The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - LIVE FROM WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Matt Gaetz Holds FL-01 Tele-Town Hall – May 25, 2023

00:00:00.000 Hey everyone, this is Congressman Matt Gaetz. Welcome to our live telephone town hall meeting.

00:00:05.220 We are speaking with hundreds of Northwest Floridians in Florida's 1st Congressional

00:00:10.120 District. I've got important updates regarding debt limit negotiations, the specific proposals

00:00:15.920 that we've advanced for spending cuts, for policy changes to try to rein in this Biden

00:00:21.540 government. I've also got updates regarding the border and legislation that the House

00:00:27.060 of Representatives has passed to reform America's asylum laws to get back to some of the policies

00:00:33.080 that did not have millions of people coming across our border illegally, which is what

00:00:37.540 we have now. And also this evening, if you hang with me, I've got an update on some of

00:00:42.760 the oversight work we are doing into just abject corruption and compromise that we see in this

00:00:48.720 government that we must expose, defang, and defund. Again, if you're joining me now, this

00:00:54.160 is Congressman Matt Gaetz. And we've got hundreds of folks on the phone, getting close to a thousand.

00:00:59.720 We're also streaming on Facebook, Getter, Rumble, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. So if you are

00:01:04.480 watching this program rather than listening to it on the phone, just leave a question in the comments.

00:01:10.140 I'll get to it. If you're listening, hit star three on your phone. One of my colleagues will be able to

00:01:16.700 categorize your question so that I'm able to address it regarding some of the important subjects

00:01:21.280 that we're going to be speaking about. Again, that's star three. This is Congressman Matt Gaetz.

00:01:26.240 We are live and I am broadcasting from my office right here in the Rayburn House office building.

00:01:32.160 Going to get some great feedback from Northwest Floridians. Star three is the way to contribute.

00:01:37.400 Leave your question or comment online. First, I want to give an important update regarding the debt

00:01:42.260 limit negotiations. Moments ago, I met one-on-one with Speaker McCarthy to go over how the discussions

00:01:48.440 are going with the White House. And I want to start with kind of the first major feature

00:01:53.280 of the debt limit negotiations. And that is the spending level. Before you get to any of the policy

00:01:59.460 choices, it's about the spending level. Now, the initial concept I supported, my colleagues from the

00:02:06.200 House Freedom Caucus supported, would be to return federal spending to pre-COVID levels. That would be

00:02:12.960 2019 spending levels. And guess what? We were still spending a lot of money in 2019. It wasn't like

00:02:20.040 this was a really austere. It wasn't a federal government that had gone through any successful

00:02:26.200 austerity. We were spending a lot in 2019, but pre-COVID levels. That's one concept. Second concept

00:02:33.480 is to roll back to 2022 spending levels. Now, that's what the entire House of Representatives passed

00:02:40.080 in the Limit Save Grow Plan. Passed it without my vote, but passed it nonetheless. Go back one year.

00:02:49.100 Joe Biden right now is talking about freezing spending at current levels, which bakes in

00:02:56.160 all of the COVID cash. And then finally, we've got Chuck Schumer and progressives saying we have to

00:03:02.520 continue the rate of growth that is currently existing with the federal budget. So right now,

00:03:08.340 is it going to be, you know, probably not the outer edges of that, probably not rolling back to 2019

00:03:13.300 levels, probably not exponential growth of spending, but are we looking at the same spending with a

00:03:20.980 freeze or are we looking at rolling back spending to 2022 levels? That is central to the negotiation

00:03:27.120 that's happening right now. Second issue, and this is an issue I want to take a survey on if you're

00:03:34.040 listening. Work requirements. Welfare to work for able-bodied, childless adults. So not seniors, 1.00

00:03:43.500 not the sick, not the infirm, not the single moms, but for able-bodied, childless adults,

00:03:48.780 should people have to meet a work requirement in order to get Medicaid, TANF, SNAP, that type of social

00:03:58.260 service. If you support work requirements, I want you to hit one on your phone now. If you oppose work

00:04:05.320 requirements, I want you to press two on your phone now. And if you're unsure, press three. I'll have

00:04:11.640 the results of that survey in just a moment, this issue of work requirements. Now, initially, AOC and

00:04:19.420 Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrat leader in the House, said work requirements were a red line for them,

00:04:24.320 that they could never support an increase in the debt limit if there were any work requirements.

00:04:31.320 Now, Joe Biden has said that while he doesn't support my plan to put work requirements on

00:04:37.920 Medicaid, that they will support in the Biden administration probably some version of some

00:04:43.400 work requirements on TANF or SNAP. That's the latest I'm hearing out of the negotiations is that

00:04:48.980 we're going to get something on work requirements. And by the way, overwhelming support for the work

00:04:55.640 requirements among those who participated in our survey, a whopping 88% of Northwest Floridians on

00:05:02.420 the phone support work requirements, about 6% opposed. So overwhelming support for work requirements.

00:05:09.440 And by the way, you're not outside of the mainstream because there have been work requirements on the

00:05:15.340 ballot in Wisconsin recently, and they got around 80% of the vote. So I think that 88% in Northwest

00:05:25.060 Florida sounds about right. I don't understand the argument that Joe Biden is making against these

00:05:31.360 work requirements. Next issue, energy and permitting. I know if you're watching this, and by the way,

00:05:38.100 if you have a question or comment, hit star three. We're going to get you in the queue. I'm going to get to

00:05:42.120 those in just a moment. But you know, we've been having problems with energy and fuel prices.

