LIVE FROM WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Matt Gaetz Holds FL-01 Tele-Town Hall – May 25, 2023
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Summary
Join Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) as he speaks to hundreds of Northwest Floridians in his 1st Congressional District. Congressman Gaetz delivers updates on the debt ceiling negotiations, the border, and immigration reform.
Transcript
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Hey everyone, this is Congressman Matt Gaetz. Welcome to our live telephone town hall meeting.
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We are speaking with hundreds of Northwest Floridians in Florida's 1st Congressional
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District. I've got important updates regarding debt limit negotiations, the specific proposals
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that we've advanced for spending cuts, for policy changes to try to rein in this Biden
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government. I've also got updates regarding the border and legislation that the House
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of Representatives has passed to reform America's asylum laws to get back to some of the policies
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that did not have millions of people coming across our border illegally, which is what
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we have now. And also this evening, if you hang with me, I've got an update on some of
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the oversight work we are doing into just abject corruption and compromise that we see in this
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government that we must expose, defang, and defund. Again, if you're joining me now, this
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is Congressman Matt Gaetz. And we've got hundreds of folks on the phone, getting close to a thousand.
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We're also streaming on Facebook, Getter, Rumble, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. So if you are
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watching this program rather than listening to it on the phone, just leave a question in the comments.
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I'll get to it. If you're listening, hit star three on your phone. One of my colleagues will be able to
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categorize your question so that I'm able to address it regarding some of the important subjects
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that we're going to be speaking about. Again, that's star three. This is Congressman Matt Gaetz.
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We are live and I am broadcasting from my office right here in the Rayburn House office building.
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Going to get some great feedback from Northwest Floridians. Star three is the way to contribute.
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Leave your question or comment online. First, I want to give an important update regarding the debt
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limit negotiations. Moments ago, I met one-on-one with Speaker McCarthy to go over how the discussions
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are going with the White House. And I want to start with kind of the first major feature
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of the debt limit negotiations. And that is the spending level. Before you get to any of the policy
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choices, it's about the spending level. Now, the initial concept I supported, my colleagues from the
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House Freedom Caucus supported, would be to return federal spending to pre-COVID levels. That would be
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2019 spending levels. And guess what? We were still spending a lot of money in 2019. It wasn't like
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this was a really austere. It wasn't a federal government that had gone through any successful
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austerity. We were spending a lot in 2019, but pre-COVID levels. That's one concept. Second concept
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is to roll back to 2022 spending levels. Now, that's what the entire House of Representatives passed
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in the Limit Save Grow Plan. Passed it without my vote, but passed it nonetheless. Go back one year.
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Joe Biden right now is talking about freezing spending at current levels, which bakes in
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all of the COVID cash. And then finally, we've got Chuck Schumer and progressives saying we have to
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continue the rate of growth that is currently existing with the federal budget. So right now,
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is it going to be, you know, probably not the outer edges of that, probably not rolling back to 2019
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levels, probably not exponential growth of spending, but are we looking at the same spending with a
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freeze or are we looking at rolling back spending to 2022 levels? That is central to the negotiation
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that's happening right now. Second issue, and this is an issue I want to take a survey on if you're
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listening. Work requirements. Welfare to work for able-bodied, childless adults. So not seniors,
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not the sick, not the infirm, not the single moms, but for able-bodied, childless adults,
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should people have to meet a work requirement in order to get Medicaid, TANF, SNAP, that type of social
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service. If you support work requirements, I want you to hit one on your phone now. If you oppose work
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requirements, I want you to press two on your phone now. And if you're unsure, press three. I'll have
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the results of that survey in just a moment, this issue of work requirements. Now, initially, AOC and
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Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrat leader in the House, said work requirements were a red line for them,
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that they could never support an increase in the debt limit if there were any work requirements.
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Now, Joe Biden has said that while he doesn't support my plan to put work requirements on
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Medicaid, that they will support in the Biden administration probably some version of some
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work requirements on TANF or SNAP. That's the latest I'm hearing out of the negotiations is that
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we're going to get something on work requirements. And by the way, overwhelming support for the work
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requirements among those who participated in our survey, a whopping 88% of Northwest Floridians on
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the phone support work requirements, about 6% opposed. So overwhelming support for work requirements.
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And by the way, you're not outside of the mainstream because there have been work requirements on the
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ballot in Wisconsin recently, and they got around 80% of the vote. So I think that 88% in Northwest
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Florida sounds about right. I don't understand the argument that Joe Biden is making against these
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work requirements. Next issue, energy and permitting. I know if you're watching this, and by the way,
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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
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those in just a moment. But you know, we've been having problems with energy and fuel prices.
