Episode 59 - Can the Woke Liberal Left Stomach this Movie About Me？ A Scandal Rocks the Ellen Show. Bye Bye TikTok.
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
159.24622
Summary
The Chinese Coronavirus has infected more than 500,000 people in the United States, and the government is scrambling to find a way to stop the spread of the deadly virus. What should the government do to stop it?
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Welcome to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gates. Let's talk about the news.
00:00:21.240
The news in America today is that we are facing an unprecedented economic challenge
00:00:27.220
that requires the full breadth of American energy to defeat. We have seen the largest
00:00:34.260
contraction of American GDP over the course of a quarter since we've been counting. And
00:00:40.540
this was at a time when we had built so much momentum in the Trump economy. President Trump
00:00:46.460
promised he'd be a great cheerleader for our businesses and he was. He said that we would
00:00:51.260
have tax cuts that would bring resources back from overseas and it happened. It resulted
00:00:56.380
in better trade deals, rising wages, a better regulatory climate. We started producing
00:01:02.640
things in America that created jobs and careers and a real sustainable sense of progress. That
00:01:09.900
was a progress that was shared not just by people at the wealthiest part of the income bracket.
00:01:16.560
It was prosperity that was described by many as a blue collar boom. And then what we got
00:01:22.620
was the Chinese coronavirus. It made jobs illegal. We've seen lockdowns in some states and localities
00:01:30.880
completely obliterate small businesses. I get emails still in my community of small businesses
00:01:37.380
that aren't going to reopen, some that have been open for decades, serving the community,
00:01:42.880
creating jobs, creating economic flow, and really a sense of purpose in small town America.
00:01:50.740
And so the upcoming question for us as policymakers is how to return to that opportunity. And there
00:01:57.260
are two competing visions for what to do next. And we saw them on full display during the Sunday
00:02:05.940
shows. Nancy Pelosi was on ABC with Martha Raddatz. She seemed to embrace the endless lockdown
00:02:13.580
approach of Gavin Newsom in California. Take a listen to the speaker.
00:02:17.740
One of the things you talk about is getting rid of COVID. Your home state, California, is the first
00:02:24.260
state to surpass half a million positive cases, a record high number. What did your fellow Democrat,
00:02:30.600
Governor Gavin Newsom, do wrong? And what should he do in the future?
00:02:33.460
I don't think he did anything wrong. We are the largest state in the union. So numerically,
00:02:38.060
it isn't shocking to say we have the most cases. But we're very proud of our governor, Governor Newsom.
00:02:45.120
He contained and controlled how this spread in the beginning. Some people in the state wanted to
00:02:53.320
open up. And we're a large state. We have great diversity of opinion on what should happen in
00:02:58.880
different regions. And when that when the opening up took place, we have more cases. And that should be
00:03:06.640
instructive to others. The virus is vicious. And you have to have shelter in place as long as you
00:03:18.400
need it. And when you do and you reduce the spread, then you can open up the schools when you reduce the
00:03:24.900
rate of infection in a community. But until you do that, you have to be very careful. And so you've got the
00:03:30.560
endless lockdown vision, the mandate vision. I think Gavin Newsom right now is even in disputes with
00:03:37.920
some of his localities, where if they don't issue mandatory mask orders or lockdowns, that he will
00:03:44.160
withhold funding. So not the most cooperative environment being curated in California. And then
00:03:50.480
compare that to the vision that we hear from President Trump, the need to innovate, the need to
00:03:55.280
open. We got some updates from Secretary Steve Mnuchin also on ABC regarding Operation Warp Speed.
00:04:03.120
We absolutely agree on the need to kill the virus. And let me just say, the president acted very
00:04:08.960
aggressively when this virus first came from China to shut down all travel. And since then, we have
00:04:15.520
aggressively funded over seven different vaccines into production. We're very optimistic that we will
00:04:21.920
have results out of these vaccines and we'll have a vaccine available by the end of the year. So we
00:04:27.600
absolutely agree on the need to kill this. America needs to reopen. We need to do so with the maximum
00:04:34.720
sanitation, with insurance that people who are older or have medical frailties are cared for and have every
00:04:42.240
accommodation so that they're not forced to go out and encounter the virus. We have to have schools open
00:04:48.240
so that parents have the option for in-person learning if that's what's best for them and their
00:04:53.760
family. And absolutely, we need to bridge the digital divide. You know, we heard from Whip Clyburn on the
00:05:00.560
Sunday shows and in one of his final responses, he said something I completely agree with on CBS about the
00:05:08.880
I've been such a longtime proponent of having universal access of broadband. Everything that's great about this country and the
00:05:16.240
internet is one of those great things. It ought to be accessible, ought to be affordable by everybody.
