On this episode of Firebrand, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-GA) joins us live from Room 2021 of the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C. where he is broadcasting from an oversight committee hearing on the ATF and how they are abusing their authority.
00:00:57.000We are live broadcasting out of room 2021 of the Rayburn House office building here on the Capitol complex in Washington, D.C.
00:01:04.000And it was a very busy day in committees.
00:01:07.000We had a key oversight committee hearing on the ATF, what they're doing to gun owners, how they are abusing their authority.
00:01:14.000I can't wait to show you the exchange we had with one of the Democrat witnesses and those who are experts on things like the bracing rule,
00:01:22.000where inadvertently a lot of Americans are about to be made felons by an unconstitutional, illegal action by an entity that, frankly, we should probably abolish altogether, the ATF.
00:01:58.000Wait till you see what some of the leading officials, leading Biden administration officials are saying about DEI.
00:02:06.000Also, Africa might not be the place in the world where you are most focused when it comes to foreign policy analysis.
00:02:15.000But I had an exchange today with the leader of AFRICOM, a four-star general, and it was the most remarkable exchange I think I've ever had with a witness in my going on seven years in the United States Congress.
00:02:32.000But first, we have got to talk about the White House name checking me today, throwing a little shade.
00:02:38.000Statement from the White House, I'll read it for you.
00:02:41.000Today, House Republicans who have called to abolish and defund federal law enforcement, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms,
00:02:48.000are holding a political stunt as they undercut the ATF's work to keep our streets safe and reduce gun violence.
00:02:56.000The latest stunt hearing comes as extreme MAGA members of the House Republican Caucus have proposed devastating cuts to law enforcement funding,
00:03:04.000according to a blueprint released by the House Freedom Caucus, which would make communities less safe by...
00:03:10.000Let's see if you agree with these things.
00:03:12.000One, eliminating funding for 11,000 FBI personnel, including agents who investigate crimes and keep guns out of the hands of felons and domestic abusers.
00:03:22.000Actually, what we're doing there is we've isolated the areas in the FBI where there is some of the most weaponization against gun owners.
00:03:30.000And yeah, we don't think that being a gun owner is illegal.
00:03:36.000Forcing the ATF, which protects Americans from violent criminals, including firearms traffickers,
00:03:43.000and assists in identifying perpetrators of mass shootings to implement a hiring freeze and furloughs that would undermine these operations.
00:03:50.000Yeah, what do you think about a hiring freeze at the ATF?
00:05:01.000we either get this government back on our side or we defund and get rid of.
00:05:07.000Abolish the FBI, the CDC, ATF, DOJ, every last one of them if they do not come to heel.
00:05:15.000Now, would the Biden White House disagree with that?
00:05:18.000Would the Biden White House disagree with the assessment that if we don't get government back on our side,
00:05:23.000we shouldn't continue to flood these corrupt agencies with authorities, resources, cash, more personnel, more hiring?
00:05:33.000I actually think that in a way it's a cell phone for the White House to cite me here because it's if they're saying they're happy fueling these entities,
00:05:44.000even if they're not on the side of the people, which is what we are exposing each and every day.
00:05:50.000So they seem to be really worked up over the ATF.
00:05:53.000They cite different statements from Congressman Andy Biggs, who we've had on firebrand, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who we've had on firebrand.
00:06:02.000It was Gates, Biggs, and Greene who got singled out, and we were doing the hard work today working to hold the ATF accountable.
00:06:11.000We had a hearing on the ATF's authorities, their violations of those authorities.
00:06:16.000So enjoy. This was from today's joint meeting with the House Oversight Committee and the House Judiciary Committee.
00:09:08.000Does it concern you that the witness that the Democrats brought would make such a claim that is obviously disproven by any utilization of those arm braces?
00:09:18.000I hope that my testimony today can help everyone here understand that the brace does nothing to make the weapon any more dangerous than it already is.
00:09:29.000And so when you've got the ATF going beyond their authority, collecting 252 million records that they have to destroy, well, that can just be explained because they're doing their best.
00:09:39.000But when Americans get inadvertently converted to felons because the ATF has exceeded their authority, there is no such grace for them as their miswear.
00:09:50.000That would seem to be the case under the recent policy change to zero tolerance.
00:09:55.000Zero tolerance for our fellow Americans when they're trying to exercise their rights and protect their liberties.
00:10:00.000But all the tolerance in the world for a corrupt bureaucracy that is violating the law, exceeding their authority and collecting records that they have no business collecting.
00:10:12.000I had the great privilege to spend two years on the House Judiciary Committee with the gentlelady from Missouri.
00:10:17.000And while she and I disagree strongly on this issue, her beliefs are sincere and they are strong and they are powerful, particularly when she expresses them.
