The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - Episode 76 - Who Cares About the Alleged Falwell Throuple？ Bette Midler is a Horrible Person. Term Limits on Agenda. Tiffany Trump Uncancels.

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz. Let's talk about the news. The news in Wisconsin

00:00:22.240 is more damage, more destruction, more violence, potentially more death on the horizon. We certainly

00:00:28.960 hope not. Take a listen. Now to breaking news overnight from Kenosha, Wisconsin. At least

00:00:33.340 two people were killed there last night. Another wounded when shots rang out during protest over

00:00:38.540 the shooting of Jacob Blake by police. We are still learning about the victims and about who

00:00:43.720 allegedly opened fire on the third strike night, straight night of clashes in the city.

00:00:50.160 But violence spilled onto the streets of Kenosha once again overnight. Two people were killed and

00:00:55.360 another was wounded after shooting broke out. It breaks my heart to hear this news, to see

00:01:00.480 just the never ending cycle of outrageous, destructive conduct in our country. And while I think there's

00:01:08.260 obviously an appropriate time for peaceful protest, there is no basis for the type of harm to our

00:01:15.700 fellow Americans that we currently see in Wisconsin. Sadly, this is proving a point that I made earlier 0.55

00:01:21.620 on the podcast when we saw this type of violent reaction in Portland, in Seattle, on the West Coast,

00:01:29.700 I warned that in the heartland, in regular America, we could also see some of these very

00:01:35.780 devastating consequences. And we don't want to see that. We don't want it for anyone. We want safe

00:01:40.900 streets. We want supported police. We want institutions that work. And it's my hope that we will be able to

00:01:47.780 return to that normal sometime soon. But a great nation cannot allow its cities to burn and be just

00:01:55.060 run over by a permanent criminal element. And I am hopeful that we will see a strong response to this

00:02:02.100 if people are in jeopardy of being harmed as a consequence of the riots.

00:02:06.580 My good friend Tiffany Trump gave a fabulous speech at the Republican National Convention.

00:02:16.420 And I want you to take a special listen to the portions that deal with the cancel culture and big

00:02:22.500 tech and the control over debate in our country that some seek to have.

00:02:27.140 People must recognize that our thoughts, our opinions, and even the choice of who we are voting for

00:02:35.140 may and are being manipulated and visibly coerced by the media and tech giants.

00:02:41.700 If you tune into the media, you get one biased opinion or another. And what you share, if it does

00:02:47.860 not fit into the narrative that they seek to promote, then it is either ignored or deemed a lie,

00:02:54.180 regardless of the truth. This manipulation of what information we receive impedes our freedoms.

00:03:01.860 Rather than allowing Americans the right to form our own beliefs, this misinformation system keeps

00:03:08.660 people mentally enslaved to the ideas they deem correct. This has fostered unnecessary fear and

00:03:15.700 divisiveness amongst us. Why are so many in media and technology and even in our own government

00:03:23.700 so invested in promoting a biased and fabricated view? Ask yourselves, why are we prevented from

00:03:32.020 seeing certain information? Why is one viewpoint promoted while others are hidden? The answer is control,

00:03:40.340 because division and controversy breed a profit. But what are the consequences when only one side of the

00:03:48.660 story gets out? Or when only one viewpoint is acceptable? For our education system, it meant

00:03:55.460 sacrificing civil debate by creating an atmosphere where students with contrary opinions are too afraid

00:04:02.100 to speak. Many students find themselves suppressing their beliefs to fit into what the acceptable group

00:04:08.420 think is. In short, our nation suffers by inhibiting our diversity of thought and inclusion of ideas.

