The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - June 23, 2022


Episode 56 LIVE： Soldiers, Guns, & Narcos – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz


Episode Stats


Length

33 minutes

Words per minute

162.87057

Word count

5,406

Sentence count

347

Harmful content

Misogyny

9

sentences flagged

Toxicity

10

sentences flagged

Hate speech

16

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-GAZETTE) talks about the Supreme Court striking down a portion of a controversial gun control law in New York, and why he believes we should all be able to own guns.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Matt Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress who bothered to stand
00:00:07.700 up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.
00:00:10.740 Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem in the Democratic Party.
00:00:13.860 He can cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.
00:00:16.860 So we're going to keep running those stories to get hurt again.
00:00:20.280 If you stand for the flag and kneel in prayer, if you want to build America up and not burn
00:00:26.160 her to the ground, then welcome, my fellow patriots.
00:00:29.480 You are in the right place.
00:00:31.160 This is the movement for you.
00:00:33.260 You ever watch this guy on television?
00:00:35.400 Like a machine, Matt Gaetz.
00:00:37.780 I'm a canceled man in some corners of the Internet.
00:00:41.160 Many days I'm a marked man in Congress, a wanted man by the deep state.
00:00:45.980 They aren't really coming for me.
00:00:47.940 They're coming for you.
00:00:49.760 I'm just in the way.
00:00:56.160 Welcome, Congressman Matt Gaetz here, broadcasting live out of our office on Capitol Hill in
00:01:01.540 Washington, D.C.
00:01:02.500 A lot going on.
00:01:03.900 I want to update you on major developments with military policy that were debated extensively
00:01:09.300 in the House Armed Services Committee.
00:01:11.360 Colombia is potentially going in the way of Venezuela with everything we're seeing in their 0.95
00:01:18.280 elections.
00:01:19.360 And we start on the issue of guns.
00:01:22.600 That's right, as Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden, and the rest of that gang tries
00:01:27.780 to deprive American citizens of their Second Amendment rights, we see the Trump court, the
00:01:35.180 Supreme Court, actually vindicating Second Amendment rights.
00:01:39.680 In this case, Clarence Thomas has once again proved why he is one of the most beloved dependable
00:01:45.340 justices on the court.
00:01:46.900 In a 6-3 opinion released this morning and authored by Thomas, the Supreme Court struck down a new
00:01:52.540 New York handgun licensing law that required applicants to show a special need to defend
00:01:58.520 themselves.
00:02:00.080 The state law required anyone applying for a concealed carry permit to show, quote, proper
00:02:06.060 cause.
00:02:07.300 Naturally, quote, proper cause was never interpreted by New York courts to include self-defense
00:02:13.980 or personal protection.
00:02:15.100 So, other blue states like California, Hawaii, Maryland, and Massachusetts, New Jersey, they
00:02:21.480 imposed similar restrictions where you actually have to prove the need to get your firearm license.
00:02:28.140 These laws were never enacted in good faith.
00:02:30.500 The bar was set so high that it was next to impossible to be approved for a carry permit.
00:02:36.080 And that was the point, to keep you from owning a gun.
00:02:39.620 Never mind the fact that the criminals will have them anyway.
00:02:43.480 These laws were a clear violation of the Second Amendment and in line with the radical left's
00:02:49.180 anti-gun agenda.
00:02:51.280 But thanks to six conservative justices and, of course, Trump putting justices on the court
00:02:56.580 allowed us to get to that great number, this law exists no more.
00:03:02.260 And the more states see this and fall in line, the more citizens will be able to exercise their
00:03:07.520 freedom.
00:03:07.820 The entire United States will soon become a shall issue jurisdiction, meaning that when
00:03:14.780 you apply for a carry permit, you will be issued one, subject, of course, to the usual
00:03:19.880 restrictions requiring that you're not a felon and training and background checks and so
00:03:25.400 forth.
00:03:25.800 And those are the conditions in many states.
00:03:27.540 But the key to this decision that was just released this morning, you no longer must show
00:03:33.520 a need to exercise this right to own a firearm.
00:03:38.580 As Justice Thomas states in the opinion, there is, quote, no other constitutional right that
00:03:43.940 an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officials some special need.
00:03:50.160 It was the right holding.
00:03:51.540 It was the right call.
