Episode 5 - Proxy Voting, Media Bailouts, and Pelosi's Radical COVID Bill
Episode Stats
Summary
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) joins Hot Takes to talk about the latest news coming out of Congress, including the latest on the coronavirus outbreak and the efforts being taken by the Trump administration to get a vaccine.
Transcript
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Welcome to Hot Takes. This is Congressman Matt Gaetz. Let's talk about the news. And today,
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we specifically get to talk about the news in the Capitol building. That's right.
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Congress has returned. We're back. We're voting. And as rare as it feels good to be in the capital
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of Washington, D.C. and not back home in my beloved Florida, I am glad that we've answered
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the call of so many like my colleague Brian Mass to actually get back here and do some work. So
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later today, I'll be getting a briefing on the ISIS situation in Iraq and Syria as a part of my
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service on the Armed Services Committee. We're continuing to get briefings about the coronavirus
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and corresponding economic response. And in that light, it's great to see that the Trump
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administration is really moving forward aggressively on vaccines. I think ultimately
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that's what's going to build consumer confidence. And Operation Warp Speed is the latest presidential
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endeavor to ensure that we get that vaccine on time and perhaps even this year. President Trump
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and other senior members of the administration today were in the Rose Garden talking about
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Operation Warp Speed and how it's going to impact our country. Let's take a listen.
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We have the mightiest military in the long history of humankind. We have the best and most devoted
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workers ever to walk the face of the earth. And now we're combining all of these amazing strengths
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for the most aggressive vaccine project in history. There's never been a vaccine project anywhere in
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history like this. And I just want to make something clear. It's very important. Vaccine or no vaccine,
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we're back and we're starting the process. And in many cases, they don't have vaccines and a virus or a flu
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comes. And you fight through it. We haven't seen anything like this in 100 and some odd years, 1917.
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But you fight through it. Oftentimes, we talk about things happening in our country at Trump speed.
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That's when senior administration officials know that we've got an energetic and at times
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impatient executive who wants to see us working fast and working hard. And so here's hoping that our
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prayers are answered and that the great ingenuity that is inherent in American innovation will be
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unlocked and that we will be able to get a vaccine for this virus. Here in the United States Congress,
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today we're taking a number of votes and I want to walk through them. The first vote that I just took
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was a vote against proxy voting. That's right. Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat leadership have put into our
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rules an allowance for voting without members of Congress being present. They can do so by giving
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their proxy to another member of Congress. Now there are a few reasons I am against proxy voting. First,
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we already do enough proxy legislating around this place. I mean, half the time I feel like my colleagues
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on both the right and the left can be themselves proxies for special interests to exert their will and
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seize and hold on to their power. And so anything that gets the representatives of the people
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further away from the decision making process is something that I do not support. I support legislation
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that I would say is on the other side of the spectrum of proxy voting. Bills like the Read the Bill Act
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that I've co-sponsored that require members of Congress to certify that they have reviewed legislation.
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I support the rules, changes to the House that require major pieces of legislation to actually
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be presented where we have enough time to go over them with our staffs, to review them with our
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constituents and feedback groups in our communities. And we're not just here rubber stamping the work
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of the leadership of both parties. Another reason to oppose proxy voting is that under the rule that Nancy
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Pelosi has created, it literally elevates the House physician and the sergeant at arms to positions
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within the congressional body. To unlock the powers that the speaker would have to
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authorize proxy voting, it merely requires a certification from the physician and sergeant that
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we're in an emergency. Well, there's no Americans who voted for the House physician or the sergeant at arms.
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While we select them as a body, I just don't think that giving unelected people the power to create
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a certification that then undermines the legislative process and the actual voting part of the process,
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which some would say is a pretty darn important part of it. And so I don't like eroding the powers
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of the elected members and giving those powers to people who aren't elected. And a final reason to
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oppose this proxy voting is that it really creates super legislators within the body of Congress.
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Not everyone will be able to hold a proxy, only the people designated by the leadership and by the
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rules committee. And so, you know, anytime that you get to a system where you're elevating some members
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of the body over other members of the body in terms of the legislative powers they hold,
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it really creates a diminution in representation among some Americans who may not have their member
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of Congress designated as one of these super legislators. So I have voted against proxy voting.