00:05:49.240 Why the Biden administration has chosen to destroy the American energy sector that was dominating the

00:05:56.580 world is beyond me. But we've got to get back to some of those Trump era energy policies. We've got to

00:06:02.320 put them in law. So they're not just subject to one president doing an executive order one way or the

00:06:08.060 other. So we passed HR one. And we are demanding that the permitting reforms that we've passed out of

00:06:15.120 the House of Representatives that I proudly voted for, that that be part of the debt limit negotiation.

00:06:20.440 Very significant. And we've got that in play. Third thing, the Green New Deal repeals. 0.71

00:06:28.560 You will remember that Mitch McConnell joined up with Democrats to help Joe Biden pass the

00:06:35.120 Inflation Reduction Act, which allowed for tax credits to fuel the Green New Deal and all of the 0.93

00:06:44.220 distortions that that creates within the energy sector. It's more than a trillion dollars in various

00:06:51.220 forms of benefits and carve outs and advantages for a particular type of energy over other energy.

00:06:57.460 We are seeking the repeal of those Green New Deal energy features. Fifth, 87,000 IRS agents. We think that's

00:07:07.760 got to go. We've made that demand. And so with all of that as the five factors, then the question becomes if the

00:07:13.560 debt limit is raised, for how long and for how much. House Republicans have suggested $1.5 trillion

00:07:20.520 takes us in to next year. We've got the White House wanting a $4 trillion increase through 2025.

00:07:28.620 That is the key update on the debt limit. I've got a lot to say about the border and investigations,

00:07:33.700 but Ricky from Navarre had a comment about the debt limit. You're live. Thanks so much for joining us.

00:07:40.540 Hey, thanks, Mr. Gates. Congressman Gates up here in Navarre, Florida. It's a beautiful day.

00:07:45.440 Hey, I want to let you know you're doing a fine job. We've got to hold the line on that debt limit.

00:07:52.000 Don't give them anything. They don't give us anything. And MAGA will only go for Trump.

00:07:57.960 No dissent. The ain't is what I call it. Thank you, sir.

00:08:01.580 Thanks so much for your feedback. And hold the line has been the message that we've shared. And we've

00:08:08.600 worked very hard to try to get our leadership up in that position as well. And I think it's going to be

00:08:14.140 really, really, really important for us to not just cave the way far too many Republicans in the

00:08:20.260 past have. Because remember, that's the driver of inflation. So many Americans right now trusted

00:08:25.100 House Republicans to hold the line against this spending. If you want a way on spending priorities

00:08:31.980 on the debt limit, Press Star 3 now will get you in the queue. I also want to talk about the border.

00:08:37.980 And we've got a border question from Stephanie from Miramar Beach. Stephanie, thanks so much for

00:08:43.400 joining me. What's your question about the border? Hey, Matt, can you hear me? I can.

00:08:49.840 Oh, hey, sorry, you're on. I'm driving. That's why. No problem.

00:08:54.120 I'm actually, my question because of the border issues that are going on. Are we vetting anyone

00:09:01.560 at the border? I mean, are we holding? I mean, what are we doing on the border? I used to live in El

00:09:06.640 Paso. And I can tell you just from living there, a lot of people are moving, relocating to Florida

00:09:12.400 to get away from that situation that's happening over there. And I think most people don't realize

00:09:17.840 how bad it is. Well, what bothers me is that when I've gone to the border and seen folks in Yuma,

00:09:23.480 Arizona, in El Paso, in San Diego, a good amount of the people that are coming across the border

00:09:27.840 illegally are coming to Florida. Their plan is to get on I-10 and come right through our community. 0.98

00:09:33.580 So the vetting is pathetic. It has become a turnstile. But even with that pathetic vetting, 0.98

00:09:40.840 we know that over 80 people on the terrorist watch list have made it through. And there have 0.80

00:09:45.980 been 1.5 million known gotaways just this year. So it is a true danger. And at the same time,

00:09:54.460 the Biden administration is waving people in across the border. You've got a circumstance where

00:09:59.160 they're trying to disarm law-abiding Americans.

00:10:01.740 Let me ask you this question, Stephanie. If you were in my shoes, would you vote to impeach

00:10:06.720 Alejandro Mayorkas, the Homeland Security Secretary?

00:10:10.500 Oh, absolutely. Every day of the week. I mean, and a lot of the things happening on the border,

00:10:15.160 most people, I mean, it never gets reported. I mean, there are people being raped, murdered,

00:10:19.440 killed, kidnapped, held for ransom. You name it, it happens on the border. And it's been happening

00:10:24.340 for years. And for once, when Trump was our president, it was like night and day. It was

00:10:29.880 like night and day. In downtown El Paso, you know, businesses were thriving. I have a good friend or

00:10:34.240 husband's a doctor. His patients can't come to his office because they're terrified to make the trip

00:10:39.380 to go to their own doctor because it's so bad in El Paso. And no one reports on this. And not to

00:10:45.960 mention, how do we pay for this? I mean, if you look, and this is just me throwing out a number,

00:10:50.820 but back in El Paso, if you owned a $200,000 or $300,000 home, your property taxes were like $8,000

00:10:56.040 and $9,000 because you were paying these border services. You know, that's what you were paying,

00:11:01.740 the hospitals, the babies, the children, the Medicare, the CHIP, all the different programs

00:11:05.980 in the state of Texas. So how is that going to affect like a state like Florida, like all of the

00:11:10.720 states? I don't think these people realize what's about to happen to property taxes because

00:11:15.060 how do you afford these people? No, great point. Well, hey, thanks for weighing in on it.