00:10:26.000And so when she says to people that she wants to defund the police, she means it.
00:10:32.000And when she says in this committee meeting that gun violence is a public health emergency, well, she means that too.
00:10:40.000And our fellow Americans know the impact of folks up here in Washington declaring everything and anything a public health emergency.
00:10:49.000It means you're more likely to be locked in your homes, deprived of your freedoms, less healthy, less safe, less secure, and less able to live a truly American life.
00:10:59.000So know this, when the left talks about this as a public health emergency, get ready to see those enhanced authorities abused by the ATF.
00:11:08.000And, Mr. Chairman, it is my sincere hope that in the very near future we will have those very folks from the ATF here.
00:11:16.000And I intend to be utilizing the new rules that we have in the House of Representatives to offer amendments to the Appropriations Act to zero out their salaries for breaking the law and abusing the liberties of our fellow Americans.
00:11:31.000We are back live. A lot of action on the live stream. Sean Kelly pointing out the double standard on Getter that exists when Americans have any type of technical violation of some rule obscurely published.
00:11:45.000There is zero tolerance from the ATF. They come after us. But then when they break the law, oh, they want more authorities, more people.
00:11:53.260And the White House slams me and Andy Biggs and Marjorie Taylor Greene when we propose that maybe in some places we ought to have hiring freezes and furloughs.
00:12:01.740A. Greg, also on Getter, saying the ATF is out of control. I agree with that. And let me make some news.
00:12:06.720I spoke with some of our committee leadership today. And in April, next month, we plan to have the leadership of ATF before the committee.
00:12:17.660And that is when we are going to start identifying the very bureaucrats whose salaries we will seek to zero out in the budgeting process.
00:12:25.360So in April, ATF leadership coming in a big part of the Republican oversight plan.
00:12:30.480I want to thank my Walton County constituent who just gave us a shout out on Rumble and said that we have the best law enforcement in Northwest Florida.
00:12:37.760I could not agree more with that assessment. But whether it's law enforcement or society at large or our military,
00:12:44.740we are seeing these DEI initiatives divide people and erode the meritocracy that is central to American life.
00:12:53.600No matter where you come from, no matter what you believe, the essence of the American capitalist system and political system and social system is that if people do well, they will be able to move up.
00:13:06.060And as leaders, we ought to be getting rid of the things that bar people's path to success.
00:13:12.080No matter what their color is, no matter what their background is, people should have a right to follow the rules and achieve more and do better.
00:13:20.000And I believe that these DEI initiatives, diversity, equity, inclusion, they are often used to stovepipe people into being an oppressor or oppressed,
00:13:33.060into being privileged or frail or unworthy or unwilling or unable.
00:13:39.840And it is also deeply racist at its core.
00:13:43.100And yet, the military, the Department of Defense, has been embracing these DEI initiatives in their hiring, in their promotions.
00:13:52.680You would think the military would be a place that we would actually want the meritocracy to drive the success of the mission.
00:14:02.320You wouldn't want to leave whether or not America is the preeminent military force in the world to a DEI seminar.
00:14:09.460But wait till you see the folks that we are leaving it to, the people who've worked in the DEI leadership,
00:14:18.660people who are senior officials in the Biden administration, testifying today about DEI and the military.
00:16:45.920Because it's – you're asking me a personal opinion, and that's not what this is about.
00:16:49.000Well, actually, I'm asking you in your capacity as a senior DOD official in the Biden administration who is – where we see recruiting falling off the table, whether or not the embrace of racist tweets, whether shuffling these people around rather than firing them, and whether this little exchange here is helping or hurting recruiting.
00:17:07.200Let's go ahead and put up the recording.
00:17:08.140I will tell you, we do not support racist tweets.
00:17:11.000We do not support racism in the military.
00:17:30.220How do you know it's a personal matter if you don't know that the PD can stand for professional development?
00:17:35.100Mr. Cisneros, this is a professional development session where she attacked white colleagues and took the position that black people can't be racist.
00:17:43.140Now, you can't answer basic questions about it, and here's what I would propose to you.
00:17:46.420This is what we're looking at in recruiting right now.
00:17:49.700It's fallen off the table, and when you have employees that you don't fire who do racist things and say racist things,
00:17:58.800then you really hurt the ability to recruit people who want to be part of an inclusive and diverse force.
00:18:06.520I would say the data that we have is not – the recruiting is not falling off because of that,
00:18:12.200but again, the Department of Defense, DoDEA, does not agree with the tweets that she made.
00:18:16.660It was at 3 o'clock during the workday.
00:20:54.920So, when we look at how our military has its force structure around the globe, there are different areas that fall under the commander of some of our most senior generals.
