The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - August 28, 2020


Episode 78 - Unhinged Mob Attacks Rand Paul. Obesity and COVID Don't Mix. LEGOgate.


Episode Stats


Length

14 minutes

Words per minute

166.10466

Word count

2,348

Sentence count

165

Harmful content

Toxicity

4

sentences flagged

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Sen. Rand Paul describes his experience with anti-Trump protesters outside the White House after his speech at the Democratic National Convention. Rep. Brian Mast and his wife were also attacked by a large group of protesters after their departure from the event.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Welcome to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz. Let's talk about the news. We're going to be
00:00:21.220 talking about all the news that President Trump made during his convention nomination acceptance
00:00:26.800 speech at the White House last evening and play some highlights. But the news that is dominating
00:00:31.680 Washington, D.C. is the concern over some of the folks who attended the president's event who then
00:00:39.840 saw a lot of violence, a lot of, I would say, hostility, assault following their departure.
00:00:48.440 Senator Rand Paul left on foot. Congressman Brian Mast left on foot. They were both accosted by
00:00:55.940 protesters. Here's Rand Paul discussing the experience on Fox and Friends this morning.
00:01:00.820 My wife and I, it was horrific. We had two women with us who were friends of ours.
00:01:06.300 We had looked out. We came out of the speech and we looked into the street. Our hotel was only right
00:01:13.000 across the street from the White House, but we couldn't go because the mob was already chasing
00:01:17.280 people down that chose to go out that exit. So the Secret Service says, get on a bus and ride
00:01:22.180 to the Trump Hotel. So we got on a bus. It took 45 minutes to get through all the mobs.
00:01:27.120 We get there safely. And then we say we'll get an Uber to go all the way back where we came from
00:01:32.140 and we wanted to be dropped off at the hotel. But as we got close to it, the streets were blocked
00:01:36.760 and no one would let us through. And what happened is there was two blocks. And I regret that I made
00:01:41.940 this decision, but I said we're going to walk the two blocks. We walked one block. But as we walked one
00:01:47.280 block, we could see some police in the distance. But we also saw a mob of about 30 people marching
00:01:52.380 and yelling. They all of a sudden saw me right as we got to the policemen, fortunately, or I don't
00:01:57.040 think we'd have survived. We got to the policemen and the policemen I don't think recognized me.
00:02:02.480 And as they came closer, they were shouting my name and the crowd doubled to 60. And then it doubled
00:02:07.160 again to 120. And as they were surrounding us and it got closer and closer and everybody kept pushing
00:02:12.880 back. The policemen were forming a barricade with their bodies. I whispered to the policemen,
00:02:17.840 they know who I am. You've got to get reinforcements. It's going to get worse.
00:02:21.740 He called for reinforcements, but we didn't get any reinforcements. We waited, but the crowd was
00:02:26.580 getting bigger and bigger and pushing in. There were yelling threats. They were trying to push the
00:02:31.560 police over to get to me. They were grabbing at us. And it got worse and worse and worse. And then finally,
00:02:37.480 we decided to make a move. I said, we've got to move. If there's not going to be reinforcements,
00:02:41.260 we have to try to get to the hotel, which was another block. And they were shouting threats,
00:02:46.080 you know, to us, to kill us, to hurt us. But they're also saying, shouting, say her name,
00:02:52.340 Breonna Taylor. And it's like, you couldn't reason with this mob, but I'm actually the author
00:02:56.540 of the Breonna Taylor law to end no-knock raids. So the irony is lost on these idiots that they're 1.00
00:03:02.480 trying to kill the person who's actually trying to get rid of no-knock raids. And they were shouting and 1.00
00:03:07.460 screaming and just, it really, these people were unhinged. But I can't tell you how, I'm not sure
00:03:14.120 we would have made it. So as we're walking, sort of surrounded by the police, they're attempting to
00:03:19.160 push the police over to get to me. So at one point, they push a policeman backwards, he stumbles,
00:03:24.400 and he's trying to catch his balance. And I catch the back of his flak jacket to stabilize him
00:03:29.500 and, you know, make sure that he's okay, because he's our defense. I mean, if he's down,
00:03:35.120 the mob's loose on us. And you've seen the pictures of what they do to you. If the police are not there,
00:03:40.660 if you defund the police, if we become Portland, if America becomes Portland,
00:03:45.160 what's going to happen is people are going to be pummeled and kicked in the head and left senseless on 0.65
00:03:50.300 the curb. That would have happened to us. I promise you, had we not had the D.C. police to support us, 0.96