00:03:52.380 For too long, Americans in blue states have been at the mercy of violent criminals, unable to defend
00:03:59.780 themselves on their own streets, in their own neighborhoods.
00:04:03.680 The Second Amendment not only protects the right to keep and bear arms, it protects this fundamental
00:04:10.220 right to have them, to use them if necessary, to defend yourself and to be able to get a gun
00:04:17.660 without demonstrating the special need.
00:04:20.700 The Second Amendment, New York, to self-defense does not end at the doorstep.
00:04:25.100 We've always known this.
00:04:26.660 And now, thanks to this holding, it's the law.
00:04:29.780 Many thanks to the New York Rifle and Pistol Association for bringing this case.
00:04:33.660 It wasn't easy.
00:04:34.840 But we thank patriots for fighting for our rights.
00:04:37.680 And we urge others to do so.
00:04:39.720 The fight to save the Second Amendment isn't over.
00:04:41.680 But we've won this battle.
00:04:43.500 And we're finally on offense.
00:04:45.960 It's great to see.
00:04:47.580 And we have to remain on offense in the Congress to ensure that we protect the Second Amendment
00:04:52.620 against these red flag laws.
00:04:54.880 The United States Senate has, as we predicted, passed the red flag laws that allow your federal 0.59
00:05:02.180 tax dollars to be used to bribe the states to take away due process, to inject guns into
00:05:10.540 like every marital dispute, business dispute, neighbor dispute.
00:05:13.680 Go back and watch our full Boebert episode, where Lauren Boebert, the co-chair of the Second
00:05:19.180 Amendment Caucus, joins us and breaks down the elements of that legislation and what you
00:05:24.060 should be opposed to.
00:05:25.960 So moving on to the world.
00:05:29.000 In Colombia, we see a country that is on the backslide.
00:05:34.100 I was born in Miami.
00:05:35.420 I spent the early years of my life there.
00:05:37.300 And I remember when you would meet a Venezuelan in Miami, they were typically people that were
00:05:42.060 very well off.
00:05:43.280 I mean, Venezuela was the jewel of South America.
00:05:47.660 They had natural resources.
00:05:49.560 They had trade.
00:05:50.840 They had a stable finance system.
00:05:53.500 And then you know what happened?
00:05:54.780 The people of Venezuela voted themselves into socialism.
00:05:58.960 And ultimately, they're probably going to have to fight their way out of it.
00:06:03.680 Colombia was actually America's greatest partner in the region because the Colombians stepped 1.00
00:06:10.440 up for themselves and won their country back.
00:06:13.560 Google planned Colombia sometime.
00:06:15.860 It's often used as a model for how the United States can have foreign engagement that isn't
00:06:21.320 us becoming the policeman for some other country or the piggy bank for another country.
00:06:26.600 Matter of fact, in Planned Colombia, for every dollar the United States put in, Colombia
00:06:30.480 put in 10.
00:06:32.460 And that allowed them to move to governments that were more responsive to the people and
00:06:37.920 that were less tolerant of narco trafficking.
00:06:41.400 Well, there's been an election in Colombia.
00:06:44.440 And former Qatar mayor and ex-rebel fighter Gustavo Petro has been elected as Colombia's first
00:06:52.720 left-wing president.
00:06:54.880 Mark this moment.
00:06:56.600 Doesn't end well.
00:06:58.260 Figures show he took about half the vote, a little more than half, 50.5%, defeating
00:07:03.240 his rival by a margin of about 700,000 ballots.
00:07:07.280 So this wasn't an illegitimate election.
00:07:09.820 Petro legitimately won on a socialist platform.
00:07:13.260 The results represent a significant shift for Colombia, which has been run by moderates
00:07:17.560 and conservatives for decades.
00:07:19.920 But who is Gustavo Petro exactly, this new president to be sworn in in Colombia?
00:07:25.000 Here's what we know.
00:07:26.040 In the 1980s, Petro was a member of the now-defunct M-19 movement.
00:07:31.260 The rebel left-wing group was one of the many guerrilla groups fighting against the government.
00:07:36.880 He then served in the political opposition as a senator and congressman, as well as mayor
00:07:41.300 of Bogota.
00:07:42.640 After serving in prison for illegal arms possession, he was able to engage in that public service.
00:07:49.360 I guess you could call it that.
00:07:51.220 So during this campaign for president, Petro ran on a radical platform, promising to tackle
00:07:56.520 inequity by offering free university education, pension reforms, high taxes on unproductive
00:08:02.620 land.
00:08:03.760 He almost promised, he also promised to completely implement a 2016 peace deal with the FARC,
00:08:11.240 which is a militant organization that's caused a lot of death in Colombia.
00:08:16.860 And the 50-year struggle with the FARC ended with a deal that politically empowered the FARC.