00:11:19.960 I want to broaden that question to everyone. If you support the impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas

00:11:26.760 and you're listening, I want you to press one on your phone now. If you oppose the impeachment of

00:11:32.280 Mayorkas, I want you to press two. And if you're unsure, press three. We're going to get a sense

00:11:37.120 of Mayorkas impeachment, support opposition, one support, two oppose, three unsure. This is the guy who

00:11:44.660 is supposed to be in charge of securing America's border. You just heard from one of our Northwest

00:11:49.720 Florida neighbors who's come from Texas. And frankly, what Stephanie gave us was a stark warning

00:11:56.240 about the ghost of Christmas future. Because if we allow this to continue to happen in every

00:12:00.660 community, we're going to see the things that we've seen in border towns. And let me tell you

00:12:04.900 something. I've been there and it's not pretty. When babies in the hospital don't have beds in their

00:12:12.980 most vulnerable state when they need NICU care, you've got a problem. And Stephanie talked about

00:12:19.000 the economic cost of paying for the EMT services, police services, hospital services, jail services,

00:12:27.500 social services, education services. For illegal immigrants, it becomes too much for a community 1.00

00:12:35.060 to bear. And frankly, that's not to say that we're heartless. It's just that we have to have heart

00:12:40.160 for our existing neighbors. We don't resist illegal immigration because we hate other people. It's 0.94

00:12:46.540 that we love the people who are our fellow countrymen. And that is something that we should

00:12:50.740 reflect with great pride. There is a lot of support to impeach Mayorkas on the poll, on the phone.

00:12:58.540 And oh my gosh, folks are going crazy on the live stream for it as well. Is that 90% support for

00:13:07.060 impeachment? Higher support for impeachment of Mayorkas than for work requirements. 90% support,

00:13:12.060 4% oppose, 6% unsure. Very, very strong support for impeaching Mayorkas and a lot of work to do on 0.93

00:13:19.960 the border. Doyle from Escambia, a thought on gun control policy. Welcome. Thanks for participating.

00:13:28.120 Thanks, Matt. Love what you're doing, man.

00:13:30.260 Thank you.

00:13:31.260 That goes hand in hand. Gun control goes hand in hand, I think, with our border crisis.

00:13:37.300 We got to know that we have the right to defend our families. I live out in a rural area. At best,

00:13:45.020 police response out here is 20 to 30 minutes. Not their fault. It's just that we live in a rural

00:13:51.440 area. And we've got to know that we have support from you and the other guys in Washington to

00:13:59.580 maintain our 2A rights.

00:14:01.800 Yep. Well, what do you think about this pistol brace the ATF has come up with? If you're not aware of this,

00:14:08.060 the ATF is just choosing to say if someone uses a pistol brace, they're automatically a felon.

00:14:13.520 We got a lot of disabled vets in Northwest Florida who use pistol braces. It seems pretty punitive to me.

00:14:18.920 What do you think? Absolutely. It's just another ploy by the Biden administration and the ATF

00:14:26.740 to try to get more and more control. That's all. I mean, that's what I see.

00:14:33.000 Would you abolish the ATF? Do you think they're savable?

00:14:39.380 That's hard to say. Not under this administration. I would say no.

00:14:45.600 All right. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate your support.

00:14:48.920 We are increasingly concerned about constitutional rights and Second Amendment issues. We've been

00:14:57.420 receiving information from folks in Northwest Florida about zero tolerance actions by the ATF

00:15:03.780 against some of our local gun dealers. And we've been working hard to have the backs of

00:15:09.780 our small business folks. A lot of these are family businesses. And the ATF is seemingly trying

00:15:16.040 to put them out of business. We've got a question about something going on at Eglin Air Force Base

00:15:20.440 from Curtis in Niceville. Thanks for joining us.

00:15:26.880 Thanks, Matt. I've learned recently from a friend of mine who's pretty connected there to Eglin

00:15:33.140 that they are spearheading and pioneering a transgender bathroom initiative at Eglin.

00:15:40.280 I was wondering what you know about that. How can we, to use your words,

00:15:44.780 be saying that before it would happen?

00:15:47.280 Oh, well, thank you for raising this issue. So if you're listening or watching right now,

00:15:51.920 Eglin Air Force Base, very central to my home county of Okaloosa County,

00:15:57.140 an economic driver, a huge source of pride. Eglin Air Force Base were the Doolittle Raiders

00:16:02.740 first trained before the bombing on Tokyo in World War II. So we are a military community

00:16:08.900 through and through. And I have started to receive information, concerning information,

00:16:15.600 from folks who are wearing the uniform about some very strange bathroom policies. And it has to do with

00:16:22.440 when folks are in the bathroom and in the shower, which one they're supposed to go to.

