The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - Episode 67 - FL-13： A Battle for the Soul of the GOP Conference. Kamala’s Embarrassing Comparison. Cowboys WILL Play Football.

00:00:00.000 You ever watch this guy on television?

00:00:03.800 You all were not telling the truth and you should not be trusted.

00:00:06.600 Congressman Matt Gaetz, thank you for what you did for your country tonight.

00:00:09.320 Be offended with the Democratic whip, not House Republicans.

00:00:12.400 Like a machine, Matt Gaetz.

00:00:16.200 Welcome to Hot Takes, I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz.

00:00:19.000 Let's talk about the news.

00:00:20.640 And the news in the Sunshine State is that the proxy fight might be on in Congressional

00:00:26.600 District 13, currently held by former Republican Florida Governor Charlie Crist, turned failed

00:00:34.020 independent candidate for the United States Senate, turned failed Democrat candidate for

00:00:39.220 governor, then successful Democrat for Congress elected in the Pinellas County area.

00:00:46.200 He won that seat from David Jolly, who himself has sort of been square dancing with the parties

00:00:52.000 going from Republican to, I don't know, I don't know if he was a Democrat.

00:00:56.280 At one point he was talking about running for some state office alongside Patrick Murphy.

00:01:02.180 So working with the Democrats, I guess now David Jolly is an independent.

00:01:06.320 Send us a Republican fighter from District 13.

00:01:09.840 Please send backups, at least somebody that'll stick with a party for goodness sakes.

00:01:14.200 So Steve Contorto with the Tampa Bay Times has the story and it lays out a primary dynamic

00:01:22.280 with Amanda Mackey, a former DC lobbyist, now Republican candidate in District 13, getting

00:01:29.320 the support of Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise, Liz Cheney, kind of the Republican established

00:01:34.520 leadership in the House of Representatives.

00:01:36.760 And then Ana Paulina Luna, a more of an outsider candidate, a conservative activist, served our 1.00

00:01:42.940 military uniform.

00:01:44.280 Also a military spouse and she got the endorsement of Charlie Kirk.

00:01:50.180 She got my endorsement that's laid out in Steve Contorto's piece.

00:01:54.180 And what I think is interesting about it, you know, I don't, the podcast is not an appropriate

00:01:58.400 platform to litigate someone's campaign, but I do think that the policies that the Republican

00:02:04.540 conference embraces are appropriate for discussion.

00:02:07.840 And throughout some of these primaries, you've typically seen more gravitation to the Freedom

00:02:15.600 Caucus, more of a desire to embrace the Trump brand than the neoconservative brand.

00:02:21.500 And in the state of Florida, Steve Contorto writes that this primary, where you've got sort

00:02:27.620 of the Washington establishment candidate against the outsider candidate, says a lot about what

00:02:33.980 the conference will look like and, you know, what the motivations will be for the party

00:02:40.360 to try to attract and appeal to different kinds of candidates, different types of constituencies.

00:02:46.160 And that ultimately gets reflected in policy.

00:02:49.260 You know, when we have shutdowns looming and the Republicans are only able to argue for,

00:02:56.600 you know, a few things to try to get the government rolling and to try to have some accord with

00:03:02.000 the Democrats. What are we going to fight for? Are we going to fight for just the corporate

00:03:07.200 boardrooms or are we going to fight for Main Street? Are we going to fight for that populist

00:03:12.960 energy in our party that wants to see immigration reform, that wants to see fair trade deals, that

00:03:18.280 wants to see our president supported? And not everyone in Republican leadership has traditionally

00:03:23.680 supported the president. So we need a Republican caucus that is very pro-Trump more than they

00:03:28.920 are pro-Washington if you want to see the pro-Trump agenda executed. Great piece by Steve Contorto.

00:03:36.360 Check it out. See what you think it means for the future of the policies emanating from the Republican conference.

00:03:45.320 Mike Pence on Hannity last night. Take a listen.