00:08:22.680 And so you had folks like the current president, who was defeated, Duque, seeking to not give
00:08:29.760 the FARC tremendous political power.
00:08:31.980 Now you have Petro seeking to empower the very rebels who were fighting against the government.
00:08:37.200 Many of the president-elect's proposals are policies that deconstruct Colombia's well-established
00:08:44.300 and high-functioning institutions, from the national pension program to the oil industry,
00:08:49.940 as well as the redistribution of social security funds and the dismantling of the health system.
00:08:55.920 Petro also follows many of the neo-fascist elements of politics, including silencing his critics,
00:09:02.660 stating his goal to grab control of private assets, befriending dictators.
00:09:09.080 Colombia has undoubtedly elected an anti-establishment president who will almost certainly undo decades
00:09:15.380 of democratic and economic programs.
00:09:18.840 This just very, very tumultuous situation in Colombia right now is ideal for a soft fascist takeover.
00:09:27.260 The violent 2021 protests, which killed at least 21 people and injured thousands more,
00:09:31.720 widened the distance between traditional Colombian politics and, you know, the Ivan Duque kind
00:09:38.820 of current president model and this, like, neo-fascist, neo-communist element represented
00:09:45.880 by Petro.
00:09:47.280 So what does all this mean in terms of the United States and our relationship with Colombia?
00:09:52.540 We know that Petro is more than willing to cozy up to dictators like Maduro and Putin.
00:09:58.900 Petro was the only candidate for president in Colombia who refused to call out Vladimir Putin
00:10:04.300 for war crimes in Ukraine.
00:10:06.480 He also stated that he wants to renew relations with Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, the socialist
00:10:11.740 leader who has wreaked havoc on the Venezuelan people and Latin America in general.
00:10:16.520 Petro argued in one of the presidential debates that, quote,
00:10:19.420 Colombia's border problems would be solved by renewing our friendship with Venezuela.
00:10:24.280 Venezuela isn't that quaint.
00:10:26.640 So for perspective, narco-funded dissidents and guerrillas aligned with the Maduro dictatorship
00:10:32.440 control much of Colombia's border with Venezuela.
00:10:36.440 According to recent intelligence assessments, Russia is militarizing that border and training
00:10:41.540 Venezuelan militias known as colectivos, thus bolstering Venezuela's already complex system
00:10:48.780 of institutionalized crime.
00:10:51.660 You cannot have, like, friendly relations with your neighbor that's a narco-state that is sending 1.00
00:10:57.320 people in your country to destabilize your economy, destabilize the safety of your citizens.
00:11:02.760 Oh, wait.
00:11:03.180 Is that kind of what's going on with the U.S. and Mexico?
00:11:05.380 Hmm.
00:11:06.520 We have many Colombians in the great state of Florida who are concerned about the future
00:11:10.020 of Colombia.
00:11:11.200 If Petro gets his way and the policies that he's intending to implement actually get enacted,
00:11:16.680 we will likely witness Colombia turning into the next Venezuela.
00:11:22.680 The threat of a left-wing totalitarian ideology is spreading in the Western Hemisphere.
00:11:29.440 It is intensifying and we must remain alert.
00:11:32.580 I'm far more concerned about communism and fascism being on the march in Latin America than I
00:11:39.660 am what's going on in the eastern portions of Ukraine.
00:11:43.720 We stand with Colombian Americans in praying that Petro does not entirely destroy the great
00:11:50.940 country of Colombia the way we've seen Venezuela destroyed.
00:11:54.740 And to that end, we hope for the triumph of freedom and democracy in the Western Hemisphere.
00:12:00.520 We will be following this matter very closely.
00:12:03.820 A number of Northwest Floridians are attached to military missions that have a really, really
00:12:09.840 strong connection to Latin America.
00:12:11.660 That's the area of responsibility for some of my neighbors where they end up being deployed
00:12:16.760 for train and equip missions.
00:12:18.480 And we want to make sure that we don't see Colombia move in this left-wing direction.
00:12:24.640 It would not be a good thing for Florida.
00:12:26.160 It would not be a good thing for Northwest Florida.
00:12:28.620 It would not be a good thing for the world.
00:12:30.000 Late into the evening, actually into the morning, the House Armed Services Committee was debating
00:12:37.300 the National Defense Authorization Act.
00:12:39.900 This is something that happens every year.
00:12:41.600 And the great news is that there's over half a billion dollars for Northwest Florida's priorities
00:12:48.320 that are reflected in that legislation because we have the highest concentration of active duty