00:16:27.340 And there's purportedly a policy in the decision-making process now. I don't believe that the

00:16:33.860 decision's been executed, though I'm working to find that out, that so long as it says male or female

00:16:40.960 on someone's government-issued card, that is the bathroom that they are supposed to go into.

00:16:46.180 The problem is that does not actually align with sex or just the obvious manifestations of natural

00:16:57.040 gender that we're familiar with. And so like in a time when we're trying to recruit more people

00:17:03.420 into our military, it seems like a pretty weird thing to do to tell women that they have to like

00:17:10.120 shower with biological men. And so I haven't laid eyes on the policy yet. I've heard some of the 0.78

00:17:15.760 concerns that you've reflected tonight. And what I can tell you is that we've submitted requests for

00:17:22.300 information to Air Force leadership, to base leadership, to find out if this is going on

00:17:27.240 at Eglin Air Force Base. But I'll put the question back on you, Curtis. Do you think it's going to be

00:17:31.600 easier for the United States military to recruit America's, you know, next generation if these are 1.00

00:17:37.960 the policies being embraced?

00:17:40.940 No, definitely not, Matt. And I appreciate, you know, I'm from Knightsville, so I know this is a

00:17:45.800 hometown for you area. So I appreciate all you do with the military. And, you know, and as a former

00:17:51.800 veteran in the Air Force, I know that this is a, not something that would be supported by the majority

00:17:59.660 of our existing military. And I think they're going to have a hard time recruiting in the future.

00:18:05.040 And so I don't want to see the downfall of our security in the military, for sure, just like the

00:18:10.760 rest of us.

00:18:11.760 All right. Well, hey, thanks for weighing in on that. And I actually want to get everybody's

00:18:15.240 thoughts on this. If you believe that people should use the bathrooms in the military for their gender 0.68

00:18:24.500 assigned at birth, I want you to press 1 now. So gender assigned at birth, press 1. If you believe

00:18:32.760 that that service member can simply change their gender and then go into the locker rooms 0.59

00:18:38.360 and bathrooms of something that's not their gender at birth, press 2. And if you're unsure,

00:18:44.640 press 3. And who knows? We may get some interesting reactions to that. All right. We've got

00:18:51.980 Lewis next from Milton. Again, if folks want to chime in, press star 3. But Lewis, thanks so much

00:18:56.900 for chatting with me tonight. What's on your mind? I was just hoping we could swing the Senate

00:19:03.840 back to the right with the absence of Ms. Feinstein. Is that possible?

00:19:11.840 No, it is such that I think they're, you know, wheeling her around here and they're frozen in a lot

00:19:19.580 of ways from moving some of the judges they want through the committee when she's not there. But 1.00

00:19:24.060 I'm not holding out hope that the replacement for Feinstein in California is going to be someone

00:19:30.340 that's going to move the Senate to the right. But let me ask you the question this way. What do you

00:19:34.800 wish the Senate was doing right now that they're not doing? Because for me, I wish the Senate passed

00:19:40.140 a budget. Instead, they just sit around and let Joe Biden delay our ability to get the country moving

00:19:48.840 forward. So what's your biggest disappointment with the current Senate? I just feel like I feel

00:19:55.520 like that in the budget, there's a lot of pork. There's a lot of stuff that could be cut out. Is

00:20:01.740 that true? Or have we already cut it down to the bone? Oh, listen, you're you're paying right now for

00:20:15.060 pride parades in Prague. You're you're paying for, you know, woke ism around the world. You're sending

00:20:24.200 money to Ukraine by the billions. There's plenty of pork in that budget for us to cut. Don't you ever

00:20:30.400 believe a politician that tells you there's not pork in the federal budget to cut? That's someone lying

00:20:35.540 to you. Well, one last question. I'll leave you alone. I am scared to death of ESG and digital

00:20:44.520 currency. Please tell me it's not going to happen. There's not going to be a central bank run by the

00:20:52.540 UN that we're all going to be slaves to. Well, if they try that, they'll they'll have to do it over my

00:21:00.180 dead body here in Washington. I am so opposed to that concept of centralized finance. I think it is

00:21:06.660 a way to surrender sovereignty and control over our own decision making. We've already done enough

00:21:11.900 of that with the UN now. I would get the UN out of the US and I would get the US out of the UN.

00:21:19.960 So I think we've done enough surrendering sovereignty to the UN, the World Health Organization.

00:21:24.920 And we do a lot better to not be funding all that. I would run them out of New York and send

00:21:33.640 them to Geneva. Amen. Well, hey, thanks so much for chiming in. I want to let everybody know that

00:21:40.820 you seem to hold my similar view and the view of our caller when it came to this strange bathroom

00:21:45.820 situation and really the overall movement toward wokeism in the military. 95% of those who participated in

00:21:53.980 our poll held the position that you ought to use the facilities of your gender assigned at birth,

00:21:59.940 3% opposed, 2% undecided. These are we started at 88% and these poll results are getting more

00:22:07.320 lopsided the more we do them. It's it's pretty amazing. Jeffrey from Pensacola. Thanks so much

00:22:14.760 for joining us this evening. What's on your mind?

00:22:19.180 Good afternoon, Congressman Gates. Can you hear me? I can.

