Episode 6 - Camp David Revelations, NAS Pensacola Shooter's al Qaeda ties, and Chinese Drones
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Summary
In the wake of the anniversary of the attack at NAS Pensacola, Congressman Matt Gaetz reflects on the tragic loss of three brave service members in the attack, and the fact that the shooter was a uniformed Saudi Arabian service member.
Transcript
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Welcome to Hot Takes. This is Congressman Matt Gaetz. Let's talk about the news and a newsy
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Monday. I've returned back to Washington too. I spent the weekend with several of my congressional
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colleagues and the president out at Camp David, and so I'm eager to share with you my perspectives
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from that weekend. But we return to our nation's capital with news from the attorney general and
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the FBI director regarding something very important to my constituents in Northwest Florida, and that
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is the terrorist attack that occurred at NAS Pensacola last year. Brave service members,
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Mohammed Hayotham, Joseph Watson, Cameron Walters, my constituents who perished as a consequence of
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an attack by a uniformed Saudi Arabian officer who was engaged in aviation training in Pensacola
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and who shot and killed those three brave U.S. service members, wounding others as well. Ultimately,
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the shooter was killed by Escambia County Sheriff's Office, but we had just harrowing stories of
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sailors who were running into the fight, even without weapons, to try to do everything they could
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to be supportive of those who were in need. It was particularly important at the time of this
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shooting to note that the shooter disengaged from the gunfight with Escambia County Sheriff's
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officers to shoot through his cellular phone and communication devices. That, to me, was a tell.
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And you may remember at the time, I was on the front end of saying that this was not a circumstance
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of workplace violence. You'll remember there were some in the media saying, well, maybe it's not that
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this Saudi officer was radicalized. Maybe it was that he got angry with his instructor. Maybe he was
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just mentally ill himself. And I think there were circumstances where people were trying to
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de-emphasize the extent to which terrorists and terrorism were motivating, animating, directing,
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this act of violence. But given the fact that the phone was shot, given the fact that there were other
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Saudi students who were apprehended recording elements of the response to this attack, given the fact that
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the shooter hosted a dinner directly before he engaged in this morning attack the night before and had folks over,
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you know, I just don't believe that this guy was hosted a dinner with the Saudi Arabia buddies and didn't
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bring up the fact that he was going to shoot up the place the next day. And particularly given the news
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we now have. So I was one of the first to say this was an act of terrorism. This was not a murder.
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Here's my report from the day of the shooting. If this were a murder, it would typically be investigated by
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NCIS. I've spent time at the NCIS installation on NAS Pensacola. We have very talented professionals
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there. But this was not a murder. This was an act of terrorism. And as we speak, the investigation is
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being handed over from the NCIS to the FBI. That is the signal that this will now be treated by our
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government as an act of terrorism, not a murder. And in the hours and days following this shooting,
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there was a lot of question about our policy towards Saudi Arabia, whether or not we needed
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to reorient it. Here's some of the policy discussion I had following the Pensacola shooting
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several months ago on Tucker Carlson tonight. Is it time for us on the basis of this and other
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facts to reevaluate our relationship with Saudi Arabia? The first thing we need to do is join Governor
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DeSantis' call for the kingdom to step up for the victims. The second thing we need to do is what
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Senator Graham and I will be calling for. And that is an immediate suspension of the program wherein
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we bring Saudis here to the United States without sufficient vetting to stop something like this.
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And then we put ourselves at risk. And then absolutely we need to support the FBI's investigation
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and not allow anything to impair it. But at some point, we've got to look at this relationship
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more broadly, Tucker, and wonder how much from Saudi Arabia are we willing to take?
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So the news today we get from the attorney general and the FBI director is that this,
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in fact, was a premeditated, meticulous terrorist attack with planning that had gone all the way back
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to 2015. You'll remember that directly following the attack, the leader of Al Qaeda Yemen, AQAP,
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Al Qaeda Arabian Peninsula. These things can be used somewhat synonymously. Al Rimi claimed responsibility
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on behalf of AQAP. He was then killed by a strike from the United States of America. And I'm glad he
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was killed and tweeted about it at the time. Now, as you listen to the attorney general, pay special
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attention to the extent to which this appears to be entangled with and involved with an international
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terrorist organization, Al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula, and also the response, including a
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counter-terrorism element against Al Maliki, who's the current leader of APAQ. Here's the attorney
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general. Four months ago, I announced that this shooting was an act of terrorism. I also publicly
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asked Apple to help us access the locked contents of the two iPhones belonging to the terrorist who was
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killed at the time of his attack. Mohammed Saeed Al-Shamrani. The phones contained information
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previously unknown to us that definitively establishes Al-Shamrani's significant ties to
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Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, not only before the attack, but before he even arrived in the United
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States. So now what we know what this was, an inspired, planned terrorist attack against our country,
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against my district, against our bravest Americans willing to wear the uniform.