00:12:53.100 military in the country in our district.
00:12:54.780 We're incredibly proud of that.
00:12:56.340 One thing we are not proud of is wokeness at the Pentagon. 0.71
00:13:01.660 It is a cancer on our military.
00:13:05.540 And wokeness is now being corporatized through policies that are called DEI policies, diversity,
00:13:13.100 equity, and inclusion.
00:13:14.340 Who could be against those things?
00:13:15.820 They sound great, right?
00:13:16.840 Diversity, equity, and inclusion.
00:13:18.800 This is critical race theory on steroids forced down the throats of American workers so that
00:13:26.080 big corporations can pat themselves on the back and virtue signal. 0.93
00:13:30.800 It's actually pretty disgusting.
00:13:32.660 But there was an effort last night to take these anti-American, arguably racist DEI policies
00:13:40.600 and apply them to any company that does business with the United States military.
00:13:47.660 Floridians know that we have so many businesses that support the military mission.
00:13:52.840 Many of them are filled with patriotic Americans who love what they do, but they don't want
00:13:58.840 to be focused on what their company is doing for Pride Month or whether or not they have
00:14:04.060 critical race theory and their HR training.
00:14:07.360 They want to build the best missiles and munitions and technologies and capabilities in the world.
00:14:13.560 And that's what we should have our military focusing on.
00:14:16.600 You think over in China, they're worried about their diversity, equity, and inclusion?
00:14:20.380 No.
00:14:21.140 They're worried about beating us, dominating us, making sure your grandchildren grow up speaking 0.98
00:14:26.060 Mandarin.
00:14:27.200 We're against that.
00:14:28.460 And I'm very proud to announce that last night, I joined with several colleagues and led the effort
00:14:34.400 to block DEI from being applied to contractors who are doing work with the United States military.
00:14:41.400 There was an amendment offered by Democrat Anthony Brown of Maryland.
00:14:46.120 And one of my colleagues, Mike Gallagher, just an absolute brilliant guy.
00:14:51.240 He is a PhD.
00:14:52.700 He represents, I guess, the Green Bay Area in Wisconsin.
00:14:56.760 And he just leveled the DEI argument.
00:15:00.880 Take a listen.
00:15:03.680 All right.
00:15:04.460 I suspect we're going to have a lot of diversity, inclusion, and equity debate.
00:15:08.620 So I just want to make one point, and then I don't intend to get involved in a lot of these
00:15:13.240 debates.
00:15:14.320 The entire diversity, inclusion, and equity cottage industry is based on shoddy social science.
00:15:22.360 The most recent meta-analyses we have of DIE programs, like DIE-related training, show that
00:15:32.140 it's counterproductive.
00:15:33.280 A recent study looked at 50 academic studies, and the result was that these programs are
00:15:38.040 generally ineffective at achieving their stated goals.
00:15:41.300 They reinforce pre-existing biases.
00:15:44.000 They increase minority turnover, and they increase intergroup hostility.
00:15:49.280 So we're not achieving what you're trying to achieve.
00:15:53.420 Furthermore, whenever the services come and cite some study, if you actually take the time
00:15:57.360 to read the study or the footnote, you realize that the social science is bogus.
00:16:02.660 So, for example, the Navy came here and said, because they were saying diversity is our strength,
00:16:07.800 they have this report that says diverse organizations are 35% more likely to outperform their non-diverse
00:16:13.500 counterparts, as if this could be quantified, right?
00:16:16.380 So to support this, they cite a 2015 McKinsey study called Diversity Matters, which looks at board diversity
00:16:23.080 using something called the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, where they quantify the racial composition
00:16:28.680 of company boards.
00:16:30.300 And they claim that racial diversity correlates with greater earnings for a company. 0.99
00:16:35.480 Except the formula is so convoluted and dumb that a company with a board that has one white, 0.98
00:16:42.200 one Native American, one Latino, and seven black members would score as less diverse than a board 0.99
00:16:47.660 with six white and four black members.
00:16:50.180 They also break the data set into quartiles, and they only compare the top quartile to the bottom quartile.
00:16:56.840 They omit half the data set.
00:16:59.360 So the correlation is weak to begin with, and if you actually analyze the whole data set,
00:17:03.780 there is no correlation at all.
00:17:05.300 So my only point with all this is that these programs, this cottage industry, are based
00:17:10.140 on, at best, inconclusive research.
00:17:14.460 And the picture that's emerging is actually one that shows they're counterproductive to the aim