00:04:15.780 Is cancel culture something that only the elite care about? I was listening to Nate Silver on the 538

00:04:22.020 podcast today, and they talked about the cancel culture concerns as concerns that only political elite

00:04:30.340 folks have on the right and left, and that regular Americans don't really feel the impact of being

00:04:36.420 canceled or censored. I don't think that's true. I think all around this country, people are frustrated as they

00:04:43.940 learn more about how digital platforms curate information in a special way to try to shape

00:04:50.820 reality to fit their particular narrative or their particular worldview. And I think that it may have

00:04:57.220 been the case, you know, two, three years ago, that you only had people that were hyper involved or

00:05:03.300 engaged in politics, focused on the control that big tech has. But I think more and more, the base,

00:05:09.780 certainly of the Republican Party sees the dangers of big tech, we see the danger of cancel culture,

00:05:15.940 and we love our culture, we don't want to see it canceled. And we also don't want to see big tech

00:05:21.060 define the nature of truth in our country. And so I think Tiffany Trump is right on. And it's quite

00:05:27.060 something that you've almost seen a reversal in how politics deals with this question of a full and

00:05:33.700 robust debate. It used to be the case that you had some of the more puritanical minds on the

00:05:39.220 Republican side saying, Oh, we can't, you know, we have to ban offensive speech or dangerous speech or

00:05:45.140 hate speech. And the reality is, we have to have a constitutional accommodation, even for speech that

00:05:51.540 makes us uncomfortable. And it was, you know, more in the 90s and early 2000s, the political left,

00:05:57.380 the ACLU type folks who stood up and said, Well, you know, we have to allow for, you know, these

00:06:04.340 offensive thoughts to enter the marketplace of ideas, so that we are strong enough to defeat them.

00:06:10.820 And now, it's just the opposite. It is the woke left, it is the kind of, I think, you know,

00:06:18.660 frailty of the current left wing position in this country that says, Well, if it's if it offends us,

00:06:24.660 if it is not consistent with what we believe should be the reset of America, then no one should hear

00:06:30.340 it that it has to be crowded out of the public discussion. And I just have a higher view of

00:06:35.540 America and Americans. Our country is strong enough to hear offensive speech. Our country is strong

00:06:42.980 enough to hear hate speech, because in a healthy marketplace of ideas, those ideas don't win, we prevail

00:06:51.540 over them with inclusiveness and love and appreciation for one another. That's the America

00:06:57.860 I want to live in one that achieves its highest virtue and potential as a consequence of including

00:07:04.660 ideas, not excluding them. We know what we don't believe not because we haven't heard it, but because

00:07:11.460 we have and because we use facts and evidence to get it right. Getting it right is what America has done

00:07:18.980 over the last couple hundred years. And I think that we're only going to stay great and stay active

00:07:25.220 in our minds and in our lives if we are able to confront bad ideas and bad speech with better

00:07:31.780 ideas and better speech. Good job, Tiffany.

00:07:38.820 Lindsay McPherson with Roll Call just wrote a profile about yours truly. And I think they're trying to

00:07:45.300 figure out what quite to make of me. I don't want to run for House leadership. I am not intending to

00:07:52.500 run for any other political office other than that which I have. And yet they're trying to understand

00:07:57.620 why I am endorsing candidates in races, why sometimes I have a different view than our leadership when it

00:08:04.500 comes to fundraising and who it's appropriate to take money from. I'm the only Republican in the Congress

00:08:10.980 currently who doesn't take PAC money. I think that that just makes members of Congress a part of the

00:08:17.540 maid service in the Washington money laundering game. And I'm not here for it. So I lay out my vision on 0.97

00:08:24.500 a better campaign finance ethic that I hope will embrace at least some of the patriots who are coming

00:08:31.700 to Washington to try to revive our country and really breathe a lot of life and energy into this great

00:08:38.100 Trump movement that that we've got going. And also the story that details some of the disagreements

00:08:44.420 I've had with leadership on policy and on politics. So check it out in Roll Call. I hope you enjoy.