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And there really are two policy choices that we have to evaluate here. The first is
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the relationship with Saudi Arabia going forward. And I want to take a moment here to reflect on
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my involvement in that relationship. Early in the Trump administration, it was a goal of the president
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to see Saudi Arabia repositioned as a more productive ally, to root out some of the Wahhabi
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cauldrons of violence. Some of the madrasas that were teaching young people to hate and engaged in
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anti-American and anti-Semitic pedagogy needed to be called out. And so the president went to Riyadh
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with the expectation that things were going to be different. It was certainly my hope at the beginning of
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the Trump administration that we would be able to start telling the truth about the role Saudi Arabia
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had in the 9-11 attacks. Based on my review of the available evidence, folks directly associated with
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the Saudi Arabian embassies were involved in planning, were involved in logistics, hotel rooms, financial
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resources that were needed for these attackers, a vast majority of which were from Saudi Arabia,
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to hurt our country. I think the Obama administration covered that up. I think the Obama administration
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did everything they could to ensure that there was not a full justice and accounting for the victims
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of the 9-11 families. And President Trump was right to have those 9-11 families at the White House.
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And I could just tell you, he's been pursuing that justice. I personally met with Khalid bin Salman,
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who was the ambassador from Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman's brother. And I expressed in no uncertain
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terms that if Saudi Arabia wanted to be a modern Muslim country, that they had to get right with some
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of their less than modern behaviors, and that they needed to root out the elements of their government,
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of their family, that may have been involved in these things. And that was the only path forward. And so
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I continue to maintain that view. I think that Saudi Arabia has an obligation to our country to further
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this investigation into AQAP. If there is a failure of the vetting process in Saudi Arabia for the
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students that they provide to us, that has never been more evident. I mean, this is not a person,
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the individual who killed my constituents did not just get radicalized while he was in the United
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States or on some trip back to the Middle East. The guy was cuckoo and should not have been in our
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country well before then. And I think that a more aggressive surveillance approach to communications,
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both before and after these students come to the United States of America, is absolutely essential. And
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we have received some briefings on what Homeland Security is doing in that regard. I am confident
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that they're on the front edge of the fight, but we've got to remain vigilant. If we are going to
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continue to host people from other countries, we have to know that they're not going to come here and
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kill our bravest Americans. That seems like a pretty basic thing to uphold.
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There's another policy choice that is ripened through this terrorist attack against my constituents
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in Pensacola. And it has to do with Apple and technology companies and what obligations they may
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or may not have to open up a phone or other tech piece at the request of the government. The way Apple
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has designed the iPhone, if the user is not there to unlock it and does not have the capability
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or the interest in unlocking it, there is not some magic key that Apple provides the government.
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So the policy question is this, to be able to sell iPhones in our country, should it be required
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that Apple build a key to get into the phone to provide evidence to the government in a terrible
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instance like this? Now we know the things we know today as a consequence of the FBI in their skill,
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in their vigilance, in their talent, getting into this phone and seeing these communications. If the
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FBI had not done that, we would not know the fullest extent of the preparation and just the premeditated
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nature of this particular attack. So Attorney General Barr, FBI Director Wray on behalf of the government
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strongly make the case that Apple needs to provide that access to the government when necessary. And I think
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probably the best argument that the Attorney General makes is it's not like Apple had lost their virginity when it
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comes to making deals with governments that serve the needs of those governments. You've got authoritarian regimes
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who are in common cause with Apple when it comes to where they hold their information, how they use it to
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execute on totalitarianism in some of these countries. So listen for a moment to Attorney General Barr
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break down his argument on the need for Apple to be a better corporate partner with our country when it
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comes to these security questions. The phones were locked and the FBI did not have the passwords,
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so they needed help to get in. And we asked Apple for assistance and the president asked Apple for
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assistance. Unfortunately, Apple would not help us unlock the phones. And you can hear Attorney General
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Barr pretty directly in his commentary calling for a legislative fix to this. And so, you know, I'm eager to
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hear a feedback from folks. Do you believe that for Apple to be able to sell products in our country that
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the government should require that they create a key to unlock of the phones of people here? Should there
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be different treatment for people who are Americans or not Americans? I think there could be some
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constitutional questions on that. And I don't know. I'm glad the FBI got into this phone, but I don't know that
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I'm fully convinced that a private company has an obligation to give the government that kind of
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access. And while the Attorney General's best argument is, well, they do this with all these
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other countries, we're critical of that. We don't hold that up as an American standard. So I'm eager to
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get feedback from folks. I'm certainly glad in this case we got into the phone, we got the evidence,
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we were right that this was a coordinated terrorist attack. And I am grateful that there are counter
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terrorism missions underway now to continue to hold these thugs accountable.
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I had the chance to spend this weekend at Camp David with President Trump and Chief of Staff Mark
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Meadows, my good friend and mentor, Jim Jordan, and great colleagues like Lee Zeldin and Dan Crenshaw
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and Elise Stefanik. It was nice to see the President able to get out of the White House for a little bit.