00:17:21.160 of promoting diversity or reducing intergroup hostility.
00:17:26.340 I yield the remainder of my time.
00:17:27.440 So after Mike Gallagher laid them out, we actually flipped two Democrats on the committee,
00:17:36.080 Elaine Luria of Virginia and Stephanie Murphy of Florida, and they joined the Republicans,
00:17:41.480 and we got DEI out of this legislation, one of the biggest wins that we were able to secure.
00:17:48.420 We're back broadcasting live here out of the Longworth House office building,
00:17:51.640 and we got the live stream up.
00:17:53.080 I wanted to thank Blessed to be here from saying, let's get our country back.
00:17:58.300 And we also have Sherry saying, corporate wokeism is BS.
00:18:03.000 And on Facebook, Adam says, communism kills.
00:18:06.140 I could not agree more.
00:18:08.480 Now, one of the areas where we did not get the win that our military members deserve in the
00:18:13.680 National Defense Authorization Act, the vaccine mandate.
00:18:17.060 I worked with several colleagues to work on legislation so that there would be no vaccine mandate,
00:18:24.100 that the people that were affected by the vaccine mandate would be reinstated with their rank and pay,
00:18:28.980 and that the military would be required to have policies that recognize natural immunity.
00:18:35.620 Critically important.
00:18:37.380 We lost all of these votes, keeping the VAX mandate in place and continuing to punish our brave service members.
00:18:44.240 That is so totally wrong.
00:18:45.960 Here's an exchange that I had with Democrat John Garamendi on this subject.
00:18:51.160 Take a listen.
00:18:53.500 This is the wrong place to be fighting the vaccination issue.
00:18:57.240 We're talking about the military, the American military's ability to be able to fight tonight.
00:19:03.280 You know who's not going to be able to fight tonight?
00:19:05.680 The pilots who are no longer flying for the Air Force.
00:19:08.480 The SEALs who are being separated from the Navy.
00:19:10.860 The thousands of troops who will not be able to wear the uniform in the United States Army.
00:19:15.060 They won't be fighting tonight, and it's because of ludicrous policy that does not recognize natural immunity.
00:19:20.700 I'm in strong support of the Hartzler Amendment, and I firmly believe across the entire enterprise of government,
00:19:26.340 if Big Pharma could find a way to make money on natural immunity,
00:19:30.200 we would have a broader public health strategy that recognized natural immunity.
00:19:33.560 But because Big Pharma can't make money that way, this is not specific to the military,
00:19:37.920 but across the enterprise of government, we don't recognize it.
00:19:40.440 And it's illogical to suggest that because we don't know the duration of the resiliency that natural immunity gives you
00:19:46.980 that you should not consider that as part of a health and readiness decision.
00:19:50.620 We don't know how long the duration of support and protection the vaccine gives is.
00:19:57.400 And by the way, that's not because we're not trying hard enough.
00:20:00.220 It's because viruses evolve.
00:20:02.320 So as the virus evolves and as natural immunity demonstrates antibodies,
00:20:07.780 one could think of natural immunity very much as Mother Nature's vaccine,
00:20:12.840 giving human beings the ability to fight off the virus, to have lower levels of medical acuity.
00:20:17.720 And I'm sorry this debate is taking a little longer than some people would like,
00:20:21.660 but there are lives that are being destroyed and ruined by these vaccine mandates
00:20:25.720 and by the fail-to-recognize natural immunity.
00:20:27.960 So if we have to take a few extra hours to make our point and to debate them,
00:20:32.140 we're going to do so because we've got a lot of brave patriots, heroes in this country,
00:20:37.060 who are taking off that uniform for the last time each and every day because of crazy policies,
00:20:43.400 policies that are not based in science or logic or in how we view our freedoms.
00:20:48.420 I yield back.
00:20:51.740 The debate was spirited, but we did not come out on top.
00:20:55.500 Not only did every Democrat vote to keep these mandates in place,
00:21:00.020 they were joined by one Republican.
00:21:02.400 That's right, the worst Republican in Congress, Liz Cheney. 1.00
00:21:06.100 I remember when Liz Cheney was going totally woke, supporting Dr. Fauci, opposing the freedom of Americans. 0.97
00:21:14.480 I mean, out in Wyoming, it's a very pro-freedom group.
00:21:18.680 That's a message Liz Cheney is likely to receive resoundingly. 0.99
00:21:22.820 But remember early in this when she put up the tweet, the real men wear masks tweet, throw that up.
00:21:28.220 Yes, yes.
00:21:29.040 Is this not the image of American exceptionalism and greatness?
00:21:32.560 Yes, Dick Cheney with a blue mask on and Liz cheering that on. 0.88