00:22:23.440 Thank you so much for taking my call and wanted to thank you as well for using this really innovative

00:22:28.820 tech platform to bring us all together. I won't if I ever break up, please let me know I I work on a

00:22:35.360 location of base with a lot of radio frequency. So my calls can break up from time to time.

00:22:41.560 Going back to your comments regarding the debt ceiling negotiations. Are you worried that including too many

00:22:48.800 policy priorities will derail negotiations and risk a default on the national debt that would hurt everyone?

00:22:55.940 No, it's a it's a good question. And it's something we really we really grappled with. And we

00:23:01.340 probably could have put in a lot more. To be honest, I would have put in clawing back the money for the

00:23:07.580 $325 million FBI facility. I probably would have not spent so much money on Ukraine. I would have put 0.52

00:23:15.860 guardrails there. But we really felt like when you talk about work requirements, when you talk about

00:23:22.660 energy and permitting, when you talk about, you know, getting the IRS out of a negative posture with

00:23:29.560 our economy, that those things weren't just less spending, but they also supercharged the growth.

00:23:36.320 I mean, think about it, even if work requirements don't really save you a lot of money, the fact that

00:23:40.680 they get people working, increasing labor participation really has its its own positive

00:23:46.560 value and effect. The same with energy dominance, the same with just the regulatory state. So I think

00:23:54.740 that note that you make is a is a reasonable one, we really went back and forth on it. But we felt

00:23:59.860 like all of these things were really important features. And it seems as though the White House

00:24:06.360 has been has been somewhat willing on the work requirements and on the permitting reform. I doubt

00:24:11.720 they'll work with us on the Green New Deal stuff. But what do you think is the most important concession

00:24:17.000 for House Republicans to get out of this deal? Is it the overall spending levels to you? Or is it one of

00:24:22.200 these policy concepts? Well, I think the debt limit exists for a reason to make sure Congress has a

00:24:30.740 role to play. But I think the focus should definitely be made on raising the debt limit to ensure default

00:24:38.720 does not happen just because it would hurt everyone on, you know, in every part of this country. So I

00:24:46.040 would say, you know, a focus on spending tied to that debt limit increase would be the best way of

00:24:53.720 keeping things between the line without it becoming a wish list for either side of the aisle.

00:24:59.580 Hey, thank you. I appreciate the feedback. And we certainly hope to get some sort of posture

00:25:06.940 that gets our economy moving and that gets this debt under control. Thank you so much. And good luck

00:25:12.360 out there helping us support the mission. Thank you very much, sir. I appreciate that.

00:25:19.200 All right. If folks want to participate, you can press star three. Joel, if folks got questions

00:25:25.300 online, you can sit past those to me. We got Richard from Milton. Go right ahead.

00:25:31.500 Hi, Matt. I just want to say that I wish you were running for president because I really think we

00:25:36.500 still need another choice for this election coming up. Oh, you're kind. But I do hope. Yeah, you're

00:25:41.920 welcome. But I do have a question on the debt ceiling. Years ago, when there was another debt

00:25:47.300 crisis, Ellen Spann, I'm sure you know who that is. Yep. Said we can't default on our debt because we're a

00:25:56.360 sovereign nation. We print our own money. And all we would need to really do is just print more money.

00:26:03.360 And it's based on faith. It's not based on a gold standard. So I don't understand why we can't just

00:26:10.980 print more money or just make it up digitally because that's what we do anyway to get into this

00:26:16.520 mess that we're in. So why can't that just be the solution? How could we possibly default when we're

00:26:21.940 printing our own money? Yeah. My colleague, Congressman Thomas Massey, sort of brought up a similar point

00:26:27.660 today that if we were going to default on anything, we should default on funding the Fed. That way,

00:26:33.100 we would not be funding the entity that was causing some of the inflation and creating some of the

00:26:38.500 cross-collateralized problems when we borrow from ourself. I worry that were we to take that posture

00:26:46.300 in its purest sense, you could get into a situation where the full faith and credit of the United States

00:26:53.020 was questioned, that we would be downgraded. I mean, remember, under Obama, things got so bad

00:26:58.980 that America literally got downgraded as a global investment. And that has a real impact on our

00:27:05.580 ability to drive GDP growth and to ensure that the dollar is strong and coveted. I mean, you see what

00:27:11.340 our adversaries are doing right now. They're trying to create economies that are not centralized

00:27:17.120 around the U.S. dollar. And if we just printed more of them or if we essentially monetized the debt,

00:27:23.980 I worry that that would accelerate and that we would be at greater risk of a Chinese-dominated 1.00

00:27:31.820 global environment, something that I know none of us want to see. But I also don't think that this is

00:27:37.000 an unsolvable problem. People in Washington act like we just can never solve the debt. But I've gone

00:27:43.360 back and checked. No Congress in history since the first constitutional Congress has ever voted to spend

00:27:51.020 less money than the last Congress. And that creates a certain moral hazard. When I was in the state

00:27:58.440 legislature and we had to balance the budget every year, you had to make choices. And you know what?

00:28:02.340 If your programs didn't perform and you couldn't prove it, then they didn't get funded in the next

00:28:06.900 years. And it created a meritocracy around what we did, whereas there's so much waste now because

00:28:12.880 we never really drill down on this stuff. Because there's no lobbyist in Washington that's going to

00:28:18.120 make a career out of cutting spending. They all want more spending. Everybody in this town wants

00:28:23.300 more, more, more, more. And then the result is the people in Fort Walton Beach and Pensacola

00:28:29.280 and Gulf Breeze get less, less, and less out of their money. And that's what frustrates me about it.