00:03:48.280 And Joe Biden's decision to add Kamala Harris to the ticket confirms everything President Trump and I have

00:03:55.720 been saying. And that is that Joe Biden and the Democratic Party have been overtaken by the radical left.

00:04:03.560 Kamala Harris, like Joe Biden, supports higher taxes, socialized medicine, open borders, abortion on demand. 0.93

00:04:11.720 And where Joe Biden said he'd be willing to cut funding to police, she said recently that that she thought

00:04:16.920 that we should reimagine the police in this country. Reimagine police. Here's what I want to imagine. I want

00:04:24.040 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

00:04:32.840 and a non-imaginary cop is going to arrive to provide assistance and service and care.

00:04:40.360 This notion that you have to reimagine policing, I think, undermines the value of policing as it exists.

00:04:49.000 And I think that policing oftentimes draws some of our best fellow Americans to service of their

00:04:56.200 communities, of their state, of their country. And this critique that just chips away at law enforcement,

00:05:03.800 I think is counterproductive to a safe and strong and stable union. And I think it's quite telling

00:05:10.280 that, you know, Kamala Harris wants to reimagine your police, whereas Donald Trump and Mike Pence 1.00

00:05:16.920 seem to want the police to be supported and equipped and trained and capable to help out their fellow Americans.

00:05:26.200 Former Vice President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris making their first appearance as a ticket.

00:05:31.640 Kamala Harris, here she is. 0.89

00:05:33.320 65,000 lives that have been cut short. Many with loved ones who never got the chance to say goodbye.

00:05:45.480 It didn't have to be this way. Six years ago, in fact, we had a different health crisis.

00:05:51.400 It was called Ebola. And we all remember that pandemic. But you know what happened then?

00:05:58.360 Barack Obama and Joe Biden did their job. Only two people in the United States died. Two.

00:06:07.720 That is what's called leadership.

00:06:09.400 Ebola. There is no comparability with Ebola and coronavirus. They don't spread the same way.

00:06:18.280 They're not as contagious. One major difference is that African countries dealing with Ebola didn't

00:06:24.120 lie to our country for months. They didn't withhold the genome sequence for, you know, weeks. So I think

00:06:32.840 that to in any way characterize the coronavirus challenge as akin to the Ebola challenge is just

00:06:40.680 pretty tone deaf. And for that to be sort of the opening monologue of Kamala Harris to the nation

00:06:47.160 as Joe Biden's running mate, I don't know. I don't. Did they plan this or was this sort of her

00:06:53.080 her kind of off the cuff remarks? I can't imagine they would want to draw attention to that comparison

00:06:59.080 because I think most Americans see that what we're dealing with now is something vastly different.

00:07:03.160 Un-demoralize yourself. Don't we all need a little un-demoralization at this point? Jeff

00:07:13.880 Giese writes for the American Mind in partnership with the Claremont Institute, a brilliant piece.

00:07:20.600 Four steps. First, create from everything. View the interactions and opportunities throughout your daily

00:07:28.440 life as a chance to create, build, establish. And really, Jeff writes here about how people can draw

00:07:36.920 on faith for this, that really your faith can be a guide, a path to the notion of building and creating

00:07:43.880 for people of faith. A second rule, preparedness. You know, this helps us with anti-fragility. It helps us

00:07:52.040 capture the most joy out of moments if we're ready for them and able to fully capitalize on them. So

00:07:58.440 don't go about your day just kind of stumbling from one unprepared moment to another. Take the time,

00:08:04.600 be prepared. It will really help you just squeeze the most joy out of each day. Third, execute on a

00:08:12.040 bold vision. You know, I think that in the coronavirus pandemic, whether it's the work of the Congress,

00:08:18.280 seeing things in a very small and petty and reductive way, whether it's these protests and riots that seem to

00:08:26.600 unfairly generalize the police in a negative light. I think we need to raise our gaze as a country. And that bold

00:08:35.000 vision is certainly a phenomenal feature of that. Fourth, happy on the homestead. I cannot stress how

00:08:43.640 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

00:08:49.560 professional environment, when you come to a place of joy, I just think that it contributes positively

00:08:55.800 to every other aspect of life. So great piece by Jeff Giese. Jeff, also a phenomenal follow on Twitter.