00:21:37.620 So she's for the mandates, and I think it shows a disrespect for our troops. 0.65
00:21:42.500 But you know what?
00:21:43.500 That's kind of in line with Liz Cheney. 0.53
00:21:45.340 Liz Cheney has no problem sending American troops to go die in foreign wars for the profit of her political donors, 1.00
00:21:52.500 but then she won't stand up for those very same troops and military families 0.56
00:21:56.880 when they want to refuse an experimental vaccine, when they are some of the most low-risk Americans possible.
00:22:03.280 I think those troops should be reinstated.
00:22:06.420 Here was my debate on that subject.
00:22:10.380 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:22:11.300 This is also on the vaccine mandate issue, but the amendment expresses the sense of Congress
00:22:15.580 that in addition to disapproving of the vaccine mandate,
00:22:18.940 that we believe that service members who have already been separated
00:22:22.620 ought to be restored with their pay and with their rank.
00:22:25.780 And I would observe that in times of fear, our nation has proved time and again
00:22:30.660 that we are capable of making very irrational decisions,
00:22:33.980 and that fear can come with the fog of war.
00:22:36.260 In the earliest days of our republic, the Congress passed and President Adams signed
00:22:40.220 the Alien and Sedition Act in response to what was considered an imminent war upcoming with France.
00:22:46.960 These laws were a direct violation of our First Amendment rights,
00:22:49.720 and after the perceived danger had passed, the illegal laws were repealed.
00:22:53.820 After the attack on Pearl Harbor, a terrified nation looked inward,
00:22:58.060 and our government forced the internment of Japanese Americans.
00:23:01.480 During the Cold War, driven by fear of communism, our government targeted and blacklisted Americans
00:23:06.260 deemed suspect.
00:23:07.180 After 9-11, we passed the Patriot Act that allowed terrible invasions of the privacy of our citizens.
00:23:13.160 But the good news for America is that in many of these circumstances, after time had passed, 0.67
00:23:18.540 the decisions did not stand up to logic or common sense or reason or the freedoms enshined in our Constitution.
00:23:26.020 And so we got rid of them, and we did what we could to make right.
00:23:30.300 And this is indeed what is called for when we evaluate the horrendous military vaccine mandate.
00:23:36.540 A vaccine, by the way, that we know with 100% certainty does not prevent COVID.
00:23:41.040 It is a vaccine created with the intent of preventing high-risk Americans from becoming fatally ill,
00:23:48.180 but our service members are predominantly low-risk.
00:23:51.220 Our military is one of the few jobs left in America where individual health and wellness
00:23:55.200 is a mandatory condition to keep the job.
00:23:57.800 That's not the case in almost any other job that we can think of.
00:24:01.640 And yet, the Department of Defense's policy is forcing the services to fire thousands of service members
00:24:08.740 at a time when we are indeed in a recruiting crisis.
00:24:11.960 Think of this.
00:24:12.760 According to testimony we've received, the pool of young adults fit to serve is around 23%,
00:24:18.440 and DOD is calling it the Nintendo generation.
00:24:21.640 And a reason that we will now endure recruiting challenges going forward,
00:24:27.620 a reason why recruiting tours are even being extended in the Army,
00:24:32.560 is because young people look at this vaccine mandate,
00:24:35.920 and it makes them less likely to serve in the military.
00:24:38.680 I don't know that there are any young people who say,
00:24:41.120 you know what, I want to serve in the military because of the vaccine mandate.
00:24:45.560 I know there are a great many who won't.
00:24:47.160 And so for us to be able to endure that recruiting challenge and to be able to strive,
00:24:54.520 I would suggest that the best thing the Congress could do is express our displeasure with the mandate
00:24:59.840 and our desire that the Department of Defense reinstate these individuals
00:25:03.380 who never should have been separated in the first place.
00:25:06.000 I yield back.
00:25:09.340 We're back live on Facebook.
00:25:11.180 Steve says, Liz is a joke!
00:25:14.240 I don't know if it's a funny joke.
00:25:16.500 She's pretty dangerous. 1.00
00:25:18.280 And also on Facebook, Glenn Jones says,
00:25:20.640 Preach that hate, Matt.
00:25:21.920 Keep Americans divided. 1.00
00:25:23.580 You are a disgrace. 0.99
00:25:25.300 It's not an act of hate to stand up for our active duty service members 0.99
00:25:29.400 who want to make sure that they have a patriotic contribution to our country.
00:25:34.240 They shouldn't be subject to an unfair vaccine mandate,
00:25:37.280 and I will keep fighting for them out of love, not hate.
