Matt Gaetz talks the stalled deal between the White House and congressional Democrats on a stimulus package, and why he doesn t think it s a good idea. He also talks about the recent hearings on Big Tech and privacy, and whether or not the government should get involved.
00:00:00.000Welcome to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz. Let's talk about the news. The news on Capitol
00:00:21.320Hill today is the stalled negotiation between the White House, Hill Republicans, and really
00:00:28.440Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democrats over a potential next round of a stimulus package. And I made the
00:00:34.840prediction on the podcast some weeks ago that we did not have the votes currently for an additional
00:00:41.100round of legislation to respond to the coronavirus. Here's where the sides stand. The White House is
00:00:48.360trying to build the yellow brick road back to economic prosperity. Everything that the White
00:00:55.540House and Republicans are negotiating for is to try to get the country open again. Payroll tax cuts,
00:01:02.680liability protections for businesses so that they can open, all the things necessary to return
00:01:08.140to the Trump economy. And we cannot do that if we have an unemployment system that allows workers to
00:01:16.000make more or the same or even close to the same by not working as they would make working. I've talked
00:01:23.280to a number of small business owners who want to onboard their employees. And the most important
00:01:28.760things to those folks who are the backbone of the American economy, you know, would be the liability
00:01:34.380protections and the changes to the unemployment system so that people have an incentive to work.
00:01:40.240On the other side, with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and the rest of the Democrats, they have a
00:01:45.880worldview that isn't really geared toward reopening the American economy. They want to keep the economy
00:01:52.580closed. They want to keep folks at home, not working. They want schools to remain closed. And then as a
00:01:59.720consequence of diminished revenue, because we would be a closed country, they want to spend at least
00:02:06.260two trillion dollars more than the Republicans want to spend on aid to local governments. Here's my hot
00:02:13.480take. Let's allow state and local governments to have greater flexibility in the funds that we've
00:02:19.780already appropriated that haven't been used before we go and print or spend an additional two trillion
00:02:26.680dollars. Now, today we see markets responding favorably to the decisions from the Fed to utilize
00:02:33.120their existing monetary policy to keep the American economy humming. But that is a bridge to the day
00:02:40.420when we are fully open and prosperous and ambitious as a country. It is not the new normal. And I think
00:02:47.860Democrats hope that if they keep us locked in our homes, out of school, away from businesses, unable to go to
00:02:54.860restaurants for a longer period of time, that that will become the new normal, that we will enter a new
00:03:01.000national malaise driven by the coronavirus. Well, I am not here for it. In Trump's America, we go to work, we build
00:03:10.500things, we create things, we lead the world by being the best version of ourselves, by being the richest
00:03:17.500and most prosperous version of ourselves. We will only do that if we get people back to work, and if we do not
00:03:25.500accept our fate as a nation of couch potatoes. So I'm hopeful that we're able to get those liability
00:03:31.500protections, that we're able to reform the unemployment system, and that we're able to return to the robust American economy.
00:03:38.500Big tech was grilled before the House Judiciary Committee yesterday, specifically the Antitrust
00:03:48.500Subcommittee. I gave an interview on Mornings with Maria. Here's that discussion.
00:03:53.500Give me, overall, what struck you most about yesterday's hearing.
00:03:57.500The bipartisanship. Republicans and Democrats are working together to take on some of these America
00:04:03.500to last technology companies, whether it's Amazon stealing products, Facebook spying on their users, or Google
00:04:11.500refusing to work with the U.S. military and then jumping overseas to advantage the targeting capabilities of Chinese
00:04:18.500fighter jets. I think it's right for us to ask not what America can do for our technology companies, but perhaps what our
00:04:25.500technology companies can do for America. And I'm excited about the fact that Republicans and Democrats are actually working
00:04:31.500together on this issue because it will define the future how users will interface with our major technology platforms.
00:04:37.500And it really is true that the bipartisanship that we've experienced in investigating big tech has been refreshing.
00:04:45.500I'll give credit to my Democrat colleagues when Facebook is spying on their users.
00:04:51.500When Amazon steals from their partners. When Google limits the ability of competitors to have access to ad platforms.
00:05:00.500Democrats were there in committee to call them out on it and to demand better.
00:05:05.500But here's the reality. Congress does not have the wherewithal to come together to pass major technology reform legislation.
00:05:15.500Instead, what this is going to require is an active Department of Justice in the civil division, forcing these companies
00:05:22.500to either demonstrate their neutrality, force them to demonstrate that they're treating the marketplace fairly.
00:05:28.500And if they don't, then they should face remedies. Now, I don't think that busting up the companies is the only remedy.
00:05:34.500It's certainly not the first remedy, but we've got to get far more aggressive and far more effective with a litigation
00:05:41.500strategy because I do not believe that a legislative strategy is truly viable.
