The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - July 30, 2020


Episode 57 - The Southern Poverty Law Center is a Hate Group. Hottest Moments from the Big Tech Hearing Dissected. Stimulus Standoff.

Topics
big tech hearings Google and China collaboration
Hosted by
Matt Gaetz
Mentioned
Mark Zuckerberg Sundar Pichai Ben Carson Jim Jordan Sean Patrick Maloney Nancy Pelosi Tucker Richard Burr Jeff Bezos Googlers Dunford Jim Sensenbrenner Hill Republicans Chuck Schumer Project Maven Matt Boyle George Floyd Josh Hawley Peter Thiel Sergey Brin and 12 more
Episode 56 - Epic Hearing on Big Tech Bias. Portland Mayor Calls for A Ceasefire. Sun Drop the Rat-Hunting Puppy Dog. Episode 58 - Delay the 2020 Election？ Mark Meadows Rips Democrats Stalling Stimulus Talks. FIFA Criminal Proceedings.

Episode Stats


Length

24 minutes

Words per minute

158.21

Word count

3,830

Sentence count

274

Harmful content

Toxicity

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

6

sentences flagged


Summary

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

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.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Welcome to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz. Let's talk about the news. The news on Capitol
00:00:21.320 Hill today is the stalled negotiation between the White House, Hill Republicans, and really
00:00:28.440 Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democrats over a potential next round of a stimulus package. And I made the
00:00:34.840 prediction on the podcast some weeks ago that we did not have the votes currently for an additional
00:00:41.100 round of legislation to respond to the coronavirus. Here's where the sides stand. The White House is
00:00:48.360 trying to build the yellow brick road back to economic prosperity. Everything that the White 1.00
00:00:55.540 House and Republicans are negotiating for is to try to get the country open again. Payroll tax cuts,
00:01:02.680 liability protections for businesses so that they can open, all the things necessary to return
00:01:08.140 to the Trump economy. And we cannot do that if we have an unemployment system that allows workers to
00:01:16.000 make more or the same or even close to the same by not working as they would make working. I've talked
00:01:23.280 to a number of small business owners who want to onboard their employees. And the most important
00:01:28.760 things to those folks who are the backbone of the American economy, you know, would be the liability
00:01:34.380 protections and the changes to the unemployment system so that people have an incentive to work.
00:01:40.240 On the other side, with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and the rest of the Democrats, they have a
00:01:45.880 worldview that isn't really geared toward reopening the American economy. They want to keep the economy
00:01:52.580 closed. They want to keep folks at home, not working. They want schools to remain closed. And then as a
00:01:59.720 consequence of diminished revenue, because we would be a closed country, they want to spend at least
00:02:06.260 two trillion dollars more than the Republicans want to spend on aid to local governments. Here's my hot
00:02:13.480 take. Let's allow state and local governments to have greater flexibility in the funds that we've
00:02:19.780 already appropriated that haven't been used before we go and print or spend an additional two trillion
00:02:26.680 dollars. Now, today we see markets responding favorably to the decisions from the Fed to utilize
00:02:33.120 their existing monetary policy to keep the American economy humming. But that is a bridge to the day
00:02:40.420 when we are fully open and prosperous and ambitious as a country. It is not the new normal. And I think
00:02:47.860 Democrats hope that if they keep us locked in our homes, out of school, away from businesses, unable to go to
00:02:54.860 restaurants for a longer period of time, that that will become the new normal, that we will enter a new
00:03:01.000 national malaise driven by the coronavirus. Well, I am not here for it. In Trump's America, we go to work, we build
00:03:10.500 things, we create things, we lead the world by being the best version of ourselves, by being the richest
00:03:17.500 and most prosperous version of ourselves. We will only do that if we get people back to work, and if we do not
00:03:25.500 accept our fate as a nation of couch potatoes. So I'm hopeful that we're able to get those liability
00:03:31.500 protections, that we're able to reform the unemployment system, and that we're able to return to the robust American economy.
00:03:38.500 Big tech was grilled before the House Judiciary Committee yesterday, specifically the Antitrust
00:03:48.500 Subcommittee. I gave an interview on Mornings with Maria. Here's that discussion.
00:03:53.500 Give me, overall, what struck you most about yesterday's hearing.
00:03:57.500 The bipartisanship. Republicans and Democrats are working together to take on some of these America
00:04:03.500 to last technology companies, whether it's Amazon stealing products, Facebook spying on their users, or Google
00:04:11.500 refusing to work with the U.S. military and then jumping overseas to advantage the targeting capabilities of Chinese 0.99
00:04:18.500 fighter jets. I think it's right for us to ask not what America can do for our technology companies, but perhaps what our
00:04:25.500 technology companies can do for America. And I'm excited about the fact that Republicans and Democrats are actually working