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There might be a way somehow with technology, with enhanced accountability to be able to get
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something like this done, but the super partisan mechanisms of Nancy Pelosi certainly weren't the
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Sports is always an area of great interest. It's something that revives and renews the American
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spirit, gives us a chance to recreate and interact with each other. And there's big news today being
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reported by Sports Illustrated's Tom Brew regarding what the major commissioners are saying in the various
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athletics conferences in college athletics. I talked in the last podcast about Florida and its approach to
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professional athletics. I support the fact that our Governor Ron DeSantis is encouraging professional
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athletics to get going again under safe and responsible conditions. But college athletics
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is a very different thing. Here's what some of the folks are saying. Again, Tom Brew reporting in Sports
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Illustrated that there is optimism. And here's the American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Oresko saying,
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I'm cautiously optimistic and I'm growing more optimistic daily that we are going to have a season and that we might even be able to
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start on time under certain circumstances. At the core, they're attempting to salvage college athletics, namely their
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cash cow, the $1 billion college football industry amid the national shutdown. The Big 12 commissioner, Bob
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Bowlesby on record saying, I would say I'm a little more optimistic today than I was two weeks ago. Some of that is
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has been in the calls I've had with the White House. One of the things I've heard is that they've expected
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that testing nationally is going to double from a month from now. So again, with the thought of testing
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being directly linked to this recreational activity, you see some optimism out of the Big 12. But then,
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you know, you see a different perspective by the Notre Dame athletic director, Jack Swarbrick. He says, and I quote,
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I hate talking in absolutes, but I can't see doing it. The students have to be on campus. And right now,
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I don't know if the students are going to be on campus. So here is, from my perspective,
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the real difference in college athletics versus professional athletics. I think for pro sports,
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they could get away with doing the contests and competitions absent a live audience and then doing some
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sort of enhanced digital experience, television experience to be able to play the games and to be
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able to realize that revenue, frankly, that comes off of those media publications of the events.
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College athletics is very different. I cannot imagine a world in which college football is played
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without fans in the stadium. Because if you say that, that essentially the athletes and the students
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are, are both students, if you maintain that standpoint, which by the way, that, that is kind
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of the whole deal on how at the NCAA, they're able to not pay players in revenue sports is by saying,
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well, they're not, they're not professionals, they're student athletes. So imagine that it's not
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safe for students to be on campus, but it's safe for student athletes to be playing football. It's
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not safe for students to be in the stands, but it's safe for student athletes to be out there playing
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the game. To me, if they try to do this, it will really expose the fact that, that they're being
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treated like employees, not student athletes. And if these folks out there playing the games while
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they're enrolled in classes are being treated like employees, then frankly, they should be getting
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paid. And that's the trend that things are moving to anyway. I mean, if you look at Rhonda Sanders
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in Florida, Gavin Newsom in California, they actually are looking to get these players some compensation
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for enhancing the value of their likeness. And I think that those questions about pay for college
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athletes are ripened in how we approach coronavirus and potentially playing. But, but here's the deal.
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If you don't see college football played at some point this season, you are going to see major
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college athletics programs have to shed sports and they're going to have to largely shed male sports.
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I mean, sports like soccer, other non-revenue male sports are endangered. Non-revenue female sports
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may be endangered too, but possibly to a lesser extent because of Title IX. And so I think that
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you've got every incentive for college athletics to go from the money side, but you have to be able
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to put students in the stands. You have to be able to put students on campus. Otherwise, I agree with
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the Notre Dame athletic director that it just becomes very untenable if that's the circumstance.