00:05:47.500There was some commentary last night on the Tucker Carlson show regarding the big tech hearing.
00:05:53.500Here was Tucker's discussion with Congressman Jim Jordan.
00:05:56.500Let me ask you. Jim Sensenbrenner has taken money from Google. Google is your second biggest campaign contributor in the last cycle.
00:06:03.500Why do you think they would give you money? And why would you take it?
00:06:06.500Look, if they want to exercise their First Amendment liberties and give me money, I raised $3 million last quarter.
00:06:11.500If Google gives me a few thousand dollar check, God bless them. That doesn't change who I am.
00:06:15.500You saw that today in the committee. I went after him for the very issue you just raised, Tucker.
00:06:19.500In 2016, Google tried to tailor their features to help Clinton in key states. That's directly from the email, the head of their multicultural marketing section.
00:06:29.500Oh, I get it. I mean, again, I'm a talk show host. We talk about this stuff all the time.
00:06:32.500But where's the part where we say we're yanking your liability exemption, the one that we don't have at Fox News, but they somehow have, where they can't be sued for garbage on their site?
00:06:41.500And so, like, where's the effort to do that? I'm frustrated. I think a lot of our viewers are frustrated. I'd just like to know, like, when's that going to happen?
00:06:48.500We're working on it right now with folks in the Senate. Josh Hawley is working on that. Our staff is working with Senate staff on that issue.
00:06:55.500What is the way? What's the best way to structure that language? We're looking at that.
00:06:58.500We're also what the Justice Department is doing. Bill Barr is looking at this issue as well.
00:07:03.500So that's the—now, we may have to write some other law. There are three possible remedies here.
00:07:07.500All I know is there is a big problem and there has to be a remedy. We're looking at which is the best course of action to take.
00:07:13.500Now, Tucker attacked Jordan essentially for taking funds from big tech.
00:07:18.500I can assure you that Jim Jordan is not somebody swayed by, you know, a donation from some Washington lobby group.
00:07:26.500But far too many are and far too many have allowed big tech to get away with too much for too long.
00:07:32.500Here's my hot take. There is no Washington PAC money that I am interested in.
00:07:38.500The American people are my only special interest and I am the only Republican returning to the Congress who does not accept any PAC money so that there's full accountability with the people.
00:07:51.500My donors are folks all over the country who believe that we've got to have a fighting spirit of American populism.
00:07:59.500That we need to abandon the America last policies that have invaded too many countries and invited too many people to cross our borders illegally.
00:08:08.500And that frankly have sold out Main Street USA for multinational corporations and in this case big tech.
00:08:15.500In this hearing, I thought it was particularly important to call out Google regarding their hypocrisy with China.
00:08:23.500You mentioned earlier in your discussion in the discussion about China that your engagement in China was very limited.
00:08:30.500But yet Google has an AI China center.
00:08:33.500The Chinese Academy of Sciences has published a paper saying that enhanced the targeting capabilities of China's J-20 fighter aircraft.
00:08:43.500You collaborate with Chinese universities that take millions upon millions of dollars from the Chinese military.
00:08:50.500Matter of fact, one of your Googlers, Fifi Lee, while under your employ, was cited in Chinese state media saying China is like a sleeping giant.
00:09:00.500When she wakes, she will tremble the world.
00:09:03.500The former Secretary of Defense, Mr. Shanahan, said that the lines have been blurred in China between commercial and military application.
00:09:11.500And as Mr. Buck cited, General Dunford says that your company is directly aiding the Chinese military.
00:09:18.500And Peter Thiel, who actually serves on Mr. Zuckerberg's board at Facebook, said that Google's activities with China are treasonous.
00:09:29.500So why would an American company with American values so directly aid the Chinese military but have ethical concerns about working along
00:09:41.500outside the U.S. military on Project Maven?
00:09:47.500And I understand your point about cybersecurity and those things, but Project Maven was a specific way to ensure that our troops are safe on the battlefield.
00:09:55.500And if you have no problem making the J-20 Chinese fighter more effective in its targeting, why wouldn't you want to make America as effective?
00:10:03.500I understand that we are not working with the Chinese military.
00:10:16.500Our AI work in China is limited to a handful of people working on open source projects.
00:10:21.500I'm happy to share and engage with the office to explain our work in China further.
00:10:26.500Gosh, I mean, when the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says that an American company is directly aiding China,
00:10:33.500when you have an AI center, when you're working with universities, and when your employees are talking about China trembling the world,
00:10:39.500it seems to really call into question your commitment to our country and our values.
00:10:43.500I also think it's important to correct the record when it comes to the ability of some of these employees at technology companies to manipulate search,
00:10:54.500to manipulate what we see and what we think because they ultimately want to control how we act.