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Why the Biden administration has chosen to destroy the American energy sector that was dominating the
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world is beyond me. But we've got to get back to some of those Trump era energy policies. We've got to
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put them in law. So they're not just subject to one president doing an executive order one way or the
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other. So we passed HR one. And we are demanding that the permitting reforms that we've passed out of
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the House of Representatives that I proudly voted for, that that be part of the debt limit negotiation.
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Very significant. And we've got that in play. Third thing, the Green New Deal repeals.
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You will remember that Mitch McConnell joined up with Democrats to help Joe Biden pass the
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Inflation Reduction Act, which allowed for tax credits to fuel the Green New Deal and all of the
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distortions that that creates within the energy sector. It's more than a trillion dollars in various
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forms of benefits and carve outs and advantages for a particular type of energy over other energy.
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We are seeking the repeal of those Green New Deal energy features. Fifth, 87,000 IRS agents. We think that's
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got to go. We've made that demand. And so with all of that as the five factors, then the question becomes if the
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debt limit is raised, for how long and for how much. House Republicans have suggested $1.5 trillion
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takes us in to next year. We've got the White House wanting a $4 trillion increase through 2025.
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That is the key update on the debt limit. I've got a lot to say about the border and investigations,
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but Ricky from Navarre had a comment about the debt limit. You're live. Thanks so much for joining us.
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Hey, thanks, Mr. Gates. Congressman Gates up here in Navarre, Florida. It's a beautiful day.
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Hey, I want to let you know you're doing a fine job. We've got to hold the line on that debt limit.
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Don't give them anything. They don't give us anything. And MAGA will only go for Trump.
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No dissent. The ain't is what I call it. Thank you, sir.
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Thanks so much for your feedback. And hold the line has been the message that we've shared. And we've
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worked very hard to try to get our leadership up in that position as well. And I think it's going to be
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really, really, really important for us to not just cave the way far too many Republicans in the
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past have. Because remember, that's the driver of inflation. So many Americans right now trusted
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House Republicans to hold the line against this spending. If you want a way on spending priorities
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on the debt limit, Press Star 3 now will get you in the queue. I also want to talk about the border.
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And we've got a border question from Stephanie from Miramar Beach. Stephanie, thanks so much for
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joining me. What's your question about the border? Hey, Matt, can you hear me? I can.
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Oh, hey, sorry, you're on. I'm driving. That's why. No problem.
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I'm actually, my question because of the border issues that are going on. Are we vetting anyone
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at the border? I mean, are we holding? I mean, what are we doing on the border? I used to live in El
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Paso. And I can tell you just from living there, a lot of people are moving, relocating to Florida
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to get away from that situation that's happening over there. And I think most people don't realize
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how bad it is. Well, what bothers me is that when I've gone to the border and seen folks in Yuma,
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Arizona, in El Paso, in San Diego, a good amount of the people that are coming across the border
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illegally are coming to Florida. Their plan is to get on I-10 and come right through our community.
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So the vetting is pathetic. It has become a turnstile. But even with that pathetic vetting,
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we know that over 80 people on the terrorist watch list have made it through. And there have
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been 1.5 million known gotaways just this year. So it is a true danger. And at the same time,
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the Biden administration is waving people in across the border. You've got a circumstance where
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they're trying to disarm law-abiding Americans.
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Let me ask you this question, Stephanie. If you were in my shoes, would you vote to impeach
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Alejandro Mayorkas, the Homeland Security Secretary?
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Oh, absolutely. Every day of the week. I mean, and a lot of the things happening on the border,
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most people, I mean, it never gets reported. I mean, there are people being raped, murdered,
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killed, kidnapped, held for ransom. You name it, it happens on the border. And it's been happening
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for years. And for once, when Trump was our president, it was like night and day. It was
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like night and day. In downtown El Paso, you know, businesses were thriving. I have a good friend or
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husband's a doctor. His patients can't come to his office because they're terrified to make the trip
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to go to their own doctor because it's so bad in El Paso. And no one reports on this. And not to
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mention, how do we pay for this? I mean, if you look, and this is just me throwing out a number,
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but back in El Paso, if you owned a $200,000 or $300,000 home, your property taxes were like $8,000
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and $9,000 because you were paying these border services. You know, that's what you were paying,
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the hospitals, the babies, the children, the Medicare, the CHIP, all the different programs
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in the state of Texas. So how is that going to affect like a state like Florida, like all of the
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states? I don't think these people realize what's about to happen to property taxes because
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how do you afford these people? No, great point. Well, hey, thanks for weighing in on it.