00:21:06.400And the leader of AFRICOM is General Langley, who you're about to see me question.
00:21:11.900Now, you may be wondering, what's the U.S. interest in Africa?
00:21:18.420One of the things that we principally do is we send folks out to train and equip the militaries of other countries.
00:21:26.220And I've had a number of constituents, actually a number of friends, who have been stationed at bases in northwest Florida,
00:21:32.940and they end up in Niger, or they end up in Somalia, or they end up in some place where really failed states seem to dominate over stable governmental institutions.
00:21:47.820And when we go and participate in the train and equip missions, what we tell ourselves to justify the intense cost in human life, remember in 2017,
00:21:59.740we had service members killed in action in Niger, also in dollars, the treasure of our country.
00:23:34.860The IMEC program is in force, and we've pushed a number, a significant number through our schools across the military.
00:23:43.460And what data sets do you track to arrive at the conclusion that less than 1% of the roughly 50,000 that we've trained have participated in coups?
00:23:51.500Because it would be like about 500, about 1% of 50,000.
00:23:57.700Congressman, you may have that information.
00:24:18.560Well, that guy in the middle with the big red hat, Colonel Mamadei Dambuya, that's him with a bunch of U.S. service members outside of our embassy.
00:24:26.900And just months after this photo was taken in 2021, he led a coup in Guinea and threw out the leader.
00:25:20.320My question is, do we share core values with the coup leader in Burkina Faso who we trained?
00:25:27.100Holistically, we teach core values with respect for civilian governance, apolitical, and that's what sticks across a very high percentage in the 90, over 99 percentile.
00:25:44.000But not everybody, and I wonder how many people it takes to plan a coup.
00:25:48.940I mean, initially, you didn't know how many we trained and equipped.
00:25:53.260You had no basis for that 1 percent number because there's no data set you tracked.
00:25:57.000Mr. Chairman, I seek unanimous consent to enter into the record another U.S.-trained soldier stages a coup in West Africa by the intercept.
00:26:06.020And I further seek unanimous consent to enter into the record U.S. forces trained the Guinean colonel behind the recent coup in West African country, and this is regard to Guinea.
00:26:16.140So I guess the question is, why should U.S. taxpayers be paying to train people who then lead coups in Africa?
00:26:29.240Congressman, our curriculum harvests its core values and also to be able to embolden these countries for a representative democracy.
00:26:44.500But, General, that democracy isn't what emerges.
00:26:47.920The problem is, I know you may have great confidence in what you're teaching, but when two governments have been overthrown, I guess, how many governments have to be overthrown by people we train before you sort of get the message that our core values might not be sticking with everyone?
00:27:55.580He is in charge of every U.S. service member on the continent of Africa.
00:28:00.480He makes major contributions at the table with other senior defense leaders regarding our strategy and our tactics,
00:28:08.880and he could not answer the most basic questions about whether or not the work we were doing in Africa actually works against our stated interests.
00:28:17.880But if you just keep stating core values long enough, maybe you can keep moving up the ladder.
00:29:41.020Four billion U.S.-tax dollars have gone to Ukrainian pensions.
00:29:44.700How is that any shape, form, or fashion justifiable?
00:29:47.800The program, Congressman of Assistance to Ukraine, has on the ground right now in our embassy about 47 personnel responsible solely for oversight.
00:29:58.580We just had a report by the inspector general's office looking at the oversight of the taxpayers' funds in Ukraine.
00:30:06.740The report was very positive in terms of the processes that are in place and the work that's being done to make sure that money is being spent appropriately as well as wisely.
00:30:15.320At the same time, we have in place a process.
00:30:19.820For example, much of the funding that we provide, the taxpayers provide, to Ukraine goes through a World Bank program that only disperses money upon receipts for authorized expenditures.
00:30:30.720And we have third-party validators, to include Deloitte, which is working directly with the Ministry of Finance.
00:30:37.920I appreciate all that, but when we can't fund Medicare and then we're funding Ukrainian pensions, I really think our priorities are out of whack.
00:30:45.320Well, yeah, Congressman Birchett has a point there.
00:30:51.280And it's so telling the way Blinken just avoids answering the question there.
00:30:56.380The question was, why is it part of our stated policy to fund these pensions?
00:31:01.240And then Blinken's answer as well, we're making sure that we're not funding things outside of our stated policy.
00:31:06.440The problem is the underlying premise that American taxpayers ought to be underwriting Ukrainian pensions is deeply America-last.
00:31:15.360Thank you all so much for joining today.
00:31:17.540As you can see, it was a wild one on Capitol Hill.
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00:31:53.720Thanks again. Love having you on Firebrand. Roll the credits.