00:09:03.640 Not always, you know, a total, I think, advocate for the president. He'll be critical of the president

00:09:10.280 at times, but certainly I think represents a lot of the America first values that we're fighting for

00:09:17.720 in Washington. Check out the piece. The smearing of Marjorie Greene, Republican candidate for Congress

00:09:27.240 in Georgia's 14th district, is on in Washington, D.C. It's really been on for quite some time, but

00:09:34.840 now with Marjorie Greene winning the Republican primary, you see the mainstream media starting to

00:09:40.680 attack her with just a far greater intensity. And there's also a different feature of this news story

00:09:49.320 that I'm going to reveal to you in a moment. It comes to us from Politico, Melania Zenona.

00:09:55.160 The title of the article, McCarthy Faces QAnon Squeeze. And the substance of the article is really

00:10:01.960 an attack on things that Greene has said. They tried to associate her with QAnon and other comments.

00:10:10.360 Look, I've endorsed Marjorie Greene. I don't think that when you endorse a candidate for office

00:10:16.280 because you support their policy positions, you look at their background. This is a very successful

00:10:23.400 businesswoman from the Georgia area. When you see that they want to join with the conservative

00:10:29.160 pro-Trump fighters to try to ensure that our leadership is responsive to the base of our

00:10:34.600 party, to the people who animate our movement. You know, I saw Marjorie Greene as an ally in a lot

00:10:39.480 of those ways. Now, does that mean that I know everything she's ever said online, every video,

00:10:44.600 every tweet? Does that mean I endorse everything she's ever said? Of course not. Just as she probably,

00:10:50.440 if she looked through every tweet, every comment, every email, every video I've made,

00:10:56.040 there might be things she would disagree with. So let's all be adult enough to realize that in

00:11:02.440 any offer and acceptance of endorsement, there is not a total alignment or agreement. You're just

00:11:08.360 saying you see this person as someone who can be an ally in getting the things done that are really

00:11:13.480 important to you. And that is very significant. That's why I've got involved in helping a few

00:11:18.280 candidates who I think can provide backup for the president and the president's agenda. And that

00:11:24.600 oftentimes means motivating and even pushing up against the leadership in your own party.

00:11:31.720 The president knows that. We all know that. So that brings us to the game that's going on

00:11:37.880 that is being played behind the scenes, I think, in this story and in the whole Marjorie Greene saga.

00:11:44.760 Look at who this comes from. Melanie Zenona at Politico. And look who it criticizes. McCarthy.

00:11:51.400 Now, I know Melanie. I like Melanie. But it's very clear that she has a close, close relationship

00:11:59.080 with the Liz Cheney press shop. And there is, of course, tension and competitiveness between 0.66

00:12:05.240 Kevin McCarthy and Liz Cheney. They both probably want to be Speaker of the House one day. They both

00:12:11.000 realize that the types of candidates who are elected can influence the shape and feel and tenor

00:12:17.800 of the Republican conference and ultimately inform on who its leader will be. And Melanie

00:12:23.400 Zenona has gone all in with the Liz Cheney ambition to this objective, right? I mean,

00:12:30.680 she writes glowing profiles on Liz. She casts Liz in the best possible light when there's conflict

00:12:37.560 within the conference. And here she uses Marjorie Taylor Greene's winning of the Republican nomination

00:12:46.120 as a basis to attack McCarthy. And I don't think that, you know, that that criticism is fair. I mean,

00:12:53.800 look, I don't agree with Kevin McCarthy on a lot of things. We do agree on many others, right? We've

00:13:00.520 worked together closely. We found ourselves on the other side. But it is certainly not Kevin McCarthy's

00:13:06.200 fault that Marjorie Greene won. It's not anyone's fault. Marjorie, it's democracy's fault. Okay. I