00:04:31.500 together on this issue because it will define the future how users will interface with our major technology platforms.
00:04:37.500 And it really is true that the bipartisanship that we've experienced in investigating big tech has been refreshing.
00:04:45.500 I'll give credit to my Democrat colleagues when Facebook is spying on their users.
00:04:51.500 When Amazon steals from their partners. When Google limits the ability of competitors to have access to ad platforms.
00:05:00.500 Democrats were there in committee to call them out on it and to demand better.
00:05:05.500 But here's the reality. Congress does not have the wherewithal to come together to pass major technology reform legislation.
00:05:15.500 Instead, what this is going to require is an active Department of Justice in the civil division, forcing these companies
00:05:22.500 to either demonstrate their neutrality, force them to demonstrate that they're treating the marketplace fairly.
00:05:28.500 And if they don't, then they should face remedies. Now, I don't think that busting up the companies is the only remedy.
00:05:34.500 It's certainly not the first remedy, but we've got to get far more aggressive and far more effective with a litigation
00:05:41.500 strategy because I do not believe that a legislative strategy is truly viable.
00:05:47.500 There was some commentary last night on the Tucker Carlson show regarding the big tech hearing.
00:05:53.500 Here was Tucker's discussion with Congressman Jim Jordan.
00:05:56.500 Let me ask you. Jim Sensenbrenner has taken money from Google. Google is your second biggest campaign contributor in the last cycle.
00:06:03.500 Why do you think they would give you money? And why would you take it?
00:06:06.500 Look, if they want to exercise their First Amendment liberties and give me money, I raised $3 million last quarter.
00:06:11.500 If Google gives me a few thousand dollar check, God bless them. That doesn't change who I am.
00:06:15.500 You saw that today in the committee. I went after him for the very issue you just raised, Tucker.
00:06:19.500 In 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.
00:06:29.500 Oh, I get it. I mean, again, I'm a talk show host. We talk about this stuff all the time.
00:06:32.500 But 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?
00:06:41.500 And 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?
00:06:48.500 We'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.
00:06:55.500 What is the way? What's the best way to structure that language? We're looking at that.
00:06:58.500 We're also what the Justice Department is doing. Bill Barr is looking at this issue as well.
00:07:03.500 So that's the—now, we may have to write some other law. There are three possible remedies here.
00:07:07.500 All 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.
00:07:13.500 Now, Tucker attacked Jordan essentially for taking funds from big tech.
00:07:18.500 I can assure you that Jim Jordan is not somebody swayed by, you know, a donation from some Washington lobby group.
00:07:26.500 But far too many are and far too many have allowed big tech to get away with too much for too long.
00:07:32.500 Here's my hot take. There is no Washington PAC money that I am interested in.
00:07:38.500 The 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.
00:07:51.500 My donors are folks all over the country who believe that we've got to have a fighting spirit of American populism.
00:07:59.500 That we need to abandon the America last policies that have invaded too many countries and invited too many people to cross our borders illegally. 0.85
00:08:08.500 And that frankly have sold out Main Street USA for multinational corporations and in this case big tech.
00:08:15.500 In this hearing, I thought it was particularly important to call out Google regarding their hypocrisy with China.
00:08:22.500 Here's that discussion.
00:08:23.500 You mentioned earlier in your discussion in the discussion about China that your engagement in China was very limited.
00:08:30.500 But yet Google has an AI China center.
00:08:33.500 The Chinese Academy of Sciences has published a paper saying that enhanced the targeting capabilities of China's J-20 fighter aircraft.
00:08:43.500 You collaborate with Chinese universities that take millions upon millions of dollars from the Chinese military.
00:08:50.500 Matter 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.
00:09:00.500 When she wakes, she will tremble the world.
00:09:03.500 The former Secretary of Defense, Mr. Shanahan, said that the lines have been blurred in China between commercial and military application.
00:09:11.500 And as Mr. Buck cited, General Dunford says that your company is directly aiding the Chinese military.
00:09:18.500 And Peter Thiel, who actually serves on Mr. Zuckerberg's board at Facebook, said that Google's activities with China are treasonous.
00:09:27.500 He accused you of treason.
00:09:29.500 So why would an American company with American values so directly aid the Chinese military but have ethical concerns about working along
00:09:41.500 outside the U.S. military on Project Maven?
00:09:47.500 And 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.
00:09:55.500 And 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?
00:10:03.500 I understand that we are not working with the Chinese military.
00:10:06.500 It's absolutely false.
00:10:07.500 I had a chance to meet with General Dunford personally.
00:10:10.500 We have clarified what we do in China compared to our peers.
00:10:14.500 It's very, very limited in nature.