00:03:55.520 I mean, we are thankful that we have police, and we've got to wake up. We can't have the whole
00:04:00.740 country. We can't have Joe Biden rule the country and have no police. I mean, we can't walk down the
00:04:06.680 street in D.C. safely now. That's how bad it is. I did not leave on foot. I had buses awaiting. I
00:04:13.400 think most of the folks who attended left on buses, but some of the folks were staying very close to
00:04:18.260 the White House. And so it just simply made more sense for them to depart on foot. And we did not have
00:04:23.240 the expectation that people would be met with this type of, I would say, violence. I mean,
00:04:29.100 when someone is engaging in an assault, it's a violent act. It's no longer a peaceful protest.
00:04:34.520 I do agree that something that's fundamentally American is the right to stand up and yell at
00:04:39.260 your elected officials. That's why we have town hall meetings. That's why we avail ourselves to
00:04:44.600 criticism in person, online, and otherwise. In a free society, we ought to be able to criticize
00:04:49.880 our leaders and our elected officials. But that does not extend to assault on the street. That does
00:04:56.140 not extend to trying to terrorize someone when they're walking back to their place of abode with
00:05:01.520 their spouse. This was not a debate. This was not a discussion. This was an attempt to instill fear
00:05:08.580 in Rand Paul and his wife, Kelly, and in turn, instill that very fear in the rest of us. And that's really
00:05:14.080 the problem with this movement on the radical left. There is no grace in it. It is not a welcoming
00:05:21.020 endeavor. It exists to demonize, terrorize, and fundamentally change America for the worse.
00:05:27.480 Good thing the president has a competing vision for our country that is positive and optimistic.
00:05:33.560 Listen to some of the more uplifting portions of the president's speech last night.
00:05:36.960 As long as I am president, we will defend the absolute right of every American citizen to live in
00:05:42.660 security, dignity, and peace. This November, we must turn the page forever on this failed
00:05:48.280 political class. The fact is, I'm here.
00:05:56.320 What's the name of that building?
00:05:57.700 But I'll say it differently. The fact is, we're here, and they're not.
00:06:18.220 To me, one of the most beautiful buildings anywhere in the world, and it's not a building,
00:06:22.060 it's a home, as far as I'm concerned. Not even a house. It's a home. It's a wonderful place
00:06:29.920 with an incredible history. But it's all because of you. Together, we will write the next chapter
00:06:37.200 of the great American story. If the Democrat Party wants to stand with anarchists, agitators, rioters,
00:06:46.780 looters, and flag burners, that is up to them. But I, as your president, will not be a part
00:06:53.320 of it. The Republican Party will remain the voice of the patriotic heroes who keep America
00:07:00.360 safe and salute the American flag.
00:07:06.720 Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, is resigning as a consequence of health concerns. Prime Minister
00:07:13.460 Abe is known in Japan for democratizing a number of economic reforms, dubbed Abeonomics. Hope I
00:07:21.380 didn't butcher that. He also loosened a number of restrictions on the Japanese military that were
00:07:26.020 in place since World War II. That's really important because under the Trump presidency, we take the
00:07:31.260 foreign policy view that we are stronger when our allies are stronger and more capable and more
00:07:38.000 engaged around the world. I think the neoconservatives take the view that only America can
00:07:43.300 lead, that it has to be the extension of American treasure and blood and influence everywhere that
00:07:50.520 has to dominate geopolitical activity. President Trump believes that our allies can and should
00:07:56.840 do more. He's had our NATO allies make substantially larger contributions, making up a greater share of
00:08:04.180 their GDP to NATO. And with Japan, we really have an ally in intelligence, in the preservation of
00:08:11.540 navigation. And they have been a good geopolitical bridge builder for the United States throughout Asia,
00:08:18.800 particularly as a counterpoint to China. And while Abe tried for many years to improve Japan's relationship
00:08:24.920 with China, it remains a tense and competitive relationship. I think in large part because Japan gets the joke 0.98
00:08:31.440 that the reason that they're having these challenges with North Korea is because China permits it. And I think Abe saw
00:08:37.660 that clearly. He also saw clearly the value in the relationship with President Trump. I could tell you from
00:08:43.360 President Trump's perspective, the relationship was very strong, very solid. We had a historic trade deal
00:08:51.060 with Japan executed during the Trump presidency that I think leveraged their personal friendship and personal
00:08:57.440 diplomacy with one another. And with Japan, more, I think, able to rally other elements of Asia to