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So today, Nancy Pelosi has put on the floor her over $3 trillion spending package for coronavirus,
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but it's not really for coronavirus. I detailed out in yesterday's podcast how there's amnesty for
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illegal immigrants, how there are changes to the way we conduct elections from a state-based system to
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a nationalized system. And there's more spending on just ridiculousness that wasn't negotiated,
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that isn't really directed to help the American people, American businesses. It's largely to repay
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political allies. And that's how I think a lot of Republicans are viewing it. But the big news today,
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and this is news being broken by Julie Grace Berfke at The Hill. She says,
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GOP rep Peter King plans to buck the party and vote for the Democrats' coronavirus relief bill. Let me
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start by saying Peter King is a good guy, good friend. A lot of Americans know him because he's
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been out on television, particularly as an immigration hardliner. Here's what Peter King says to Julie
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Grace Berfke in The Hill about his plans to vote for the Nancy Pelosi bill. He says, look, I disagree with
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a lot of things that are in the bill. Some of the provisions involving illegal immigrants, some of the
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absentee ballots, the mail, all that stuff. But the fact is, to me, McConnell sort of laid it down.
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He's talking about no federal aid to state and local governments. New York is going to die. My
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county, Nassau County, and Suffolk County, also in my district. Not only are they running up tremendous
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costs, their revenue losses are unbelievable. We have not seen the same inclinations from other New
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York members of Congress. My good friend Tom Reed, who's co-chairman of the Problem Solvers Caucus,
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and also Greg Walden, a retiring Republican from Oregon. Both are more moderate members. They say
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that even though their areas have been heavily impacted by the pandemic, that they are not going
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to endorse the Nancy Pelosi path of no negotiation. So again, I broke down why I'm not going to vote for
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Bill on the last podcast. Certainly not going to say anything bad about Peter King. But to me,
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we cannot get in this game with Democrats, where because we need money, we're going to surrender to
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them on these great matters of policy. Because the one thing that the Democrats kind of understand
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under Nancy Pelosi is how to always be fighting on the immigration front, because they think that
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radical demographic shifts in the country are going to help them politically. I think that there are
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great debates and discussions to have about immigration. I don't think that the coronavirus
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response bill is the right place to have those discussions. And so I, for me, that's a red flag
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where I wouldn't vote for it. When it comes to revenue losses for state and local governments,
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I think that there's going to be a role for our government to play. There's going to be a role for
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the Fed to play. But I just don't think that the answer is a full bailout of all things. And I don't
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know that this bill really forces governments to make the choices necessary to preserve their fiscal
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footing, while at the same time responding to the virus. So I respect Peter King, great deal,
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wish him well, certainly not going to be voting with with him and with Nancy Pelosi on this bill.
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Also from The Hill today from Edward Moreno, we're getting news that Vice News will be laying off
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55 employees in the United States and 100 employees globally. Vice News confirming that.
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Vice News is a liberal leaning media outlet. They were on HBO with a show before they got canceled
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from that and then continued to do writing and publishing and they would air their episodes on
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their own cable network. It appears as though that model is not successful. But I will say this about
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Vice. They're always pretty good to me. When I was being shadow banned on Twitter, along with Jim Jordan
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and Mark Meadows and Devin Nunes, it was actually Vice News, a liberal media outlet who busted Twitter,
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shadow banning the president's best offender. So I always appreciate their investigative reporting on that.
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I also think that Vice News has done very good reporting on climate change and global warming,
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human impact and how the choices that we aren't making to embrace an innovation agenda to solve
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our climate crisis is harming some of the world's most vulnerable people. So even though Vice News appears
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to be sort of on on the down slope, laying off employees, they've still created some good content.
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I don't think that members of Congress are well served to try to direct federal coronavirus money
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to failing media outlets. My colleagues, David Cicilline, Democrat from Rhode Island and Jim
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Sensenbrenner, Republican from Wisconsin, sent letters to the leadership, to the administration
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saying that we've got to include in our coronavirus response bailouts for local media. I don't think that
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local media is really seeing a diminution in revenue as a consequence of coronavirus. There are some
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in local media who are seeing a diminution in revenue because their readers and viewers are going
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elsewhere for news. Some have bad business models. Some have old business models that have been replaced.
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So I just don't think that the right answer when we're in a pandemic is to find every excuse to take
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every excuse from every entity that might have been on the downward slope anyway. So I do not agree that
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local newspapers and local media necessarily need a special carve out or special access to
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bailouts in the coronavirus era. And I would be hopeful that more members of Congress would agree.
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Thanks for listening. We'll have more hot takes next week.