In this episode of Firebrand Live, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-GA) talks about his time in Congress, why he's running for Speaker of the House of Representatives, and why he thinks he has the votes to become the next Speaker.
00:03:13.720He could not tell John Roberts, the host of that program, that he has 218 votes.
00:03:18.720So let me give you the latest on the negotiations.
00:03:22.900McCarthy has drawn a red line and said no to our demands that every bill on the floor adhere to a single subject.
00:03:32.200The reason that's important is because we don't want matters log rolled together so that each issue in legislation before the House for consideration doesn't get the scrutiny that it deserves, doesn't get the focused debate that results in better public policy.
00:03:49.100You would think that Republicans, Democrats, everyone would want single subject, but Kevin McCarthy has said no.
00:03:57.180McCarthy has opposed drawing conservative groups into a coalition type government that would allow some conservative groups to select proportional representation on key committees.
00:04:08.940Now, that's something that would liberate committees from the control of lobbyists who seek to influence the actions of the committees in exchange for money.
00:04:17.660If you have conservative groups within the Republican caucus able to populate seats on the Rules Committee, the Appropriations Committee, the Ways and Means Committee, well, then you'll see those actions from those groups and from those committees in greater compliance with where the country is.
00:04:37.840Now, McCarthy has said he'll never accept the motion to vacate the chair in the version that governed the House of Representatives for more than 100 years.
00:04:46.740Because Kevin has said he will never do these things.
00:04:51.440To fix Congress and to change Washington, we do have a group of members who are indeed never Kevin.
00:04:58.540NBC's Scott Wong reported on the dynamic.
00:05:03.300The small band of far-right firebrands who could derail Kevin McCarthy's speaker bid is now facing enormous pressure to cave and throw their support to the California Republican.
00:05:19.140So far, the five anti-McCarthy conservatives, informally known on Capitol Hill as the Never Kevin Caucus, are showing no signs of backing down, even with the vote for Speaker fast approaching.
00:05:32.000But there are powerful forces on and off Capitol Hill that have a vested interest in McCarthy ascending to the Speakership.
00:05:57.260I hope he's going to be Speaker McCarthy.
00:05:59.000But I don't kiss enough butt and I don't raise enough money.
00:06:03.420So let's just pause for a moment and think about that.
00:06:05.680Even our rank and file members, a great representative like Tim Burchett from Tennessee, realizing that the dynamic with McCarthy, well, it involves kissing butt and raising money.
00:06:18.620And because Burchett doesn't perceive that he doesn't do either in sufficient quantity, that that limits his mobility for leadership and high profile opportunities in the Congress.
00:06:29.600That's really something that a member would think that.
00:06:51.400The media saying that the principal qualification for the Speakership is who's raised the most lobbyist money.
00:06:56.940And just brazenly to have it reported that one of the power centers that Kevin McCarthy uses is K Street.
00:07:04.640Do you think that sits well with the American people?
00:07:07.180Do you think that grandmothers made phone calls to turn out the vote and people went door to door so that we could have somebody that is beholden to K Street as our speaker?
00:07:17.640The story tells the truth on that particular point that it's sometimes hard to tell where K Street and the lobby corps ends and Kevin McCarthy begins.
00:07:27.320There's more about this in this next story.
00:07:30.520So we had the New York Times actually pick up the discussion we had this week with Representative Andy Biggs on Firebrand.
00:07:39.520So the buried lead here is that President Trump's lobbying effort, if it still exists, isn't inspired by any sense that Kevin McCarthy is strong.
00:08:07.700And that's probably why President Trump's lobbying effort has not moved a single vote in favor of Kevin McCarthy.
00:08:25.020There is little evidence that the former president has swayed any skeptics.
00:08:29.360If Mr. McCarthy does have a plan, he has not shared it with members of his leadership team, whom he has cut out of his deliberations about the speakership race in what some regard as a display of paranoia.
00:08:44.300Instead, he has been spotted in recent days around the Capitol and the Republican National Committee headquarters with Jeff Miller, a Republican lobbyist who is among his closest confidants.
00:08:59.120I prefer leaders who are not beholden to the lobbyists and pollsters that they rely upon for power and political donations and even living arrangements.
00:09:48.720Like, are the only Kevin people saying that out of 222 members of Congress, literally the only one who should be considered as Kevin McCarthy?
00:09:57.840Paranoid and huddled up with lobbyists?
00:10:02.640Me saying that I'll consider 220 members minus Kevin and myself or this governance group saying that they refuse to consider anyone other than Kevin McCarthy?
00:11:45.720Moments ago, House Democrats had to pull from consideration a massive immigration bill that was set to help China and big tech at the expense of American workers.
00:11:58.000I don't know if it's that they didn't have the votes.
00:12:00.500I don't know if we'll be voting on it later today.
00:12:02.480But it was pulled, which does not happen frequently.
00:12:05.800This means that even departing Democrats might not want their legacy to include harming the American economy with this immigration bill.