00:08:54.100 Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife Becky are acquaintances of mine. I've had occasion to chat with them

00:09:00.340 at events in Washington and I have seen them at a time or two around the country. They are currently

00:09:06.740 in just quite a personal hell over the activities that this pool boy has alleged regarding an affair that

00:09:16.340 involved the married couple. Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife putting out a statement that they had been

00:09:22.340 extorted by this person, that Becky had an affair, that then he became more demanding and more aggressive,

00:09:29.700 that it was a fatal attraction type situation. And they have stepped away from their public role

00:09:36.340 at Liberty University so that they can deal with this. First, my heart goes out to the Falwells and

00:09:43.460 and really anyone who has to see their personal life and their personal frailty and their personal

00:09:48.340 choices, you know, on display before everyone to see. Second, who cares? I mean, so what? Like if,

00:09:56.500 if someone was involved in their marriage with some other person, is it really, you know,

00:10:01.940 part of our national nosiness that we have to be a part of it? I would like to live in a country where

00:10:08.100 we don't judge people based on what they do in their bedrooms, where we don't judge people based

00:10:13.220 on maybe the the worst moment that they had in a relationship or a marriage. I was the only

00:10:20.580 Republican and at first the only member of Congress who stood up for Katie Hill when a thruple that she 0.99

00:10:26.820 had been involved in was weaponized against her. And whether this was an affair or a thruple or

00:10:33.940 whatever, I just don't think that it defines the contribution that someone can make to their

00:10:40.900 country, their community, to their university, or to any institution that they care about. Look,

00:10:46.820 no matter what thruple or non thruple the Falwells were involved in, there is no dispute that they have 0.95

00:10:53.860 brought Liberty University to some of its highest crescendos of success from student enrollment to

00:11:01.380 the endowment that they've built, to the athletic program that they've built, to the facilities and

00:11:05.540 physical plan that they've built. Liberty University has thrived under Jerry Falwell Jr.'s leadership.

00:11:11.140 And so whether it's true that his wife had an affair or whether it's true as the, as this pool

00:11:16.020 boy claims that they were sort of all three involved in, in some activities, uh, I just don't think

00:11:20.900 that it ought to besmirch or limit the contributions that this couple can make. Obviously they've

00:11:27.380 reconciled with one another. If there was a conflict between them in the marriage and they're

00:11:32.580 ready to move on with their lives. And I'm here to say, you know, good on them. Uh, but the, the,

00:11:38.420 I guess only criticism we see, you know, from the left that I want to acknowledge and deal with

00:11:44.020 is the criticism that, well, at Liberty, you know, the students might not be able to engage

00:11:48.900 in all of the activities that the leadership of the school was able to engage in. I'm not here for

00:11:54.500 the judgment, whether it's directed at the administrators or the students. Perhaps this

00:12:00.100 is an opportunity for Liberty University to reflect on the underlying humanity of all of us, no matter

00:12:07.860 who we are or who we love or the types of relationships we're in. Perhaps this is a chance for

00:12:14.020 the nation to be more accommodating to the Falwells and for Liberty to be more accommodating to their 0.74

00:12:19.540 students. Wouldn't that be a win-win for everyone? Don't judge anyone based on their thruple. Don't

00:12:25.540 judge any student based on a relationship that they might have that might not be entirely consistent

00:12:31.940 with someone's previous dogmas or impressions of appropriateness. A more loving, a more perfect

00:12:38.500 union for Liberty University, for the Falwells, for all of us. It turns out Bette Midler is a pretty 0.96

00:12:48.340 terrible person. Who knew? She always looks so happy on television, but she criticized the first 1.00

00:12:55.860 lady Melania Trump in a tweet saying, Oh God, she still can't speak English. Now, when Republicans say

00:13:04.100 anything even remotely negative about someone who has immigrated to our country, even if it's not

00:13:09.940 about their immigration status, if it's just about some other thing, we're all like deemed to be

00:13:15.380 racists and xenophobes and the worst people on the planet. But here, Bette Midler can essentially poke 1.00

00:13:21.300 fun at the first lady who, by the way, speaks way more languages than Bette Midler does. Who's a 1.00

00:13:27.380 brilliant, wonderful woman. I know the first lady, I think the world of her. And Bette Midler feels it

00:13:33.380 appropriate, timely during the first lady's remarks to the country to criticize her English.