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It's a challenging circumstance to live in the place that you also work. And so just good for
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everybody's mental health and also good for us to be able to share ideas about the great American
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comeback. And I'll be sharing on tomorrow's hot takes a little bit about my perceptions of the
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conversations we had with the President on everything ranging from our economic success,
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our public health and resilience opportunities. But the main discussion from a foreign policy
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standpoint that I want to address now is China. I believe the President had some advisors or folks
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he had talked to express an interest in restoring funding to the World Health Organization at the
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China level. We were paying some vast multiples of what China was paying. The WHO was essentially
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simping for China. They were allowing China to get away with lies about the conditions, about the
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sequencing of the virus, and I think also about the death tolls and the infection rates that they were
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picking up. And so some folks, I think, share with the President a viewpoint that maybe the U.S. re-enters
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as a funder of the World Health Organization at the China level. And I observed very compelling
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arguments, particularly from my congressional colleagues, about the fallacy of that relationship
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with the World Health Organization. President Trump sees these global institutions with clear
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eyes. He knows that the World Trade Organization screws us. He knows that our allies don't always
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pay up their fair share in entities like NATO. And he knows that the World Health Organization might be
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an entity we were funding, but they weren't really working for us and they didn't have the best interests
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of Americans at heart. And so whether it is our prior level of robust funding, whether it is the
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smaller China level of funding, is really immaterial. The World Health Organization does not deserve one
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dollar from the United States of America, particularly under their current leadership, particularly
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based on how they've handled the response to the coronavirus. Had we done what the World Health
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Organization wanted to do, we would not have closed the borders to our country and we would have
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seen this virus far more prevalent in areas beyond some of the urban centers dealing with the challenge
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now. And so again, you know, why would we give money to people who aren't being candid? And you know,
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there was a quote from Louie Gohmert that Jim Jordan reiterated to the president. He said,
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Mr. President, Louie Gohmert often reminds us that we don't have to pay these globalist organizations to hate
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us. They'll probably do it for free. I think the clarity of that of that quote from Louie Gohmert
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resonated with the president. And it is my expectation that the United States will not be
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engaging as a funder of the World Health Organization now at the China level, at any other reduced level,
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in the absence of major structural changes. So great to see that confrontation on China.
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Another area is these dual use technologies that China exploits for their intelligence benefit.
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And I have highlighted the concern I have over these Chinese DJI drones. Drones really were an American
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innovation and China stole the tech, replicated it, applied dual use. So it not only has commercial value
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and selling, it also has intelligence and military and strategic value. And since the coronavirus,
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China and DJI, the drone company have gifted a large number of drones to state and local law enforcement
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who do not have the sophistication to know that they are transmitting information back to China. And
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you don't have to take my word for that. It's our own Department of Homeland Security that said that
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these DJI drones present a threat. And they wrote a report in 2017 saying so. In my conversations with
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the chief of staff, Mark Meadows, I am comforted that the administration is aware of the threat posed by
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DJI and the dual use drone technology. It is my belief that the administration is currently reviewing
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potential guidance from the Department of Justice to state and local law enforcement. And I think we may
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find circumstances to expose where China has tried to prey on a lower level of sophistication at the
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local level for their strategic benefit against our country. So whether it is the World Health Organization
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or whether it is the strategy of China to capitalize on this virus to advance their other strategic
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objectives, I'm proud of where the Trump administration is. And these times that we are in
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do not call for a treatment of China with kit gloves or soft sell. We need confrontational leadership.
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And President Trump is definitely prepared to provide that bold leadership.
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We're at dinner with President Trump and a number of the members of the administration
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and members of Congress. And President Trump took a moment to offer just the most beautiful tribute to
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my friend and colleague, Devin Nunes. Devin Nunes is an American patriot. He really was the first in
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Congress to fully understand the depths and depravity of the anti-Trump hatred, the bias, the politicizing of
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our intelligence apparatus. And Devin Nunes was the first guy sounding the alarm. And so when you're the
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first one sounding the alarm, when you're the first one to take the beachhead, you typically draw a lot of
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fire. And that was the case with Devin. People like Adam Schiff, some of the deep state, they try to do
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everything from get Devin removed as the intelligence committee chairman to even trying to gin up fake
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investigations into Devin himself. And in public service, it's one thing when you're in the fight
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and you're around a bunch of other people who are in the fight with you. But the types of attacks that
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Devin just constantly took on behalf of our country and on behalf of our president are uniquely felt by
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by the people around him. And Devin's wife doesn't typically come to Washington. She spends her time
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with their family in California, but she was able to make it to Camp David. And just to be able to watch
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the president share his gratitude to Devin, comment on Devin's bravery, his willingness to really roll up
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his sleeves and get into the details of the corrupt predicate for the Russia investigation. And to see
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Devin's wife there able to appreciate the president of the United States bestowing that praise upon her
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husband. It was one of the most magical things to observe. And it warmed my heart to know that people
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like Devin, like his wife, who do the right patriotic thing, who don't take the easy way out,
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but who are willing to fight for our country and our values and our democracy, that there is a reward
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and there is an appreciation. And it was just a beautiful thing to observe. So I thank the president
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for sharing that. I'm grateful to have had a chance to be a part of it. So tomorrow, I'll get
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more into the details of my perceptions and reactions following the weekend with the president.