00:25:41.300 It's also love of country that causes us to want to secure our border.
00:25:45.720 An unsecure border is a threat to our economy.
00:25:49.780 It is a threat to our physical security, but it is also a threat to our national security.
00:25:55.280 And we had a debate about this in the House Armed Services Committee
00:25:58.580 because there is a bombing range right on the border,
00:26:02.720 and illegal aliens continue to cross into that bombing range.
00:26:06.180 It's the Barry Goldwater Range in Arizona,
00:26:08.060 and that's affecting our ability to test weapons
00:26:11.540 and to field those weapons for our warfighters.
00:26:14.500 So I had what I thought would be a pretty simple amendment.
00:26:17.840 We would have a study and a report on the extent to which
00:26:21.100 illegal aliens crossing into this bombing range would be harmful or problematic. 0.99
00:26:26.500 You won't even be able to guess how the Democrats responded to that amendment.
00:26:33.120 Take a listen.
00:26:33.680 The Barry Goldwater Range in Arizona is a national treasure,
00:26:40.160 a critical asset for research development, tests, and evaluation.
00:26:44.180 I was recently in Yuma, Arizona,
00:26:46.000 met with officials who operate security on that bombing range,
00:26:49.860 and they say that operations are affected every day,
00:26:53.620 sometimes multiple times a day,
00:26:55.420 by illegal immigrants who are coming into that space
00:26:58.300 and limiting the operational testing envelope.
00:27:01.940 So this is an amendment to get a briefing from DOD
00:27:05.380 about the effects of this illegal immigration
00:27:07.620 on the operations of the Barry Goldwater Range
00:27:10.420 and inform future legislative action on the subject.
00:27:13.440 That's the amendment.
00:27:14.340 My statute of amendment is simple.
00:27:16.120 It keeps the substance of the original amendment
00:27:17.660 offered to represent Gates-Beroun's unnecessary inflammatory
00:27:20.080 and racist language about immigrants from the text.
00:27:22.620 I'm rising in support of Mr. Gallego's amendment.
00:27:26.020 Illegal immigration is one thing to say that,
00:27:31.860 but I think the terminology of illegal alien is the big issue.
00:27:37.340 So this is what's happening right here.
00:27:40.000 I offer this amendment so that we can evaluate
00:27:42.060 the extent to which illegal immigration is affecting this bombing range.
00:27:45.520 Mr. Gallego's perfecting amendment does the exact same thing,
00:27:48.300 but he says it's racist to call illegal immigrants illegal immigrants.
00:27:52.220 And all that the perfecting amendment does
00:27:55.220 is change illegal immigrant to irregular migration. 0.95
00:27:59.560 This type of virtue signaling is ridiculous.
00:28:02.780 The use of language actually matters. 0.59
00:28:05.140 These people are not in our country legally. 0.96
00:28:07.600 And I think that we should reflect on that
00:28:10.000 and that the policy is going to be on this road.
00:28:15.500 We're not going to be on this road.
00:28:17.740 That gaslights policies of open borders
00:28:21.400 throughout the entire enterprise of government.
00:28:23.780 And that's really the goal.
00:28:25.780 The goal is to just go to this open border system.
00:28:27.880 I mean, we are now in a world in the Biden presidency
00:28:30.460 where every single month we break the record for the last month
00:28:34.320 for the most number of migrant encounters possible.
00:28:37.080 And that affects our economy, that affects the crime rate,
00:28:40.540 and it affects our military readiness
00:28:42.120 because we cannot test at this installation.
00:28:44.440 For them to say it's not illegal immigration 1.00
00:28:46.320 undermines the purpose of the amendment.
00:28:48.560 And I would encourage my colleagues to reject the substitute.
00:28:50.840 I yield back.
00:28:53.740 Here's what you have to know here.
00:28:55.780 Even when Democrats agree with us
00:28:58.420 on policies related to illegal immigration and illegal aliens,
00:29:02.720 they won't even join us in supporting
00:29:04.880 the description of those events as illegal immigration.
00:29:09.700 They won't allow us to call illegal aliens illegal aliens.
00:29:12.420 You see, they want to call it irregular migration.
00:29:16.380 Undocumented immigrants.
00:29:17.600 Like, undocumented makes it sound like 0.99
00:29:19.360 someone left some paperwork behind.
00:29:21.060 Not that they broke into our country illegally without permission.
00:29:25.340 It's really crazy.
00:29:26.820 And when the left isn't virtue signaling on immigration,
00:29:31.180 they're lying on important capabilities.
00:29:33.880 I introduced an amendment to the Authorization Act
00:29:36.640 that would have called out Lloyd Austin's lies on hypersonics.
00:29:41.600 Lloyd Austin just blew up and exploded
00:29:44.060 and was all kind of aggrieved at my suggestion
00:29:46.620 that America was behind on hypersonics.