00:28:34.760 But I'll give you the last word. Yeah. Okay. Well, I appreciate all that. Yeah. And I agree with you.

00:28:39.940 You're right. All right. Well, hey, thanks for participating. Thanks for letting me work for you.

00:28:45.180 Let's see. We've got another gun comment. Michael from Niceville.

00:28:53.520 Yes, Matt. It's nice to talk to you again since your last one that you did. I had a question

00:29:02.540 on May 31st. Basically, 90% of my family and most of my friends and about approximately 40 other

00:29:12.120 million pistol brace owners are about to become felons with the snap of a finger by the ATF.

00:29:23.240 Is there anything you can do to stop it or what's kind of going down the line to stop this to

00:29:31.960 law abiding Americans? Yeah. We talked about this just moments ago on the show. The ATF is going

00:29:43.240 outside their authority prescribed by law to create a pistol brace rule that would turn tens of millions

00:29:49.880 of Americans potentially into felons if something is even usable through a pistol brace. So here's what

00:29:58.700 we've done. We've passed out of the House Judiciary Committee a repeal of that rule. And I am pushing

00:30:04.840 with our majority leader and with our speaker to get a full vote of the House of Representatives on

00:30:10.020 that in a few weeks. And so when we pushed it out of the committee, it was a party line vote. Every

00:30:16.220 Republican was for it. Every Democrat was against it. But, you know, I think it is really it is a sign of

00:30:23.580 what the ATF has become today. And it is not really an entity that protects us. I want to know,

00:30:30.120 what would be your perspective on legislation to just repeal the ATF and return their authorities to

00:30:35.280 local law enforcement? I believe that the ATF actually serves particular roles that are needed to

00:30:45.980 help local law enforcement, if you will. All right. That their arrest powers needs to be removed

00:30:54.320 completely and their prosecutorial powers needs to be removed and basically turn them into a lab or

00:31:04.120 local police. And that would, I think, get rid of 90 percent of the problems that we're having with

00:31:14.040 ATF. That is a good suggestion. And I will leave it at that, Michael. Thank you so much.

00:31:19.220 I appreciate the feedback. I want to get to some of our online questioners on Rumble. We had a user

00:31:25.640 ask, did you get a satellite phone like U.S. senators? Should Americans be worried regarding World War

00:31:31.780 III? I do not have a satellite phone. I don't know if other members of Congress have a satellite. I

00:31:35.880 could probably get one if I asked for one. Yeah, I heard senators were getting them, but they get a lot 0.58

00:31:41.920 of stuff we don't get. Did you know every senator has a secret office inside the Capitol, outside of

00:31:47.720 there? Every one. Every one of them has a secret office. No such thing. You can find me 2021, Rayburn

00:31:53.840 House Office Building. Another question we got online from at Black Guns 2049. Why is the ATF making laws?

00:32:01.860 And it really is the operative question because the ATF is doing what they're doing

00:32:07.160 because they can't get gun control through the legislative process. In a republic, the people

00:32:13.560 are the ones who get to elect the representatives that make the laws. But with this version of the

00:32:18.620 ATF, they don't care. And that is why the Congress has this ability to vote on the repeal of a

00:32:26.220 regulation. And it's why we've moved that out of the House Judiciary Committee. Contact our senators,

00:32:32.140 get them on our team to get that ATF back into the box that they ought to be in.

00:32:38.100 Other question I got on Getter, can Congress use contempt power to start locking up bad actors?

00:32:45.920 The answer to that question, which by the way, I get all the time. People all the time ask me,

00:32:49.360 when could Congress just go throw handcuffs on this person? Probably for a lot of really good

00:32:53.880 reasons. We do not have that power. We do not have the power to charge people with crimes. We do not

00:32:58.960 have the power to lock people up. Now, if there is a congressional subpoena that is not being

00:33:04.000 complied with, we can send the Marshal of the House to go and retrieve those documents and perhaps to

00:33:11.700 retrieve a person. But upon that person's performance of answering questions or meeting the conditions of

00:33:18.260 the House, you can't just incarcerate people as a legislative body. Not a power we have.

00:33:24.000 On Facebook, Johnny asks, are we going to remove Adam Schiff? Well, big news is coming on this,

00:33:31.100 my colleague Ana Paulina Luna, Congresswoman from the St. Petersburg area, Pinellas County, Florida.

00:33:36.400 She's got legislation that would censure Adam Schiff upon our learning what we did from the Durham

00:33:42.480 report, the lies he told, the Russia collusion he imagined, the complete fraud that he perpetrated

00:33:50.840 on the intelligence community, on the House of Representatives, on the United States Congress.

00:33:55.840 Adam Schiff should be held accountable for that. I'm one of the sponsors, along with Congresswoman

00:34:00.940 Luna, on a censure resolution. But not just that. You have to ask yourself, Facebook, Johnny,

00:34:09.080 why did Adam Schiff do this? Why did Adam Schiff destabilize the nation, clown himself, 0.95

00:34:15.500 lie about intelligence in the Russia hoax? And it's money in a lot of ways. When you go and lie to

00:34:23.600 the people like that and get them all worked up, they give. And Adam Schiff made millions.