00:11:00.500I got into an exchange with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and with Google's Sundar Pichai
00:11:06.500specifically about the extent to which their employees can manipulate what people see and how that could impact, I think, the elections.
00:11:16.500Here's my discussion with those two CEOs.
00:11:18.500Mr. Pichai, in 2016, there was an internal Google meeting.
00:11:22.500You attended that meeting along with Sergey Brin.
00:11:26.500A video of that meeting was leaked to Breitbart.
00:11:29.500And at the meeting, top Google executives, including Kent Walker, lamented Trump's victory.
00:11:35.500They compared Trump voters to extremists.
00:11:38.500And it was discussed that there was an intent to make the Trump win a blip in the populist movement in American history.
00:11:48.500Now, I know you've testified today in response to my questions and Mr. Jordan's questions that you don't intend this time to engage in electioneering on behalf of the former vice president.
00:12:00.500But given the video evidence of senior members of your team in your presence saying that they had the intent to make the Trump victory a blip, why should we believe that testimony today?
00:12:16.500We do not have a view on. We respect the democratic process. We are deeply committed to it. As a company, we take pride in the information we provide to help people participate in free elections.
00:12:29.500And we are deeply committed to it. As I said to Congressman Jordan as well.
00:12:40.500We have sort of a string of events here. We have the 2016 meeting where people demonstrated their intent to make changes to hurt the president.
00:12:47.500Then we have your testimony today that's a little different than your testimony from December, where you say people can manipulate blacklists.
00:12:55.500And then you have the outcome where sites like Breitbart and Gateway Pundit and others see that disparate treatment.
00:13:02.500So it really doesn't take Sherlock Holmes here to connect the dots and see what Google's doing.
00:13:07.500Mr. Zuckerberg, would you at least be willing to acknowledge based on the irrefutable evidence before us that you don't seem to have investigated that it is possible that at Facebook your employees do have the power to disadvantage conservative viewpoints and that they in fact have used that power in ways that we need to root out.
00:13:28.500Congressman, my testimony in the past and today is about what our principles are as a company and what we try to do.
00:13:36.500Of course, when you have tens of thousands of employees, people make mistakes, people have some of their own goals some of the time.
00:13:48.500And it's our job in running the company to make sure that we minimize errors and that we make sure that the company's operations reflect the principles that we intend to run it on.
00:13:58.500The Southern Poverty Law Center is a hate group.
00:14:04.500They discriminate against Catholics, against Christians, against Jews.
00:14:09.500They even called Ben Carson, of all people, an extremist.
00:14:13.500Dr. Ben Carson, one of the most renowned neurosurgeons that our country has ever known.
00:14:19.500And so why is it then that technology platforms outsource their cancel culture function to these tech platforms?
00:14:27.500Amazon does it, Facebook does it, Google does it, but none of them seem to want to defend the SPLC.
00:14:34.500Here are my questions regarding the Southern Poverty Law Center, the cancel culture, bias against conservatives, and just take note at how unwilling Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg each are to defend the SPLC.
00:14:48.500Mr. Bezos, I am deeply moved by your personal story. I am not here accusing you as someone who would ever traffic and hate, but it seems you have empowered people who do.
00:14:59.500And I'm particularly talking about the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which you allow to dictate who can receive donations on your Amazon Smile platform,
00:15:08.500have said the Catholic Family News, Catholic Family Ministries, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the American Family Association, the Family Research Council, the Jewish Defense League,
00:15:21.500and even Dr. Ben Carson are extremists and should be treated differently.
00:15:27.500Dr. Carson is on the cabinet and is one of the most renowned minds in America.
00:15:32.500I'm just wondering why you would place your confidence in a group that seems to be so out of step and seems to take mainstream Christian doctrine and label it as hate.
00:15:43.500We use the Southern Poverty Law Center data to say which charities are extremist organizations.
00:15:49.500We also use the U.S. Foreign Asset Office to do the same thing.
00:15:53.500But why? Since they're calling to Catholics and these Jewish groups, hateful groups, why would you trust them?
00:15:59.500Sir, I'm going to acknowledge this is an imperfect system.
00:16:03.500Mr. Zuckerberg, do you believe that Dr. Ben Carson is an extremist?
00:16:36.500I got an important concession from Google CEO Sundar Pichai at yesterday's big tech hearing.
00:16:46.500And it's important to talk about over 1,600 Google employees wrote a letter to Sundar Pichai asking him to deprive police of access to their technology.
00:16:58.500Now, you know, Google provides Gmail services.
00:17:02.500They provide basic web and cloud services to some law enforcement.
00:17:07.500But they also provide technology keeping our cops safe while they're doing their job.
00:17:13.500And the argument from the Google employees says that police exist to maintain a system of white supremacy.
00:17:24.500They write in their letter, why would Google want to make the folks who had the knee on George Floyd's neck more organizationally effective?
