Episode 67 - FL-13： A Battle for the Soul of the GOP Conference. Kamala’s Embarrassing Comparison. Cowboys WILL Play Football.
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Summary
In the latest Hot Takes, Matt talks about a potential primary fight in Florida between two establishment candidates and an outsider candidate. Plus, a new addition to the 2020 Democratic presidential ticket and why he thinks Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are a bad idea.
Transcript
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You all were not telling the truth and you should not be trusted.
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Congressman Matt Gaetz, thank you for what you did for your country tonight.
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Be offended with the Democratic whip, not House Republicans.
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Welcome to Hot Takes, I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz.
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And the news in the Sunshine State is that the proxy fight might be on in Congressional
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District 13, currently held by former Republican Florida Governor Charlie Crist, turned failed
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independent candidate for the United States Senate, turned failed Democrat candidate for
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governor, then successful Democrat for Congress elected in the Pinellas County area.
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He won that seat from David Jolly, who himself has sort of been square dancing with the parties
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going from Republican to, I don't know, I don't know if he was a Democrat.
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At one point he was talking about running for some state office alongside Patrick Murphy.
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So working with the Democrats, I guess now David Jolly is an independent.
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Please send backups, at least somebody that'll stick with a party for goodness sakes.
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So Steve Contorto with the Tampa Bay Times has the story and it lays out a primary dynamic
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with Amanda Mackey, a former DC lobbyist, now Republican candidate in District 13, getting
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the support of Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise, Liz Cheney, kind of the Republican established
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And then Ana Paulina Luna, a more of an outsider candidate, a conservative activist, served our
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Also a military spouse and she got the endorsement of Charlie Kirk.
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She got my endorsement that's laid out in Steve Contorto's piece.
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And what I think is interesting about it, you know, I don't, the podcast is not an appropriate
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platform to litigate someone's campaign, but I do think that the policies that the Republican
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conference embraces are appropriate for discussion.
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And throughout some of these primaries, you've typically seen more gravitation to the Freedom
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Caucus, more of a desire to embrace the Trump brand than the neoconservative brand.
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And in the state of Florida, Steve Contorto writes that this primary, where you've got sort
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of the Washington establishment candidate against the outsider candidate, says a lot about what
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the conference will look like and, you know, what the motivations will be for the party
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to try to attract and appeal to different kinds of candidates, different types of constituencies.
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You know, when we have shutdowns looming and the Republicans are only able to argue for,
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you know, a few things to try to get the government rolling and to try to have some accord with
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the Democrats. What are we going to fight for? Are we going to fight for just the corporate
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boardrooms or are we going to fight for Main Street? Are we going to fight for that populist
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energy in our party that wants to see immigration reform, that wants to see fair trade deals, that
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wants to see our president supported? And not everyone in Republican leadership has traditionally
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supported the president. So we need a Republican caucus that is very pro-Trump more than they
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are pro-Washington if you want to see the pro-Trump agenda executed. Great piece by Steve Contorto.
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Check it out. See what you think it means for the future of the policies emanating from the Republican conference.
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Mike Pence on Hannity last night. Take a listen.
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And Joe Biden's decision to add Kamala Harris to the ticket confirms everything President Trump and I have
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been saying. And that is that Joe Biden and the Democratic Party have been overtaken by the radical left.
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Kamala Harris, like Joe Biden, supports higher taxes, socialized medicine, open borders, abortion on demand.
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And where Joe Biden said he'd be willing to cut funding to police, she said recently that that she thought
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that we should reimagine the police in this country. Reimagine police. Here's what I want to imagine. I want
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to imagine that if my family is in trouble, if my safety is in question, that I'm going to be able to call the police
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and a non-imaginary cop is going to arrive to provide assistance and service and care.
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This notion that you have to reimagine policing, I think, undermines the value of policing as it exists.
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And I think that policing oftentimes draws some of our best fellow Americans to service of their
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communities, of their state, of their country. And this critique that just chips away at law enforcement,
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I think is counterproductive to a safe and strong and stable union. And I think it's quite telling
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that, you know, Kamala Harris wants to reimagine your police, whereas Donald Trump and Mike Pence
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seem to want the police to be supported and equipped and trained and capable to help out their fellow Americans.
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Former Vice President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris making their first appearance as a ticket.