00:13:12.840 mean, like Marjorie Greene is the winner of the Republican nomination. She is a dynamic and

00:13:20.040 interesting candidate in a lot of ways to her to her voters. And I find her to be a businesswoman with 0.99

00:13:27.240 sound experience who can add a lot to our conference. So I welcome Marjorie Greene. I'm enthusiastic

00:13:33.960 about my endorsement of her. But it's just interesting that kind of the school newspapers

00:13:38.920 in Washington, like Politico, try to use any controversy to smear someone even before they

00:13:45.320 arrive. And they also try to use any sort of moment to juxtapose one person's ambition against another.

00:13:54.780 And here, Melanie Zenona and the Liz Cheney team clearly saw it acceptable to use Marjorie Greene's 0.72

00:14:01.560 victory in her primary as a basis not only to smear Greene, but to smear McCarthy as well. 0.96

00:14:07.400 Undeserved. Let's do better. Welcome to the team, Marjorie Taylor Greene.

00:14:13.720 School reopening, such a critical element of society. I've talked about it a great deal on the

00:14:18.680 podcast. Anna Sabalos with the new service of Florida has some interesting anecdotal survey results

00:14:25.880 from a few counties in Florida, Pinellas County, which is in the Tampa area, Jackson County, more

00:14:32.840 around the Florida panhandle. And in those places, you're seeing about one percent of teachers choosing

00:14:39.160 to retire, take leave and not come back to the educational setting. And I think there is a policy

00:14:46.200 opportunity here. I think if you have older teachers in this era of pandemic who just simply

00:14:52.760 do not have the skill set to do digital learning, some do, but some don't. And if they're older,

00:14:58.600 if they're medically frail, why not allow teachers who are close to retirement to buy into their

00:15:04.600 retirement? So if you've got, you know, 28 years in and you're waiting to get to those 30 years,

00:15:09.640 maybe there's a way to get that 30 year by buying into it somehow as an educator. And we could create

00:15:16.120 different paths for people to do that, whether it's cashing in leave time, whether it's a lump sum

00:15:23.400 payment, whether it's an election of certain benefits and a change to benefits, but be able to

00:15:28.760 access them sooner. I think that there's a win win opportunity to ensure that we've got the safest,

00:15:35.480 most effective education workforce. Whereas some of those teachers toward the end of the their

00:15:40.200 profession nearing retirement wouldn't just get totally screwed by a system that asks them to

00:15:46.920 either go back and be in a setting that wouldn't be necessarily endorsed by their own healthcare

00:15:55.400 professionals, their own doctors, or not to be able to fully benefit from their years of service

00:16:02.440 to the various states and school districts around the country. So let's get creative with the policy

00:16:07.080 options. But interesting in Anna Sabalos' report that we don't see the like mass exodus of the

00:16:15.640 teaching profession, about 1%. I think we can accommodate that 1% with good public policy.

00:16:23.160 Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, says that they're going to be playing in front of fans.

00:16:28.040 Listen to his live Q&A with reporters. We've got some adjustments to make. We're going to make them

00:16:33.320 with enthusiasm and we're going to make them with can do. The Dallas Cowboys plan on playing all of

00:16:38.680 our football games and we plan on playing it in front of our fans. I think it's a good thing for

00:16:43.480 our titans of industry, sports, culture to be ambitious about the opportunities that we'll have

00:16:50.840 for safe public gatherings again, whether that's mask wearing, temperature checks, on-site testing.

00:16:57.800 You know, I think that we need the brightest minds. We need the most ambitious people working to try to

00:17:03.960 return our country to the things that we love and enjoy. And certainly going out with our fellow

00:17:09.480 Americans and enjoying athletics and observing them is a great pastime that I'd love to see us get back

00:17:15.080 to. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode of Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gates.

00:17:20.680 Give us a five-star rating, leave us a review, let us know what you'd like to hear on the show,

00:17:25.240 and make sure to tune in tomorrow for more Hot Takes.

The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - August 13, 2020

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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