00:17:34.500Now, that's pretty rich because Google seems to have no problem making China a real oppressor more organizationally effective.
00:17:42.500But the Googlers here in the United States want to deprive that access for law enforcement.
00:17:48.500This would be a bigoted anti-police policy.
00:17:52.500And at the hearing, Sundar Pichai made a commitment that going forward, Google will not adopt this bigoted anti-police policy.
00:18:04.500Some of your Googlers have recently sent you a letter where they've asked you to exit other partnerships as a consequence of ethical concerns.
00:18:11.500They've asked you to stop doing business with American law enforcement saying that police broadly uphold white supremacy and that Google should not be engaged in any services to police.
00:18:24.500And as you well know, you provide some of the most basic services to police like email.
00:18:29.500But you also provide services that help keep our cops safe when they're doing their job.
00:18:34.500And so my question is here in front of Congress and the American people, will you take the pledge that Google will not adopt the bigoted anti-police policy that is requested in the most recent letter?
00:18:47.500Congressman, we have a long track record of working with law enforcement when it is supported by due process.
00:18:56.500And the law, we push back against overbroad requests.
00:19:00.500We are transparent about the requests we get.
00:19:02.500But we have a long history of following the law and cooperating with law enforcement.
00:19:10.500To the law enforcement that are watching today, can they rest assured that under your leadership, Google will not adopt these bigoted anti-police policies?
00:19:19.500Congressman, we are committed to continuing to work with law enforcement in a way that's consistent with law and due processes in the U.S.
00:19:31.500And I know that will be very comforting to the police who utilize your services.
00:19:39.500It is apparently a very challenging thing to land your astronauts in the middle of a tropical storm or a hurricane.
00:19:48.500The Associated Press reporting that the SpaceX return to Earth will be delayed as a consequence of some of the severe weather forming off the coast of Florida.
00:19:58.500And it's something that's a pretty interesting process.
00:20:01.500They reenter the orbit and engage in a splashdown in the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico off of Florida.
00:20:08.500Depending on the conditions, the astronauts, the equipment are retrieved, and then they engage in their medical protocols.
00:20:14.500It's an exciting time for America because the SpaceX transition represents a real America first approach to space exploration where we're not just giving out money to the Russians or others to shuttle our astronauts back and forth to space.
00:20:45.500Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee remain triggered and a little bit mean.
00:20:54.500Breitbart has the story, Matthew Boyle, exclusive.
00:20:58.500Republicans mull ethics charges against Schiff ally as Democrats turn back to failed Russia strategy.
00:21:05.500And apparently what happened is that in the Intel Committee, Democrat Representative Sean Patrick Maloney from New York alleged misconduct against Devin Nunes.
00:21:15.500And, you know, we've got technically rules in the House about decorum where you can't accuse another member of lying.
00:21:24.500And the story in Breitbart is that Republicans are considering ethics charges against Maloney for his behavior in the Intelligence Committee.
00:21:34.500The congressional ethics process is a joke.
00:21:37.500I mean, when you've got Senator Richard Burr, who lied to the American people about coronavirus, who then went and sold essentially his entire stock portfolio.
00:21:48.500And like there is no real action from Senate ethics.
00:21:53.500Like, how do you really think that you're going to enforce an ethics process against somebody for rudeness and committee?
00:22:01.500Like when Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, stands up at the State of the Union and rips up the president's speech before America as some like childish act of defiance and she faces no ethics consequences.
00:22:15.500Well, I mean, how do you really think you're going to enforce some little tete-a-tete with Nunes and Sean Patrick Maloney?
00:22:23.500So there really is no ethics process in the Pelosi led House of Representatives.
00:22:28.500They don't seem to care much about ethics at all.
00:22:31.500And I'm not entirely sure that's a partisan criticism because over in the Senate where you've got Richard Burr, who clearly cheated, who probably broke the law and there's no real consequence for him.
00:22:42.500It would erode the confidence of the American people that this is a serious process.
00:22:47.500So it is noteworthy that like in the Intelligence Committee, they can't get over the embarrassment and the failure of the Russia hoax.
00:22:56.500But I doubt that we're going to be able to successfully use the ethics process to hold them to account.
00:23:02.500It hasn't really been successful to date.
00:23:05.500And really, the ultimate accountability lies with the voters.
00:23:09.500Sean Patrick Maloney is in a swing seat.
00:23:12.500So let's hope that he won't be around in the House of Representatives to even face an ethics charge because his voters will seek someone who will come to the Congress to engage in actions that are far more productive than the failed Russia hoax.
00:23:27.500Thanks so much for listening to hot takes.
00:23:32.500Make sure you are subscribed to our podcast on whatever your listening platform is so that each and every day you are up to date regarding the ongoings of Washington, D.C.