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65,000 lives that have been cut short. Many with loved ones who never got the chance to say goodbye.
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It didn't have to be this way. Six years ago, in fact, we had a different health crisis.
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It was called Ebola. And we all remember that pandemic. But you know what happened then?
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Barack Obama and Joe Biden did their job. Only two people in the United States died. Two.
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Ebola. There is no comparability with Ebola and coronavirus. They don't spread the same way.
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They're not as contagious. One major difference is that African countries dealing with Ebola didn't
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lie to our country for months. They didn't withhold the genome sequence for, you know, weeks. So I think
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that to in any way characterize the coronavirus challenge as akin to the Ebola challenge is just
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pretty tone deaf. And for that to be sort of the opening monologue of Kamala Harris to the nation
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as Joe Biden's running mate, I don't know. I don't. Did they plan this or was this sort of her
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her kind of off the cuff remarks? I can't imagine they would want to draw attention to that comparison
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because I think most Americans see that what we're dealing with now is something vastly different.
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Un-demoralize yourself. Don't we all need a little un-demoralization at this point? Jeff
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Giese writes for the American Mind in partnership with the Claremont Institute, a brilliant piece.
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Four steps. First, create from everything. View the interactions and opportunities throughout your daily
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life as a chance to create, build, establish. And really, Jeff writes here about how people can draw
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on faith for this, that really your faith can be a guide, a path to the notion of building and creating
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for people of faith. A second rule, preparedness. You know, this helps us with anti-fragility. It helps us
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capture the most joy out of moments if we're ready for them and able to fully capitalize on them. So
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don't go about your day just kind of stumbling from one unprepared moment to another. Take the time,
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be prepared. It will really help you just squeeze the most joy out of each day. Third, execute on a
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bold vision. You know, I think that in the coronavirus pandemic, whether it's the work of the Congress,
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seeing things in a very small and petty and reductive way, whether it's these protests and riots that seem to
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unfairly generalize the police in a negative light. I think we need to raise our gaze as a country. And that bold
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vision is certainly a phenomenal feature of that. Fourth, happy on the homestead. I cannot stress how
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important this is. When you're happy at home, when you're able to have some detachment from the challenges that you face in a
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professional environment, when you come to a place of joy, I just think that it contributes positively
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to every other aspect of life. So great piece by Jeff Giese. Jeff, also a phenomenal follow on Twitter.
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Not always, you know, a total, I think, advocate for the president. He'll be critical of the president
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at times, but certainly I think represents a lot of the America first values that we're fighting for
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in Washington. Check out the piece. The smearing of Marjorie Greene, Republican candidate for Congress
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in Georgia's 14th district, is on in Washington, D.C. It's really been on for quite some time, but
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now with Marjorie Greene winning the Republican primary, you see the mainstream media starting to
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attack her with just a far greater intensity. And there's also a different feature of this news story
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that I'm going to reveal to you in a moment. It comes to us from Politico, Melania Zenona.
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The title of the article, McCarthy Faces QAnon Squeeze. And the substance of the article is really
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an attack on things that Greene has said. They tried to associate her with QAnon and other comments.
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Look, I've endorsed Marjorie Greene. I don't think that when you endorse a candidate for office
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because you support their policy positions, you look at their background. This is a very successful
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businesswoman from the Georgia area. When you see that they want to join with the conservative
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pro-Trump fighters to try to ensure that our leadership is responsive to the base of our
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party, to the people who animate our movement. You know, I saw Marjorie Greene as an ally in a lot
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of those ways. Now, does that mean that I know everything she's ever said online, every video,
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every tweet? Does that mean I endorse everything she's ever said? Of course not. Just as she probably,
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if she looked through every tweet, every comment, every email, every video I've made,
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there might be things she would disagree with. So let's all be adult enough to realize that in
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any offer and acceptance of endorsement, there is not a total alignment or agreement. You're just
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saying you see this person as someone who can be an ally in getting the things done that are really
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important to you. And that is very significant. That's why I've got involved in helping a few
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candidates who I think can provide backup for the president and the president's agenda. And that
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oftentimes means motivating and even pushing up against the leadership in your own party.
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The president knows that. We all know that. So that brings us to the game that's going on
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that is being played behind the scenes, I think, in this story and in the whole Marjorie Greene saga.
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Look at who this comes from. Melanie Zenona at Politico. And look who it criticizes. McCarthy.