00:05:22.240
That's why rural communities where you got 34, 35 percent internet adoption, that's not good.
00:05:28.560
You don't spend the money that's necessary to build out 100 percent of broadband.
00:05:32.080
This should be a bipartisan objective. Let's ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to engage the
00:05:39.200
world, not only with their physical presence, but digitally as well.
00:05:46.240
There continue to be reverberations from the hearing we had with the major tech CEOs. And
00:05:52.800
one thing I'm glad for is the increased scrutiny that we're starting to see with the SPLC,
00:05:59.120
the Southern Poverty Law Center, inaptly named, I would suggest, that likely had fair beginnings,
00:06:05.440
but now has really devolved into a hate group itself, as it falsely claims that people like Dr. Ben
00:06:13.440
Carson are extremists. We've talked about it on the show. But we see a report from the Christian Post,
00:06:20.000
and I wanted to draw attention to it, by Ryan Foley. And in the Christian Post, they really highlight a number of
00:06:26.640
different organizations that hold basic traditional Christian doctrine that the SPLC has labeled as
00:06:34.000
hate groups. Groups like the Catholic News and a number of other communities of faith. So check out the report in the Christian Post,
00:06:41.680
and I think it will help us understand that, gosh, you know, some of these tech platforms really should not be
00:06:48.240
outsourcing the designation of hate groups to those who would consider people of faith, Christians, as haters.
00:06:55.360
Most people of faith who I know, who worship in Christian churches, merely want to extend love and
00:07:01.920
grace and support to their fellow human beings. And I think a little recognition of that, certainly by
00:07:09.120
banning some of these groups like the SPLC from being able to disappear people online, would be a productive
00:07:16.800
move forward for us as a society, and certainly one that's engaged digitally to the extent that we are.
00:07:22.160
Are Democrats going to be able to stand a movie that doesn't portray me as a villain? That's the
00:07:33.600
question that is posed by a recent Haaretz review of the upcoming HBO documentary, The Swamp. And I only
00:07:40.640
bring it up to the extent that it sort of shows how many people have preconceived notions when they go into
00:07:48.160
the judgment of another person in politics as sort of a unique dynamic of our industry. So the lead in
00:07:56.320
Haaretz from Adrian Hennigan goes, can Democrats stomach this HBO documentary about one of Trump's
00:08:02.800
biggest cheerleaders? Political docs are generally as partisan as politics nowadays, but The Swamp is a
00:08:09.040
little different, though Rep. Matt Gaetz may still make some viewers want to smash their TV sets.
00:08:15.120
I guess given the leanings of this particular author, I guess I'm glad I haven't lost it. But
00:08:22.400
the the piece says the main protagonist is Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican. And if you're aware of
00:08:27.840
him, you may have already made up your mind about The Swamp. I must confess that my interest in the
00:08:33.040
film was not exactly sky high when I saw his smug face was going to be front and center. Oh, well,
00:08:40.480
it's just such a shame that I didn't ignite the particular passions and interests of this one
00:08:44.880
reader. But, you know, look, I think that people ought to watch the documentary. It's the life I
00:08:51.120
lived. It is 2019 with these film producers hooking a camera on me, following me around with the TV
00:08:59.840
camera. They did the same with Congressman Thomas Massey and Ken Buck. We are not three members of
00:09:06.000
Congress in the establishment. We're sort of outsiders. And then you get the perspective
00:09:10.160
of my friend Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, a progressive, a Bernie Sanders national co-chairman,
00:09:17.760
someone who doesn't vote the way I do in Congress, but who I think shares a passion to reform the place.