00:10:16.500 Our AI work in China is limited to a handful of people working on open source projects.
00:10:21.500 I'm happy to share and engage with the office to explain our work in China further.
00:10:26.500 Gosh, I mean, when the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says that an American company is directly aiding China,
00:10:33.500 when you have an AI center, when you're working with universities, and when your employees are talking about China trembling the world,
00:10:39.500 it seems to really call into question your commitment to our country and our values.
00:10:43.500 I 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,
00:10:54.500 to manipulate what we see and what we think because they ultimately want to control how we act.
00:11:00.500 I got into an exchange with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and with Google's Sundar Pichai
00:11:06.500 specifically about the extent to which their employees can manipulate what people see and how that could impact, I think, the elections.
00:11:16.500 Here's my discussion with those two CEOs.
00:11:18.500 Mr. Pichai, in 2016, there was an internal Google meeting.
00:11:22.500 You attended that meeting along with Sergey Brin.
00:11:26.500 A video of that meeting was leaked to Breitbart.
00:11:29.500 And at the meeting, top Google executives, including Kent Walker, lamented Trump's victory.
00:11:35.500 They compared Trump voters to extremists.
00:11:38.500 And it was discussed that there was an intent to make the Trump win a blip in the populist movement in American history.
00:11:48.500 Now, 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.
00:12:00.500 But 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?
00:12:14.500 Congressman.
00:12:16.500 We 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.
00:12:29.500 And we are deeply committed to it. As I said to Congressman Jordan as well.
00:12:34.500 Do you remember that meeting?
00:12:36.500 Uh, uh.
00:12:37.500 2016.
00:12:38.500 Congressman, yes, I do.
00:12:39.500 Yes, I do.
00:12:40.500 We 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.
00:12:47.500 Then we have your testimony today that's a little different than your testimony from December, where you say people can manipulate blacklists.
00:12:55.500 And then you have the outcome where sites like Breitbart and Gateway Pundit and others see that disparate treatment.
00:13:02.500 So it really doesn't take Sherlock Holmes here to connect the dots and see what Google's doing.
00:13:07.500 Mr. 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.
00:13:28.500 Congressman, my testimony in the past and today is about what our principles are as a company and what we try to do.
00:13:36.500 Of course, when you have tens of thousands of employees, people make mistakes, people have some of their own goals some of the time.
00:13:48.500 And 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.
00:13:58.500 The Southern Poverty Law Center is a hate group.
00:14:04.500 They discriminate against Catholics, against Christians, against Jews. 0.53
00:14:09.500 They even called Ben Carson, of all people, an extremist.
00:14:13.500 Dr. Ben Carson, one of the most renowned neurosurgeons that our country has ever known.
00:14:19.500 And so why is it then that technology platforms outsource their cancel culture function to these tech platforms?
00:14:27.500 Amazon does it, Facebook does it, Google does it, but none of them seem to want to defend the SPLC.
00:14:34.500 Here 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.
00:14:48.500 Mr. 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.
00:14:59.500 And 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,
00:15:08.500 have 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,
00:15:21.500 and even Dr. Ben Carson are extremists and should be treated differently.
00:15:27.500 Dr. Carson is on the cabinet and is one of the most renowned minds in America.
00:15:32.500 I'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.
00:15:43.500 We use the Southern Poverty Law Center data to say which charities are extremist organizations.
00:15:49.500 We also use the U.S. Foreign Asset Office to do the same thing.
00:15:53.500 But why? Since they're calling to Catholics and these Jewish groups, hateful groups, why would you trust them? 1.00
00:15:59.500 Sir, I'm going to acknowledge this is an imperfect system.
00:16:03.500 Mr. Zuckerberg, do you believe that Dr. Ben Carson is an extremist?
00:16:06.500 No, Congressman.
00:16:08.500 And so why would you trust the people who think he is?
00:16:11.500 Congressman, I'm not aware of where we work with the organization that you're saying.
00:16:17.500 If I were the SPLC, I would be worried that these tech platforms could not truly justify their association.
00:16:26.500 And my hope is that we will see a divorce from the SPLC and an understanding that they should not be trusted to label hate groups.
00:16:35.500 They are the hate group.
00:16:36.500 I got an important concession from Google CEO Sundar Pichai at yesterday's big tech hearing.
00:16:46.500 And 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.
00:16:58.500 Now, you know, Google provides Gmail services.
00:17:02.500 They provide basic web and cloud services to some law enforcement.
00:17:07.500 But they also provide technology keeping our cops safe while they're doing their job.
00:17:13.500 And the argument from the Google employees says that police exist to maintain a system of white supremacy.
00:17:22.500 And that's outrageous.