00:34:32.160 $16 million, in fact. So Congresswoman Luna's legislation, it actually fines him the $16 million

00:34:41.400 that were his ill-gotten gains from the fraud and the lies and the fake transcripts and the total

00:34:48.180 nonsense he put out. I completely support Congresswoman Luna in that endeavor. And Adam Schiff

00:34:54.120 should have to pay that $16 million fine. Another question from Getter. Can we get us out of the

00:34:59.940 World Health Organization? We should. And you know, this was, this goes back to what a prior caller

00:35:05.180 talked about with these debt limit negotiations. There are so many things in this government we need

00:35:09.400 to get rid of. Paying money to the UN, paying money to the World Health Organization. The entire

00:35:15.700 Department of Education, I would argue, we could probably defund, get rid of, devolve to the local

00:35:21.760 level. Substantial portions of the ATF, if not all of it. And yet, we had to focus on the overall

00:35:29.040 spending caps, some specific policy reforms. But part of the deal that resulted in Kevin McCarthy

00:35:36.220 ascending to the speakership was the placement of some very effective fiscal conservatives on the

00:35:43.500 House Appropriations Committee. And I know I've got some colleagues working to defund the World Health

00:35:50.320 Organization. And there's actually a lot of support across the Republican Party to do that and to address

00:35:55.480 that issue. Want to be able to get to another question. Let's see. Jeremy in Navar got an impeachment

00:36:06.820 question. What's on your mind?

00:36:10.480 Hey, Congressman Gates. Thank you for the call, the question. First, I want to thank you for all of your

00:36:17.720 hard work that you're doing for us Floridians and us, you know, for negotiating on the floor,

00:36:25.000 you know, with McCarthy and just, you know, awesome job with all that stuff. Again, my question is,

00:36:31.500 so thank you again. So, my question is, yes, accountability and your impeachment. I know we talked about

00:36:39.720 some kind of accountability for these individuals that are causing harm, you know, and, you know,

00:37:08.500 Do you think there's impeachment justified against Joe Biden?

00:37:14.220 I personally do. Yes, sir.

00:37:17.600 And what concerns me, I mean, the border concerns me, for one, because they're doing that on purpose.

00:37:23.560 But I'm really worried about some of this Biden crime family financial connection to the Chinese 0.99

00:37:30.080 Communist Party. I mean, we've got bank records from the Chinese connected companies going right

00:37:37.780 into the Biden family. We've got Hunter Biden setting up the dinners for his investment fund,

00:37:45.880 no lie, at the Chinese embassy. We've got these guys with shady deals with Romanian business people.

00:37:53.680 There's a Moscow deal that Hunter Biden was trying to get in. And what I wonder when we expose this

00:38:00.600 stuff, does it really sink in with people that the first family is compromised? Or do folks just

00:38:08.440 think, ah, all politicians are trouble? And do they move on? I mean, what do you think is the general

00:38:14.320 sense out there about, like, the overall corrupt capture that this family has fallen into?

00:38:21.420 So, me personally, and a lot of my friends and family, I mean, we agree. I mean, there's some,

00:38:32.760 there has to be some type of accountability. I mean, with all of those business dealings and,

00:38:39.140 you know, with our border, you know, we got Chinese, you know, coming in. And, you know, 1.00

00:38:44.640 with Millie, you know, with the pullout from, you know, Afghanistan. So, yeah, so that's my

00:38:52.840 question, you know, just, you know, starting from, you know, the top on down, you know, with Biden,

00:38:58.360 the majority of his administration, and, you know, a lot of the three-letter agency

00:39:03.160 top heads.

00:39:07.540 I could not agree more. Thank you for the feedback. And we've got to bring more of those three-letter

00:39:11.820 agency heads into Congress to answer these questions. I am very frustrated that FBI Director

00:39:18.660 Christopher Wray is not being forthcoming with the Congress regarding the records that exist

00:39:24.480 on these Biden family members and the investigations. The FBI should not be the enforcement wing

00:39:31.740 for the Democratic Party or the Republican Party or any political movement. And when Congress comes

00:39:37.640 calling, the FBI should have to show their work. They shouldn't be able to go and deem everything

00:39:44.260 that is negative about the Biden family, Russian disinformation, while at the same time doing

00:39:50.960 everything they can to advance every conspiracy theory against any Republican. And unfortunately,

00:39:56.420 that's what we've gotten far too much from these folks. Jim from Miramar Beach,

00:40:02.640 thanks so much for joining me. What's on your mind? Jim, did I lose you? I may have. All right,

00:40:15.420 we'll go to someone else. How about Will from Navarre? What's on your minds?

00:40:23.740 Hey, so my question is, what are we going to do about the inflation that we're having right now?

00:40:33.140 We got to stop printing money, right?

00:40:36.500 Right, right, definitely. My main concern is the cost of rent here in the panhandle and home prices

00:40:44.660 that have skyrocketed. My wife and I both work full-time jobs with part-time jobs, and we can't even

00:40:52.780 afford to buy a house that we want. It has become a very rapid phenomenon impacting quality of life in

00:41:00.960 Northwest Florida because we got such a part of heaven, everybody wants to live in Northwest Florida.