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Now, I know Melanie. I like Melanie. But it's very clear that she has a close, close relationship
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with the Liz Cheney press shop. And there is, of course, tension and competitiveness between
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Kevin McCarthy and Liz Cheney. They both probably want to be Speaker of the House one day. They both
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realize that the types of candidates who are elected can influence the shape and feel and tenor
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of the Republican conference and ultimately inform on who its leader will be. And Melanie
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Zenona has gone all in with the Liz Cheney ambition to this objective, right? I mean,
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she writes glowing profiles on Liz. She casts Liz in the best possible light when there's conflict
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within the conference. And here she uses Marjorie Taylor Greene's winning of the Republican nomination
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as a basis to attack McCarthy. And I don't think that, you know, that that criticism is fair. I mean,
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look, I don't agree with Kevin McCarthy on a lot of things. We do agree on many others, right? We've
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worked together closely. We found ourselves on the other side. But it is certainly not Kevin McCarthy's
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fault that Marjorie Greene won. It's not anyone's fault. Marjorie, it's democracy's fault. Okay. I
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mean, like Marjorie Greene is the winner of the Republican nomination. She is a dynamic and
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interesting candidate in a lot of ways to her to her voters. And I find her to be a businesswoman with
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sound experience who can add a lot to our conference. So I welcome Marjorie Greene. I'm enthusiastic
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about my endorsement of her. But it's just interesting that kind of the school newspapers
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in Washington, like Politico, try to use any controversy to smear someone even before they
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arrive. And they also try to use any sort of moment to juxtapose one person's ambition against another.
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And here, Melanie Zenona and the Liz Cheney team clearly saw it acceptable to use Marjorie Greene's
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victory in her primary as a basis not only to smear Greene, but to smear McCarthy as well.
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Undeserved. Let's do better. Welcome to the team, Marjorie Taylor Greene.
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School reopening, such a critical element of society. I've talked about it a great deal on the
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podcast. Anna Sabalos with the new service of Florida has some interesting anecdotal survey results
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from a few counties in Florida, Pinellas County, which is in the Tampa area, Jackson County, more
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around the Florida panhandle. And in those places, you're seeing about one percent of teachers choosing
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to retire, take leave and not come back to the educational setting. And I think there is a policy
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opportunity here. I think if you have older teachers in this era of pandemic who just simply
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do not have the skill set to do digital learning, some do, but some don't. And if they're older,
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if they're medically frail, why not allow teachers who are close to retirement to buy into their
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retirement? So if you've got, you know, 28 years in and you're waiting to get to those 30 years,
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maybe there's a way to get that 30 year by buying into it somehow as an educator. And we could create
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different paths for people to do that, whether it's cashing in leave time, whether it's a lump sum
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payment, whether it's an election of certain benefits and a change to benefits, but be able to
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access them sooner. I think that there's a win win opportunity to ensure that we've got the safest,
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most effective education workforce. Whereas some of those teachers toward the end of the their
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profession nearing retirement wouldn't just get totally screwed by a system that asks them to
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either go back and be in a setting that wouldn't be necessarily endorsed by their own healthcare
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professionals, their own doctors, or not to be able to fully benefit from their years of service
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to the various states and school districts around the country. So let's get creative with the policy
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options. But interesting in Anna Sabalos' report that we don't see the like mass exodus of the
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teaching profession, about 1%. I think we can accommodate that 1% with good public policy.
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Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, says that they're going to be playing in front of fans.
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Listen to his live Q&A with reporters. We've got some adjustments to make. We're going to make them
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with enthusiasm and we're going to make them with can do. The Dallas Cowboys plan on playing all of
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our football games and we plan on playing it in front of our fans. I think it's a good thing for
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our titans of industry, sports, culture to be ambitious about the opportunities that we'll have
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for safe public gatherings again, whether that's mask wearing, temperature checks, on-site testing.
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You know, I think that we need the brightest minds. We need the most ambitious people working to try to
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return our country to the things that we love and enjoy. And certainly going out with our fellow
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Americans and enjoying athletics and observing them is a great pastime that I'd love to see us get back
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to. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode of Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gates.
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Give us a five-star rating, leave us a review, let us know what you'd like to hear on the show,
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and make sure to tune in tomorrow for more Hot Takes.