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I want to broaden that question to everyone. If you support the impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas
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and you're listening, I want you to press one on your phone now. If you oppose the impeachment of
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Mayorkas, I want you to press two. And if you're unsure, press three. We're going to get a sense
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of Mayorkas impeachment, support opposition, one support, two oppose, three unsure. This is the guy who
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is supposed to be in charge of securing America's border. You just heard from one of our Northwest
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Florida neighbors who's come from Texas. And frankly, what Stephanie gave us was a stark warning
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about the ghost of Christmas future. Because if we allow this to continue to happen in every
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community, we're going to see the things that we've seen in border towns. And let me tell you
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something. I've been there and it's not pretty. When babies in the hospital don't have beds in their
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most vulnerable state when they need NICU care, you've got a problem. And Stephanie talked about
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the economic cost of paying for the EMT services, police services, hospital services, jail services,
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social services, education services. For illegal immigrants, it becomes too much for a community
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to bear. And frankly, that's not to say that we're heartless. It's just that we have to have heart
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for our existing neighbors. We don't resist illegal immigration because we hate other people. It's
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that we love the people who are our fellow countrymen. And that is something that we should
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reflect with great pride. There is a lot of support to impeach Mayorkas on the poll, on the phone.
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And oh my gosh, folks are going crazy on the live stream for it as well. Is that 90% support for
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impeachment? Higher support for impeachment of Mayorkas than for work requirements. 90% support,
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4% oppose, 6% unsure. Very, very strong support for impeaching Mayorkas and a lot of work to do on
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the border. Doyle from Escambia, a thought on gun control policy. Welcome. Thanks for participating.
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That goes hand in hand. Gun control goes hand in hand, I think, with our border crisis.
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We got to know that we have the right to defend our families. I live out in a rural area. At best,
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police response out here is 20 to 30 minutes. Not their fault. It's just that we live in a rural
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area. And we've got to know that we have support from you and the other guys in Washington to
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Yep. Well, what do you think about this pistol brace the ATF has come up with? If you're not aware of this,
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the ATF is just choosing to say if someone uses a pistol brace, they're automatically a felon.
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We got a lot of disabled vets in Northwest Florida who use pistol braces. It seems pretty punitive to me.
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What do you think? Absolutely. It's just another ploy by the Biden administration and the ATF
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to try to get more and more control. That's all. I mean, that's what I see.
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Would you abolish the ATF? Do you think they're savable?
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That's hard to say. Not under this administration. I would say no.
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All right. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate your support.
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We are increasingly concerned about constitutional rights and Second Amendment issues. We've been
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receiving information from folks in Northwest Florida about zero tolerance actions by the ATF
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against some of our local gun dealers. And we've been working hard to have the backs of
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our small business folks. A lot of these are family businesses. And the ATF is seemingly trying
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to put them out of business. We've got a question about something going on at Eglin Air Force Base
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from Curtis in Niceville. Thanks for joining us.
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Thanks, Matt. I've learned recently from a friend of mine who's pretty connected there to Eglin
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that they are spearheading and pioneering a transgender bathroom initiative at Eglin.
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I was wondering what you know about that. How can we, to use your words,
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Oh, well, thank you for raising this issue. So if you're listening or watching right now,
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Eglin Air Force Base, very central to my home county of Okaloosa County,
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an economic driver, a huge source of pride. Eglin Air Force Base were the Doolittle Raiders
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first trained before the bombing on Tokyo in World War II. So we are a military community
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through and through. And I have started to receive information, concerning information,
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from folks who are wearing the uniform about some very strange bathroom policies. And it has to do with
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when folks are in the bathroom and in the shower, which one they're supposed to go to.
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And there's purportedly a policy in the decision-making process now. I don't believe that the
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decision's been executed, though I'm working to find that out, that so long as it says male or female
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on someone's government-issued card, that is the bathroom that they are supposed to go into.
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The problem is that does not actually align with sex or just the obvious manifestations of natural
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gender that we're familiar with. And so like in a time when we're trying to recruit more people
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into our military, it seems like a pretty weird thing to do to tell women that they have to like
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shower with biological men. And so I haven't laid eyes on the policy yet. I've heard some of the
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concerns that you've reflected tonight. And what I can tell you is that we've submitted requests for
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information to Air Force leadership, to base leadership, to find out if this is going on
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at Eglin Air Force Base. But I'll put the question back on you, Curtis. Do you think it's going to be
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easier for the United States military to recruit America's, you know, next generation if these are
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No, definitely not, Matt. And I appreciate, you know, I'm from Knightsville, so I know this is a
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hometown for you area. So I appreciate all you do with the military. And, you know, and as a former
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veteran in the Air Force, I know that this is a, not something that would be supported by the majority
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of our existing military. And I think they're going to have a hard time recruiting in the future.
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And so I don't want to see the downfall of our security in the military, for sure, just like the
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All right. Well, hey, thanks for weighing in on that. And I actually want to get everybody's
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thoughts on this. If you believe that people should use the bathrooms in the military for their gender
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assigned at birth, I want you to press 1 now. So gender assigned at birth, press 1. If you believe
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that that service member can simply change their gender and then go into the locker rooms
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and bathrooms of something that's not their gender at birth, press 2. And if you're unsure,
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press 3. And who knows? We may get some interesting reactions to that. All right. We've got
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Lewis next from Milton. Again, if folks want to chime in, press star 3. But Lewis, thanks so much
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for chatting with me tonight. What's on your mind? I was just hoping we could swing the Senate
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back to the right with the absence of Ms. Feinstein. Is that possible?