00:29:49.600 And you know what?
00:29:50.580 We are.
00:29:51.760 Take a listen.
00:29:52.420 This amendment lays out the sense of Congress
00:29:56.740 that the Secretary of Defense did not accurately assess
00:30:00.260 our hypersonic capabilities when testifying before the committee.
00:30:04.320 It observes that on March 1st,
00:30:06.320 General Van Herc told us that China was doing tenfold what we were doing.
00:30:10.280 On April 27th, Secretary Kendall told us that
00:30:13.900 China had fielded more capability than we had.
00:30:16.800 China has moved to deploy hypersonic weapons more aggressively
00:30:20.420 than the United States has, definitely.
00:30:22.380 They have fielded more capability than we have.
00:30:25.340 And they have fairly aggressive development programs in a number of areas.
00:30:28.860 I wouldn't put a number.
00:30:29.540 More aggressive than ours.
00:30:30.940 They're testing and developing more.
00:30:32.900 They're fielding more.
00:30:34.160 And they're more capable.
00:30:35.860 Right?
00:30:36.600 That's the essence of this thing?
00:30:37.720 They have invested more and they are more capable.
00:30:40.160 But you have to be very careful about these comparisons.
00:30:42.400 Thank you.
00:30:43.140 That is just like exactly the opposite of what Secretary Lloyd Austin said.
00:30:46.600 On May 12th, our distinguished chairman, Mr. Smith, said,
00:30:50.360 on hypersonics, I think it's really important we point out
00:30:52.700 we're behind the Chinese and the Russians right now 0.98
00:30:55.280 because they have deployed them.
00:30:56.820 On hypersonics, I think it's really important to point out
00:30:59.420 we are behind the Chinese and the Russians right now 0.98
00:31:02.340 because they have deployed them.
00:31:04.280 Okay?
00:31:04.640 I'm impressed that we're coming up.
00:31:07.200 We got a bunch of programs.
00:31:08.220 They're moving forward.
00:31:08.880 We're going to get there.
00:31:09.980 We haven't deployed them yet.
00:31:11.320 So we got to keep moving.
00:31:12.740 We're moving in a good direction.
00:31:14.080 I'm quite confident that a year from now
00:31:15.800 when we have this conversation, we will be caught up.
00:31:18.960 But I don't want to give anyone the misimpression
00:31:20.720 that we're caught up.
00:31:21.760 We're not.
00:31:22.280 And yet on April 5th, when Secretary of Defense Austin came before us,
00:31:26.100 he and I were in a bit of a disagreement about something.
00:31:29.240 And I suggested that we were behind in hypersonics.
00:31:31.860 And he erupted at that suggestion,
00:31:34.360 saying that how could I possibly believe
00:31:36.820 that we were behind in hypersonics
00:31:38.400 when, in fact, we are.
00:31:39.700 I've also seen that we're behind, Mr. Secretary.
00:31:42.260 We're behind in hypersonics.
00:31:43.740 We failed to deter Russia. 0.95
00:31:45.520 Last year, China flew more sorties.
00:31:47.160 So what do you mean we're behind in hypersonics?
00:31:48.800 How do you...
00:31:49.320 Okay, who's ahead in hypersonics?
00:31:51.060 How do you make that assessment?
00:31:53.640 And it was a briefing that Mr. Cooper called
00:31:55.960 that really, I think, informed my perspective on the issue greatly.
00:31:59.420 I know we can't discuss all those elements here,
00:32:01.400 but every member of this committee knows
00:32:03.420 that we're behind in hypersonics.
00:32:05.520 And yet we had a Secretary of Defense
00:32:06.900 sit before the Congress and the rest of the country
00:32:08.620 and just lose it at the suggestion that we were.
00:32:12.580 And for us to continue to gain...
00:32:14.880 The reason this is important for the sense of Congress
00:32:16.920 is because for us to gain the confidence
00:32:19.140 of the members we need to pass these bills,
00:32:21.560 it's really important, I think,
00:32:22.860 that we reflect on this specific capability,
00:32:26.620 what it means in terms of nuclear deterrence,
00:32:29.580 global deterrence, and we have to be honest.
00:32:32.160 We have to be honest, and for us to do that,
00:32:34.500 I think we have to point out
00:32:35.860 that when the Secretary of Defense was here,
00:32:37.780 he was not.
00:32:38.580 I yield back.
00:32:39.100 We love our troops.
00:32:43.780 Secretary of Defense, maybe not so much.
00:32:46.540 He lied to us. 0.94
00:32:48.260 And to send $850 billion to a liar
00:32:51.660 is something that we should scrutinize very, very closely.
00:32:56.300 Thanks so much for joining us.
00:32:57.820 Make sure you are subscribed.
00:32:59.840 Make sure you've got notifications turned on.
00:33:02.060 And always make sure to leave comments during the show.
00:33:04.140 I love to get your perspective
00:33:05.620 on the things that we're talking about.
00:33:07.180 We'll be back soon.
00:33:08.340 Thanks for being a part of our Firebrand audience.
00:33:11.000 Roll the credits.