00:17:24.500 They write in their letter, why would Google want to make the folks who had the knee on George Floyd's neck more organizationally effective?
00:17:34.500 Now, that's pretty rich because Google seems to have no problem making China a real oppressor more organizationally effective. 0.99
00:17:42.500 But the Googlers here in the United States want to deprive that access for law enforcement. 1.00
00:17:48.500 This would be a bigoted anti-police policy.
00:17:52.500 And at the hearing, Sundar Pichai made a commitment that going forward, Google will not adopt this bigoted anti-police policy.
00:18:01.500 I'm glad we got the concession.
00:18:03.500 Here was the exchange.
00:18:04.500 Some of your Googlers have recently sent you a letter where they've asked you to exit other partnerships as a consequence of ethical concerns.
00:18:11.500 They'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.
00:18:24.500 And as you well know, you provide some of the most basic services to police like email.
00:18:29.500 But you also provide services that help keep our cops safe when they're doing their job.
00:18:34.500 And 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?
00:18:47.500 Congressman, we have a long track record of working with law enforcement when it is supported by due process.
00:18:56.500 And the law, we push back against overbroad requests.
00:19:00.500 We are transparent about the requests we get.
00:19:02.500 But we have a long history of following the law and cooperating with law enforcement.
00:19:08.500 I understand the history.
00:19:09.500 I'm asking about the future.
00:19:10.500 To the law enforcement that are watching today, can they rest assured that under your leadership, Google will not adopt these bigoted anti-police policies?
00:19:19.500 Congressman, 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.
00:19:29.500 Well, I greatly appreciate that.
00:19:31.500 And I know that will be very comforting to the police who utilize your services.
00:19:39.500 It is apparently a very challenging thing to land your astronauts in the middle of a tropical storm or a hurricane.
00:19:48.500 The 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.
00:19:58.500 And it's something that's a pretty interesting process.
00:20:01.500 They reenter the orbit and engage in a splashdown in the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico off of Florida.
00:20:08.500 Depending on the conditions, the astronauts, the equipment are retrieved, and then they engage in their medical protocols.
00:20:14.500 It'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.
00:20:32.500 So we're hopeful that this goes well.
00:20:35.500 We're praying for our astronauts.
00:20:36.500 And I think it's the least we could do not to bring them back to Earth in the middle of a tropical storm or a hurricane.
00:20:42.500 So their return will be delayed slightly.
00:20:44.500 We wish them well.
00:20:45.500 Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee remain triggered and a little bit mean.
00:20:54.500 Breitbart has the story, Matthew Boyle, exclusive.
00:20:58.500 Republicans mull ethics charges against Schiff ally as Democrats turn back to failed Russia strategy.
00:21:05.500 And apparently what happened is that in the Intel Committee, Democrat Representative Sean Patrick Maloney from New York alleged misconduct against Devin Nunes.
00:21:15.500 And, you know, we've got technically rules in the House about decorum where you can't accuse another member of lying.
00:21:22.500 You can't hurl insults at them.
00:21:24.500 And the story in Breitbart is that Republicans are considering ethics charges against Maloney for his behavior in the Intelligence Committee.
00:21:32.500 Here's my hot take.
00:21:34.500 The congressional ethics process is a joke.
00:21:37.500 I 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.
00:21:48.500 And like there is no real action from Senate ethics.
00:21:51.500 He continues to be in the Senate.
00:21:53.500 Like, how do you really think that you're going to enforce an ethics process against somebody for rudeness and committee?
00:22:01.500 Like 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.
00:22:15.500 Well, I mean, how do you really think you're going to enforce some little tete-a-tete with Nunes and Sean Patrick Maloney?
00:22:23.500 So there really is no ethics process in the Pelosi led House of Representatives.
00:22:28.500 They don't seem to care much about ethics at all.
00:22:31.500 And 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.
00:22:42.500 It would erode the confidence of the American people that this is a serious process.
00:22:47.500 So it is noteworthy that like in the Intelligence Committee, they can't get over the embarrassment and the failure of the Russia hoax.
00:22:56.500 But I doubt that we're going to be able to successfully use the ethics process to hold them to account.
00:23:02.500 It hasn't really been successful to date.
00:23:05.500 And really, the ultimate accountability lies with the voters.
00:23:09.500 Sean Patrick Maloney is in a swing seat.
00:23:12.500 So 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.
00:23:27.500 Thanks so much for listening to hot takes.
00:23:30.500 I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz.
00:23:32.500 Make 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.
00:23:42.500 Tune in tomorrow.
00:23:43.500 I'll be back with more hot takes.
00:23:45.500 Real out.
00:23:46.500 Real out.
00:23:47.500 nimessional.
00:23:47.940 Just get it done, no more hot takes.
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