00:13:38.980 Well, you know what? Margaret Thatcher once said that if they've got the, if they're making personal

00:13:43.540 attacks against you, that means that they've run out of every substantive argument they could possibly

00:13:49.380 have. And I'm of course paraphrasing the former British prime minister there, but it seems as though

00:13:56.260 the first lady's optimism, her support of her husband, really humanizing the president in her

00:14:03.220 remarks that got under the skin of the left and they had no substantive argument to be to make.

00:14:08.900 And so they literally made fun of the first lady's accent. I think it's awful. And I think

00:14:14.660 Bette Midler is pretty awful for having done it. The Washington Times has a story out about the

00:14:22.820 president's goals for a potential second term. And I was particularly grateful that term limits are

00:14:30.420 still included in the president's aspirations for our country and for really the draining the swamp

00:14:36.740 reforms that we still need to see in Washington, D.C. Term limits would be so helpful to the Congress.

00:14:44.580 They would ensure that people are focused and engaged rather than just marking time. And it also

00:14:51.220 would create more opportunities for leadership for newer, talented members. In a seniority-based system,

00:14:57.940 the opportunities for leadership go to the people who simply have been around the longest.

00:15:02.420 I can't think of a single company in America that would reward seniority over talent, certainly not

00:15:09.220 any successful ones, but yet that's what we do regularly. And it's not just the Republicans or the Democrats,

00:15:15.300 frankly, it's an entire system that has figured out that if you drive away the ambitious people that want to move up

00:15:23.540 quick, if you keep in the people who want to mark their time and move one rung up the ladder at a time,

00:15:30.020 then you can find those folks to be highly corruptible. And again, this is not a partisan critique. It's an

00:15:35.140 institutional critique. The folks that often end up leading committees are the ones that fundraise the most from the

00:15:41.700 PACs that have interests, special interests, one might say, before those committees. So if you whore yourself out long enough,

00:15:50.340 you really get to make a difference in the Congress of Washington. And the president thinks that we ought to have a better 0.93

00:15:56.900 way of doing things, a way that is more driven by who you are, not how long you've been here. And if we had term limits,

00:16:04.020 you'd have no choice but to, in a short period of time, pick the brightest people to give the tough jobs to, to get to some

00:16:11.060 problem solving. You know, the other thing about term limits is that they really drive more consensus. And some folks wouldn't

00:16:19.380 think about it in those terms, but it's really the case. You know, I've worked in a term limits

00:16:23.700 environment in the Florida legislature. I work in this non-term limits environment in Washington.

00:16:28.500 And when you know that you only have a certain amount of time to work in the institution,

00:16:32.980 you want to get as many things done as possible on the issues you care about. And so if something

00:16:37.620 is directionally correct, if you're getting most of what you want, if you're getting an acceptable

00:16:41.940 amount of the agenda that you set out to do, you're willing to work with the other side. You're willing

00:16:46.580 to work with people even on your own side that hold different views and make incremental progress

00:16:51.700 that year after year really starts to improve people's lives. Term limits have worked for the

00:16:57.220 state of Florida. It's led to creative and responsive public policy. And I'm glad to see

00:17:03.140 President Trump fighting for term limits in the upcoming presidential term that I expect he will

00:17:09.060 enjoy following his reelection. Thanks for listening to today's episode of Hot Takes. I'm Congressman

00:17:15.140 Matt Gaetz. Tune in tomorrow for more Hot Takes.

The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - August 26, 2020

Episode 76 - Who Cares About the Alleged Falwell Throuple？ Bette Midler is a Horrible Person. Term Limits on Agenda. Tiffany Trump Uncancels.

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