00:09:07.220 resist Chinese domination, we could see the United States have higher focus on some of the strategic
00:09:14.860 objectives that China is trying to accomplish faster than we are, whether that be 5G or AI, or really just
00:09:21.400 the hard wiring of telecommunication systems in Europe and throughout the world. The stronger Japan is, 0.95
00:09:28.740 I think, the more that inures to the benefit of the United States. And so we wish Prime Minister Abe well.
00:09:34.600 We thank him during his leadership of Japan for the tremendous partnership that we've had with our
00:09:40.540 two countries. And we hope he gets better and is able to enjoy the next chapter of his life. We also
00:09:45.820 hope that these reforms that Japan has endeavored upon quite successfully during Abe's era will continue
00:09:53.220 following his leadership tenure. Ivanka Trump told a lovely story of the president's grandson,
00:10:01.020 her son Joseph, and a Lego structure that he had built of the White House. Take a listen.
00:10:06.360 When Jared and I moved with our three young children to Washington, we didn't exactly know what we were in for.
00:10:11.900 But our kids, our kids loved it from the start. My son Joseph promptly built Grandpa a Lego replica
00:10:19.260 of the White House. The president still displays it on the mantle in the Oval Office right over there
00:10:25.740 so that he can show world leaders just so they know he has the greatest grandchildren on earth.
00:10:32.860 And so it didn't take long for the left-wing media to even make issue with three-year-old Joseph's
00:10:43.500 construction of a Lego White House. That's right, Andrea Bernstein, one of these typical mainstream
00:10:49.180 New York media types tweets. Ivanka Trump has tweeted a photo of her son Joseph with his grandfather at
00:10:55.140 the Resolute desk with the Lego White House. I've asked the White House if three-year-old Joseph
00:11:00.180 indeed built this on his own initiative. And if he had assistance, will treat reply if when I get it.
00:11:06.900 And of course, Donald Trump Jr. had some fun with this tweeting in reply in case you're wondering
00:11:12.900 how absolutely insane the left-wing media has become. Look no further than this tweet. Are you
00:11:18.980 kidding me? Now they're going after three-year-olds. So I guess the mainstream media is so eager to fact
00:11:25.460 check that now they are in the business of fact checking whether a three-year-old built a
00:11:30.160 Lego version of the White House. Who knows? Maybe they'll send in some of their regulators to do
00:11:35.760 like a code inspection to see if the Lego White House has, you know, the right amount of tie-downs
00:11:40.560 and the right structural integrity. I'll tweet the reply if I get it.
00:11:46.720 America struggles with our weight. The CDC says that about 40% of Americans are technically obese.
00:11:55.600 And while I'm sure folks can take issue with the mechanism by which that determination is made,
00:12:01.520 there's no question that during the time of coronavirus, we need to be doing a lot more to
00:12:06.560 get healthy. CNN's Shelby Lynn Erdman has a story just up. Obesity increases risk of complications from
00:12:14.000 COVID-19 damages vaccine efficiency study fines. And I mean, just listen to this lead. Obesity increases
00:12:21.520 the risk of contracting the coronavirus of landing in the hospital and intensive care and the risk of
00:12:28.480 death from COVID-19, according to a new study from UNC Chapel Hill. So again, we've heard a lot about how
00:12:35.600 obesity is a comorbidity that increases the acuity and risk of coronavirus, but it even can increase the
00:12:42.880 risk of contracting the coronavirus to the tune of a 46% greater risk of catching COVID than non-obese
00:12:51.600 people and a 113% increased risk of hospitalization. This has an interesting intersection with like
00:12:59.040 gym policy, right? I mean, one of the reasons why a few of us, you know, may have packed on the COVID-15
00:13:04.960 is that our gym, our normal yoga group, workout group, workout routine has been interrupted like a lot of
00:13:13.680 other aspects of our life. But it's important to remember that resiliency begins with the individual. Don't
00:13:20.240 first be looking for the government to make you more resilient against this virus. You have a way to make
00:13:25.680 yourself more resilient by getting into better shape, losing a few of those extra pounds and ensuring that you've got a
00:13:32.560 lower probability to contract the disease. And then if you do contract the disease, you've got the best
00:13:38.000 possibility to survive it. So I guess like Michelle Obama would say, let's get up and move. Thanks so
00:13:45.840 much for listening to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Cates. Hope you enjoy the show. Hope you leave a
00:13:51.520 five-star rating. Put in a review. Let us know what you'd like to hear and join us next week for more Hot Takes.
00:13:58.160 We'll be right back.
00:14:03.600 Cheers.