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No, it is such that I think they're, you know, wheeling her around here and they're frozen in a lot
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of ways from moving some of the judges they want through the committee when she's not there. But
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I'm not holding out hope that the replacement for Feinstein in California is going to be someone
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that's going to move the Senate to the right. But let me ask you the question this way. What do you
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wish the Senate was doing right now that they're not doing? Because for me, I wish the Senate passed
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a budget. Instead, they just sit around and let Joe Biden delay our ability to get the country moving
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forward. So what's your biggest disappointment with the current Senate? I just feel like I feel
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like that in the budget, there's a lot of pork. There's a lot of stuff that could be cut out. Is
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that true? Or have we already cut it down to the bone? Oh, listen, you're you're paying right now for
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pride parades in Prague. You're you're paying for, you know, woke ism around the world. You're sending
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money to Ukraine by the billions. There's plenty of pork in that budget for us to cut. Don't you ever
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believe a politician that tells you there's not pork in the federal budget to cut? That's someone lying
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to you. Well, one last question. I'll leave you alone. I am scared to death of ESG and digital
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currency. Please tell me it's not going to happen. There's not going to be a central bank run by the
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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
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dead body here in Washington. I am so opposed to that concept of centralized finance. I think it is
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a way to surrender sovereignty and control over our own decision making. We've already done enough
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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.
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So I think we've done enough surrendering sovereignty to the UN, the World Health Organization.
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And we do a lot better to not be funding all that. I would run them out of New York and send
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them to Geneva. Amen. Well, hey, thanks so much for chiming in. I want to let everybody know that
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you seem to hold my similar view and the view of our caller when it came to this strange bathroom
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situation and really the overall movement toward wokeism in the military. 95% of those who participated in
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our poll held the position that you ought to use the facilities of your gender assigned at birth,
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3% opposed, 2% undecided. These are we started at 88% and these poll results are getting more
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lopsided the more we do them. It's it's pretty amazing. Jeffrey from Pensacola. Thanks so much
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for joining us this evening. What's on your mind?
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Good afternoon, Congressman Gates. Can you hear me? I can.
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Thank you so much for taking my call and wanted to thank you as well for using this really innovative
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tech platform to bring us all together. I won't if I ever break up, please let me know I I work on a
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location of base with a lot of radio frequency. So my calls can break up from time to time.
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Going back to your comments regarding the debt ceiling negotiations. Are you worried that including too many
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policy priorities will derail negotiations and risk a default on the national debt that would hurt everyone?
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No, it's a it's a good question. And it's something we really we really grappled with. And we
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probably could have put in a lot more. To be honest, I would have put in clawing back the money for the
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$325 million FBI facility. I probably would have not spent so much money on Ukraine. I would have put
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guardrails there. But we really felt like when you talk about work requirements, when you talk about
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energy and permitting, when you talk about, you know, getting the IRS out of a negative posture with
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our economy, that those things weren't just less spending, but they also supercharged the growth.
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I mean, think about it, even if work requirements don't really save you a lot of money, the fact that
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they get people working, increasing labor participation really has its its own positive
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value and effect. The same with energy dominance, the same with just the regulatory state. So I think
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that note that you make is a is a reasonable one, we really went back and forth on it. But we felt
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like all of these things were really important features. And it seems as though the White House
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has been has been somewhat willing on the work requirements and on the permitting reform. I doubt
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they'll work with us on the Green New Deal stuff. But what do you think is the most important concession
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for House Republicans to get out of this deal? Is it the overall spending levels to you? Or is it one of
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these policy concepts? Well, I think the debt limit exists for a reason to make sure Congress has a
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role to play. But I think the focus should definitely be made on raising the debt limit to ensure default
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does not happen just because it would hurt everyone on, you know, in every part of this country. So I
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would say, you know, a focus on spending tied to that debt limit increase would be the best way of
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keeping things between the line without it becoming a wish list for either side of the aisle.
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Hey, thank you. I appreciate the feedback. And we certainly hope to get some sort of posture
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that gets our economy moving and that gets this debt under control. Thank you so much. And good luck
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out there helping us support the mission. Thank you very much, sir. I appreciate that.
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All right. If folks want to participate, you can press star three. Joel, if folks got questions
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online, you can sit past those to me. We got Richard from Milton. Go right ahead.
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Hi, Matt. I just want to say that I wish you were running for president because I really think we
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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
00:36:10.480
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?
00:37:17.600
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
00:39:07.540
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?
00:40:36.500
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.
00:42:33.000
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.