00:09:23.760
John Sarbanes is someone who I know Congressman Buck has worked very closely with on caucuses intended to
00:09:31.120
reform the institution and make it better and make it more honest for everyone. There are Republicans
00:09:36.720
and Democrats in Congress who believe that if we work together to create a more fair form of debate
00:09:43.760
and engagement that doesn't just hand the institution off to special interests, that our arguments will
00:09:49.280
prevail. We're confident enough in the arguments that we are making that we don't need some powerful
00:09:55.440
special interests able to dominate the votes and decisions of others to get stuff done. But in a
00:10:00.880
world where the members of Congress are just vessels through which the special interests are operating,
00:10:06.400
you really can't get much of anything done of consequence. And so while some in the movie
00:10:12.320
may find it odd that I'm friends with Ro Khanna, I have worked with Democrats like Barbara Lee to try to
00:10:20.640
ensure that our constitution is followed with war powers. Those are elements of the job as well.
00:10:27.520
It's not just the things I agree with Republicans on that animate my service. So we'll see what happens
00:10:34.880
when the film is released, but at least this review questions whether or not Democrats will be able to
00:10:40.080
stomach any documentary where I am a protagonist. I hope they can. I hope they can keep their food down
00:10:46.560
long enough to get to the end and and see if it's for them.
00:10:53.840
SpaceX saw a return of American astronauts in what was a great day for the country,
00:11:00.720
a great day for SpaceX, a great day for Elon Musk as well. He took to Twitter saying,
00:11:06.480
when space travel becomes as common as air travel, the future of civilization will be assured.
00:11:12.480
And it was also great to see Colonel Doug Hurley offer the touching words to anybody who has touched
00:11:19.760
Endeavor. You should take a moment to just cherish this day and just, you know, wonderful reporting,
00:11:27.440
a wonderful result. And it was great for my community in Pensacola to play some small part
00:11:33.920
as the touchdown occurred just off our shores in the Gulf of Mexico. And I think Elon Musk has the
00:11:39.360
right sentiment that when humans become a multi-planetary species, we are assured,
00:11:45.040
I think, greater resilience as a civilization. So great job to the astronauts involved,
00:11:50.800
to the great scientists and engineers at SpaceX. We hope they enjoy the day. We're sure proud of them.
00:12:00.720
I joined Waters World with Jesse Waters this weekend. Here was our discussion.
00:12:04.880
I can't believe you're not on this committee because you're on every single committee,
00:12:08.960
but Fauci was getting grilled by a bunch of your colleagues the other day. And here's Jim Jordan
00:12:23.840
Well, you just said if it increases the spread of the virus, I'm just asking, should we limit it?
00:12:27.920
Well, I'm not in a position to determine what the government can do in a forceful way.
00:12:31.920
No limit to protest, but, boy, you can't go to church on Sunday.
00:12:35.680
I don't know how many times I can answer that. I'm not going to opine on limiting anything. I'm
00:12:41.280
just going to tell you... You've opined on a lot of things, Dr. Fauci.
00:12:44.240
Yeah, but I've never said... This is something that directly impacts the spread of the virus,
00:12:47.120
and I'm asking your position on the protest. Yeah. Well, I'm not going to opine on limiting anything.
00:12:52.960
All right, Congressman, very smart guy, Dr. Fauci, but it seems like he's wearing thin with some of
00:12:58.800
your colleagues. Is that true? Yeah. After watching that, I wondered whether
00:13:02.160
or not churchgoers should just adopt the language of the protesters. Maybe we can have potluck
00:13:07.520
protests or Sunday school sit-ins. Maybe instead of giving our donations through tithes, we can just
00:13:13.760
count that as bail money to release our eternal souls. Jim Jordan pointed out that we don't get to
00:13:20.080
choose the parts of the First Amendment that the government is going to allow and not allow. And
00:13:24.880
though this is an uncommon virus, it should not deprive public health officials of basic common
00:13:30.000
sense. And the one thing to absolutely take away from that exchange is that Jim Jordan really had
00:13:36.080
a dominant performance when it came to displaying some of the hypocrisy that we see from some public
00:13:43.120
health officials. Jim Jordan being Jim Jordan, sure proud of him, sure glad I get the chance to learn from him.