00:41:06.280 If you got real estate in Chicago, it ain't going up, it's going down. And in a lot of places,

00:41:11.840 that's the case. But like you say, for folks who are working, for folks who are trying to save to get

00:41:17.060 that down payment, if rent keeps going up and up, that's a problem. And then for homeowners,

00:41:23.060 it's also the cost of insurance. People are getting those insurance notices, and those premiums are

00:41:27.860 going up. Look, I think a big problem is when you got the government plowing cash into the American

00:41:34.420 economy and giving it to people without work requirements, then it distorts what would be a

00:41:41.980 fair price for lodging and housing. I mean, you know, you talk about you and your wife going to

00:41:47.960 work, like, what do you think about folks who are able to get their health care, their child care,

00:41:53.840 their transportation, their cell phone, all paid for, and if they're able-bodied people, they don't 0.99

00:41:59.260 even have to work or volunteer or be in job training. You think that's fair?

00:42:02.980 No, that's not fair at all, because we both work full-time jobs making $20 to $25 plus an hour and

00:42:12.900 try to work part-time jobs as well. We're having trouble paying for our own things, so it sucks. 0.89

00:42:21.580 Well, I hear you, brother. We got to get this economy moving again and roaring, and it was that

00:42:26.680 way once, and I hope we can do it again. Thanks for letting me work for you.

00:42:29.840 Thank you.

00:42:33.000 We got another note from Rumble. Go woke, go broke. Where do you stand on boycotts of Bud Light,

00:42:39.960 Target, etc.? There's nothing wrong with conservatives voting with their dollars,

00:42:45.100 and that's what I think people are doing when they make a choice to not support advertising

00:42:51.220 campaigns that run contrary to their values. You're allowed to vote with your dollars. I vote

00:42:56.180 with mine. You're not going to see me drinking Anheuser-Busch products. I'm not going to Target.

00:43:01.420 This is weird. Why are we doing this? Why not just accept that this nation doesn't have to embrace

00:43:11.660 some sort of radical gender ideology or race ideology in order to love one another and engage

00:43:19.060 in commerce with one another? I try not to be like boycott trigger happy, but these corporations are

00:43:25.900 just putting it in our face, and then there's no humility about it when they screw up, right? Like in

00:43:31.680 my job, there's certainly been times where I've said things that maybe I've gone too far, and so I

00:43:36.640 apologize. I rephrase. I recast my intent if it's been misunderstood or if I've been in any way

00:43:42.860 frail in my presentation, but do we get that out of Bud Light and Target? Was there accountability?

00:43:51.280 Was there any remorse for the violation of trust with the people who bought their products? No.

00:43:57.560 It was just you have to take it. Well, you know what? The American people don't have to take it,

00:44:00.740 and I know on Madison Avenue in New York and probably in a lot of these corporate boardrooms,

00:44:07.920 wokeism is all the rage and everybody's trying to outwoke one another,

00:44:11.240 but out in real America, we're not like that, and we're not going to put up with it,

00:44:15.540 and some of the most iconic brands in the country are going to feel the impact of it.

00:44:20.940 Instagram, Elias says, Biden needs to be investigated for Chinese connections.

00:44:25.400 What is the status of oversight and weaponization investigation? So our weaponization investigations

00:44:32.600 have really shown a political capture of the national security state, whether it's the

00:44:41.200 FBI dust-busting for the Bidens or the CIA actually trying to cajole their own employees and former

00:44:50.640 employees to participate in election interference. We've proven that case. The question is what next?

00:44:57.940 And in response to someone who asked the question earlier, we can't go throw handcuffs on people like

00:45:03.180 Clapper and Brennan and Morrell and Christopher Wray, for that matter,

00:45:07.900 if there's strong evidence that they violated the law. Instead, we have to use the power of the purse,

00:45:15.560 starve them of their money. We have to use the power of the subpoena to get the facts before the

00:45:21.660 American people so that in elections, folks will support candidates who embrace structural changes to

00:45:28.780 these entities. We have to use the power of contempt. We have to use the power of legislation to constrain

00:45:34.940 their authorities so they're not able to weaponize so many features of what we expected would be used

00:45:42.280 against America's enemies abroad, but now they're turning those things inward to our fellow Americans

00:45:47.240 and something we certainly have to stop. Well, I really appreciate everyone so much for participating

00:45:53.140 this evening. We're reaching the end of our time period, but if you're able to go to gates.house.gov

00:45:59.080 and sign up for our email newsletter, you're going to be able to get a report every week regarding the

00:46:04.520 work of our office, co-sponsored bills, high impact meetings and efforts that we've undertaken in

00:46:10.720 committees and beyond. And also make sure to subscribe to our podcast Firebrand. We usually don't get the

00:46:17.060 dynamism of call-in, but we have some of my colleagues in Congress that stop by and talk about the key

00:46:22.940 issues of the day. You can subscribe to Firebrand on Rumble, on YouTube, or on any podcast listening

00:46:29.420 platform that you participate in. Again, this is Congressman Matt Gates. Thank you to the many

00:46:34.220 thousands of you who participated this evening. It has been a joy. Good evening. We'll chat again soon.

The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - May 25, 2023

LIVE FROM WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Matt Gaetz Holds FL-01 Tele-Town Hall – May 25, 2023

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