21:21.000Well, there you have it, Liz Cheney and Denver Riggleman denouncing the cult of personality.
00:21:27.000Yeah, it'd really be a cult of personality for someone to put their, their narcissism and their egomania above a group that they really cared about that they wanted to serve and advance the interests of.
00:21:37.000Oh, wait, that's exactly what Denver Riggleman did.
00:22:46.000One area where I've been critical of some of my fellow Republicans and certainly a whole lot of Democrats on the issue of marijuana reform.
00:22:53.000As I've said before, the war on drugs is like so many of the other forever wars that this Congress confronts.
00:23:01.000Deeply unpopular in all parts of the country, except in the halls of Congress in Washington, D.C.
00:23:08.000Even as the states start legalizing cannabis, murders, robberies, terrible acts of violence are piling up because dispensaries have nowhere to store their cash and everyone knows it.
00:23:31.000Workers are concerned as robberies increase and politicians dither over banking details.
00:23:37.000We've got this massive crime surge ravaging our country because we got a lot of DAs that just let people out.
00:23:44.000We got a lot of police being defunded because of Democrat policies.
00:23:48.000And then in some of these places, you have legal cannabis stores that are sitting on cash that have been often times in these blue states where they've legalized cannabis.
00:23:58.000They've also taken away Second Amendment rights.
00:24:00.000So you have no protection against yourself.
00:24:02.000And we are seeing what happens when you do this.
00:24:05.000You know, I mean, in Washington state even, right, the evergreen state of progressive politics and prosperous poets and the beloved Chaz, they've had 80 armed robberies in cannabis stores this year alone.
00:24:38.000Like there's not some large swath of the country that believes that Washington has done things right on the issue of cannabis policy.
00:24:44.000Even in Florida, I, you know, where we had two thirds Republicans in the House and the Senate.
00:24:49.000Rick Scott was our governor and I got meaningful cannabis reform passed.
00:24:52.000I think Republicans are open minded if it's something that actually helps patients, helps people live better lives, reduces crime, reduces the negative effects of the war on drugs.
00:25:02.000Democrats, they don't want to solve the problem.
00:25:05.000So while the federal government is like mulling over a much bigger decision to lift federal restrictions on marijuana, it should not delay in making cannabis companies able to operate with banks and to access the U.S. financial system.
00:25:22.000This is a $25 billion a year business in the aggregate.
00:25:25.000So there's already a legislative solution that has passed several Congresses.
00:25:31.000This bill would grant access to the banking system to cannabis businesses and would, quote, ensure that financial institutions can serve state legal marijuana businesses without fear of federal reprisal, close quote.
00:25:46.000Like the Moore Act, which I've covered previously, this bill has been unable to pass a wary United States Senate.
00:25:55.000And while the boomer Senate Republicans are definitely to blame in part, the real obstacle for marijuana reform?
00:26:03.000It's Democrats, specifically the Congressional Black Caucus.
00:26:08.000The Democrat Congressional Black Caucus is insisting on all these equity provisions and cannabis reform that totally jam up the opportunity to actually get something done.
00:26:19.000Apparently, the bipartisan agreement over loosening the regulated, you know, just mumbo jumbo around cannabis banking is just not enough if it doesn't include, like, racially charged wokeness.
00:26:34.500And when I say racially charged, that's what I mean.
00:26:36.280The Congressional Black Caucus is saying they're not going to approve almost any change to marijuana policy if there aren't guaranteed licenses for black farmers, if there's not preferences given to American blacks in a lot of cases.
00:26:51.660And, look, I mean, I voted for the Moore Act, okay, because I do think that the war on drugs was probably a lot more damaging in black communities than white communities, but that should not stand in the way of the reforms that could have stopped the 80 armed robberies in the state of Washington.
00:27:08.160It's just crazy to watch our people subjected to this violence when there's something we could do to fix it, just let people put their cash in banks.
00:27:16.820So the Senate has a version of this law that would fix the problem, has 42 Senate co-sponsors, including nine Republicans, and it would give us the tools necessary to ensure an integration of this massive industry.
00:27:33.320Unfortunately, even the Senate version includes these totally non-germane, you know, requirements for minority-owned businesses and women-owned businesses.
00:28:17.460Dual chamber majorities in Congress, the White House, they're only standing in their own way.
00:28:23.580During last month's Judiciary Committee markup, I introduced the States Act, once a Democrat-sponsored bill that would really just get the United States government out of the cannabis business altogether and devolve these authorities to the states where they belong under our federalist system.
00:28:39.220Watch, as I outlined my pitch for cannabis as an effective medical alternative to some of the crazy barbiturate drugs that oftentimes are used to treat the TBI, which is the basis of the underlying bill in this committee.
00:28:53.240And watch the snarky opposition I get from Democrat-boomer Zoe Lofgren.
00:29:01.860Mr. Chairman, years ago when we brought up the MORE Act and I joined the majority in supporting it,
00:29:09.480I posited that it would never become law because it did not enjoy sufficient support in the Senate, despite Mr. McClintock's support and my support here.
00:29:18.960We are now in a circumstance where one of the easiest, fastest, most capable ways to advance healthcare outcomes for people with traumatic brain injuries would be to unlock the great research potential that exists throughout our country.
00:29:33.120And the States Act would pass the United States Senate, it should pass the House of Representatives under Democratic control.
00:29:40.940Unfortunately, I think we heard some witnesses before this committee that said that the States Act would be a whitewashing of cannabis law.
00:29:49.060And that leaves people with traumatic brain injury, some of the very people who are advocates of the underlying bill, left without the full suite of medical services that might otherwise be available.
00:30:00.620I noticed that just yesterday, President Biden put out a Twitter video that identified me.
00:30:08.500And he talked about his plan to lower prescription drug prices, and then he showed a picture of me and indicated that I had no plan on healthcare.
00:30:18.380Well, at least my plan on healthcare involves modernizing the country's cannabis laws.
00:30:24.100And I'm wondering where President Biden is on that.
00:30:27.440If President Biden is the true great Woketopian that you've all been waiting for, why doesn't he remove cannabis from the list of Schedule I drugs?
00:30:36.020And if we really care about the people with traumatic brain injury, with a number of other ailments that could be helped with the application of medical cannabis,
00:30:43.620why wouldn't we pass the States Act as a recognition that those people deserve better out of their government,
00:30:50.280and the Moore Act is not going to become law despite the best efforts of the members of this committee over multiple years?
00:30:56.060I mean, we've done the Moore Act thing year after year, and it's not going anymore.
00:32:40.820Ex-Pennsylvania congressman guilty for stuffing ballots in favor of Democrats.
00:32:46.740A former congressman from Pennsylvania has pleaded guilty to charges related to fraudulently stuffing ballot boxes for Democratic candidates between 2014 and 2018.
00:32:58.120Federal prosecutors said former Democrat U.S. Rep. Ozzie Myers pleaded guilty Monday to violations of election law, conspiracy, bribery, and obstruction.