00:13:49.280
Andy Lassner is the executive producer of the Ellen DeGeneres show. And he's a real piece of trash,
00:14:00.560
according to a number of news reports and accusations by even Brad Garrett. Remember him? He was kind of
00:14:07.840
the goofy brother on Everybody Loves Raymond. I care about this issue because as a congressman,
00:14:14.160
I've worked on workplace accountability and ensuring that we have the right laws in our country so that
00:14:21.440
people don't get abused at work. Matter of fact, I'm the only Republican co-sponsor of the Fair Act,
00:14:29.280
an act that wouldn't allow people in business to select their juries in advance through mandatory
00:14:35.600
arbitration when dealing with employment discrimination and abuse. And on the Ellen DeGeneres show,
00:14:42.560
according to The Independent, Ed Galvin, Mary Connolly and Andy Lassner, the executive producer
00:14:50.560
of the Ellen show are accused of a toxic work environment, bullying, mistreatment of employees,
00:14:57.440
not letting people take their adequate leave. And Ellen has come out with a statement saying that she
00:15:03.280
always wanted her show to be a place of happiness and respect and that it has in fact fallen short of
00:15:09.920
that. There are allegations against some folks for sexual misconduct and sexual advances. But it's
00:15:16.800
not hard for me to believe that Andy Lassner is a real piece of garbage because time and again,
00:15:22.800
he's engaged in online bullying, attacks on me, attacks on conservatives that he doesn't agree with.
00:15:30.320
And just just keep in mind that, you know, this may be the circumstance where, you know,
00:15:35.840
the woke topians on Twitter who claim that, oh, they're for everyone and want everyone to be
00:15:41.440
treated well. Well, in their own jobs where they have power over people, they don't always use it
00:15:48.000
well. And it is the hypocrisy of Hollywood on display. It is the hypocrisy of the left on display.
00:15:56.320
I don't know if the Ellen show is going to be able to be back on air with these allegations.
00:16:01.600
The reporting suggests that they've hired a third party entity to come in and review and determine
00:16:07.760
whether or not people are going to be fired, whether or not the show, I don't know, is going
00:16:12.320
to persist. But Andy Lassner for sure is someone who I don't think deserves a lot of grace because he
00:16:19.280
has been so willing to extend it to everyone else. I hope this ends up with everybody getting precisely
00:16:25.520
what they deserve. Tick tock will be out of Chinese control or out of the United States of America.
00:16:35.120
Regular listeners of our podcast have heard me calling for a ban on Chinese owned tick tock in
00:16:41.200
the United States of America for some time now. And the president has agreed with that call. Secretary
00:16:48.080
Mnuchin is engaged in that review and it appears the president has seen enough and he is ready to force
00:16:55.440
tick tock out of the hands of the Chinese while it is collecting surveillance on Americans.
00:17:00.640
But we shouldn't stop there. We should stop the Chinese from buying U.S. genomics companies
00:17:06.800
to map our gene sequences and determine American cellular vulnerability. We should stop DJI drones
00:17:13.840
from spying on us from the skies. I've covered that on the podcast. And we should really clamp down
00:17:19.360
on the extent to which the Chinese are able to, you know, pollute in their country, pollute our world,
00:17:26.160
poison our oceans, make our air toxic, and then sell cheap goods in the United States. The president's
00:17:33.440
right to put tariffs on China. The president is right to get tough on these Chinese companies that are
00:17:40.880
in fact dual use to feed the strategic objectives of the Chinese military and intelligence collection
00:17:48.000
operation. In fact, it was former Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan who said that you can't
00:17:53.280
even really see the line anymore in China between their commercial activity and their strategic
00:17:58.960
military activity. Good job, Mr. President. Way to stay tough on China. Let's keep going.
00:18:04.560
Ban the drones. Ban the genomics companies from being sold to China. Thanks for listening to Hot Takes.
00:18:11.840
I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz. Remember, tomorrow, HBO premiering the documentary The Swamp featuring
00:18:19.120
myself alongside Congressman Thomas Massey, Congressman Ken Buck, Congressman Ro Khanna,
00:18:25.040
John Sarbanes, former Congresswoman Katie Hill. You won't want to miss it. It's going to be, I think,
00:18:31.040
a very revealing look at the swamp of Washington, D.C. And if you want to keep getting that revealing look
00:18:36.720
each and every day, just make sure you subscribe to our podcast. Stay informed. I'll be back tomorrow