00:16:04.640Under an arbitrary reduction in percentage point requirements of eligible immigrants,
00:16:09.980China and India, the largest countries with the most people,
00:16:13.480they're the ones that have the longest lines and the longest wait lists for employment-based green cards.
00:16:20.320And they would benefit extraordinarily from this measure.
00:16:23.880We're likely to get more Gojon Hayes and Zhang Wangs.
00:16:28.920Those are two Chinese spies recently charged with trying to obstruct a federal investigation into Huawei.
00:16:35.100Is now really the best time to open the floodgates for Chinese nationals to take jobs at U.S. tech companies?
00:16:41.380The CCP is already setting up police stations in Chinese neighborhoods in New York.
00:16:45.960I can bet that flooding our country with more Chinese nationals will aid their goal of infiltrating every major industry in the United States
00:16:54.680and then stealing our IT and replicating our products, depriving our Americans the value of the innovation that is created in this country.
00:17:05.440China is working to close the gap, and this is the strategy to do it.
00:17:09.640We should not allow for a Trojan horse from China.
00:17:13.460We should not allow for harm to U.S. tech workers.
00:17:17.120And we should not back any America-last immigration giveaways.
00:17:21.360And as of the time of this broadcast, maybe my arguments are winning.
00:17:27.240The Democrats pulled the bill from consideration moments ago.
00:17:31.160So I would say let's keep up the pressure.
00:17:35.360Keeping up the pressure is the theme of the discussion I had with my friend Steve Cortez.
00:18:02.080Right now, we are in the middle of this fight on the omnibus spending package that would let Nancy Pelosi basically rule with a dead hand for a year.
00:18:11.260What should people expect about the impacts regarding the impacts on inflation and otherwise on the economy?
00:18:18.100Well, you know, first on the politics, you're exactly right.
00:18:20.280And it's so shameful that Senate Republicans, particularly some who are on their way out the door, literally retiring, want their sort of their magnum opus on the way out, their exit interview, as it were, to be allowing the political carcass of Nancy Pelosi to effectively remain Speaker in very many ways.
00:18:36.100If they, in fact, do pass this full omnibus, because what it will do is fiscally handcuff the incoming GOP House majority, this majority which people like you earned, which millions and millions of deplorables out there voted for, right, handed that gavel, took that gavel away from Nancy Pelosi to be handed to the Republicans with a mandate to start pushing back against and fighting against this terrible Biden mess, particularly regarding the economy.
00:19:00.100So you talk about the mandate, right? Is there any mandate in this last midterm election more than the mandate for House Republicans to constrain federal government spending that's driving inflation?
00:19:10.880No, absolutely. Listen, inflation is absolutely crushing Americans, crushing their spirits, crushing their pocketbooks.
00:19:16.600On the spirits, University of Michigan does a consumer sentiment survey.
00:19:20.100A congressman goes all the way back to almost World War II.
00:19:22.280So we have tons of data, 70 years of data.
00:19:24.940It just a couple of months ago hit the lowest level it has ever hit.
00:19:27.760I mean, think about that. Worse than the financial crisis of 08-09, worse than 9-11, worse than the 70s oil embargo.
00:19:34.300Literally, consumer sentiment has never been lower than it reached just in recent months because of inflation.
00:19:39.660The Federal Reserve met today, raised interest rates yet again, trying to fight inflation.
00:19:44.240I actually commend the Fed for finally getting in this fight.
00:19:47.280But, of course, it's also fighting in inflation that had a key role itself in producing.
00:19:51.460So I don't absolve it of the blame and its complicity as an institution for helping to create this inflation and ignoring it for as long as they did,
00:19:58.380I think largely for political reasons because the Fed is unfortunately incredibly politicized.
00:20:06.380And inflation remains systemic and deeply embedded in the economy.
00:20:10.320Now, it's slightly less bad, and the White House and the corporate media want us to believe that 7.1% CPI is something to celebrate.
00:20:17.640By historical standards, it's an absolute crisis.
00:20:21.440And to be specific, before this year, we hadn't had 7% headline inflation since the early 1980s in 40 years.
00:20:30.640And, you know, what are the consequences of that?
00:20:31.980The consequences for regular folks, for working-class people, middle- and lower-income folks who work hard, who don't have the luxury of significant savings,
00:20:40.340their lives are being made unbelievably difficult right now.
00:20:43.500I often talk about the have-to basket, the three items that you really just need to live, gasoline, groceries, and utilities.
00:20:50.160All three of those in this most recent CPI report are still going up double digits.
00:20:54.700The three of them put together are up 12.5% year over year.
00:24:05.800Let's keep the pressure up, right, in the coming weeks.
00:24:08.320Look, nothing is certain in these lame duck sessions, right?
00:24:10.620For example, again, not that this is certain either, but it seems as though on the issue of amnesty, it seems as though we're pushing back effectively,
00:24:17.540and amnesty is not going to happen in these coming weeks.