The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - The Anchormen Show EP 121 - Fraud. Spying. Power w⧸ Pearson Sharp

00:00:00.000 Now, it's time for the Anchorman Podcast with Matt Gaetz and Pearson Sharp.

00:00:17.080 Welcome back to the Anchorman Show. I'm Matt Gaetz. And in moments, I'll be joined by my

00:00:21.620 co-host and friend, Pearson Sharp. We've got a lot to talk about regarding members of Congress,

00:00:26.220 investigations, indictments of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and everything going on

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00:01:21.040 allfamilypharmacy.com forward slash Matt. Use code Matt30 for 30% off. And joining me now is my

00:01:27.920 co-host, Pearson Sharp. Pearson, I know you're always unsatisfied. I know you can be a little

00:01:33.160 grumpy at times. I know you think that the change you want to see is never happening fast enough,

00:01:38.700 but I will not let you bring me down today. I am so stoked. I am so psyched. The Southern Poverty

00:01:44.960 Law Center indicted an 11-count indictment, money laundering, wire fraud. They were paying people

00:01:52.560 to go be racists in groups like the KKK, the Aryan Nation, other random weird entities.

00:02:01.760 They were paying people to be racist with donor money while telling the donors that they were

00:02:07.840 fighting racism. And obviously the reason they're doing this is that they have to show that the

00:02:14.140 vile white supremacy exists in order to bait people into giving them money. 0.67

00:02:21.160 If you wanted to go and get people to pay you to be a witch hunter, 0.98

00:02:25.420 you would have to prove that there are witches.

00:02:28.100 And here we saw some of the worst activity actually being paid for 0.99

00:02:33.260 by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

00:02:34.920 Pearson Sharp, I want your reaction to this because you have been holding it down

00:02:38.620 at One America News for years now.

00:02:41.300 You've been doing amazing reporting.

00:02:42.840 And when we look at what the Southern Poverty Law Center has said about One America News, they attacked Jack Posobiec.

00:02:49.420 They attacked One America News as a basically they didn't call us a hate group, but they put us in their hate watch reports.

00:02:58.820 What do you think about the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center?

00:03:02.000 I mean, I'm honestly a little disappointed that I didn't make their list after all the hard work I've been doing here.

00:03:08.500 They kind of blew me off. But honestly, it's great news.

00:03:12.840 It's long overdue. I think the fact that they were having to pay people to promulgate this

00:03:21.740 theory of white supremacy says a lot about how widespread white supremacy actually is in America.

00:03:27.460 I mean, I don't think I've ever met a white supremacist in my life. I don't know anybody

00:03:33.500 who has. And they're trying to tell us that they're around every street corner. They're in

00:03:38.320 your closet. They're going to pop out from under your bed and get you. And, you know, after they

00:03:44.000 were involved in the 2017 Charlottesville incident, like they were, they helped put that

00:03:48.800 together. And after that, I don't even think that would have happened without them. No, no,

00:03:53.840 I don't think so either. And their funding before that was something like, oh shoot,

00:03:59.200 I forget the numbers. Their funding doubled in one year after that. It was an astonishing number

00:04:05.040 that came in after that one incident in Charlottesville.

00:04:08.700 So clearly there's financial motivation to do this.

00:04:11.100 This ticks every box on the Democrat agenda.

00:04:15.480 You know, you're promoting white supremacy.

00:04:17.320 You're promoting anti-conservative agendas.

00:04:21.020 You are trying to stir the victimhood card 0.63

00:04:23.900 with minorities and blacks and everybody else. 0.99

00:04:26.780 And this drives everything that they're doing.

00:04:29.260 So I'm surprised we haven't uncovered this earlier.

00:04:32.660 and I will be shocked if we don't find more of this kind of activity

00:04:38.020 in other kinds of organizations and NGOs like this.

00:04:43.180 Well, that is such a key point.

00:04:45.740 I think that there are other NGOs out there that like to accuse people of racism, 0.70

00:04:52.240 white supremacy, anti-Semitism, and the whole thing is a grift.

00:04:57.060 And if you are one of those groups, Anti-Defamation League,

00:05:00.460 then maybe you need to be thinking about your tactics.

00:05:04.400 And again, we don't know what the tactics of any group are.

00:05:07.640 The Southern Poverty Law Center has an opportunity to defend themselves in court,

00:05:11.700 but the behaviors don't seem to be denied.

00:05:14.560 It was interesting to me, Pearson, that the SPLC, they did not deny what they did.

00:05:21.680 They said this is an important part of their research.

00:05:24.000 That you can't really fight racism unless you are funding racism.

00:05:28.820 is that defense going to work with not just even like a jury,

00:05:33.160 but all of corporate America that accepted these guys.

00:05:36.600 Remember, the Southern Poverty Law Center,

00:05:38.840 they are the basis of a lot of the content moderation policies at big tech.

00:05:44.780 And so does this represent a turning point to you?

00:05:47.480 I certainly hope so.

00:05:49.060 The fact that they had to try so hard to make it so visible says a lot.

00:05:53.820 But I want to be honest because this story is tremendous.

00:05:58.820 it's great that we're taking them down. They deserve to go down. And I think it's going to

00:06:02.460 happen in a fiery crash. But honestly, for me, this isn't a surprise. And this isn't really

00:06:09.320 something that motivates me as a conservative in America right now. It's like, yeah, okay,

00:06:13.580 that's great. But honestly, the real story here is that Kash Patel is finally doing something.

00:06:19.640 I mean, we have the January 6th prosecutions, the Russian collusion hoax, the attacks on

00:06:24.660 Trump during his campaign. Letitia James, Seth Rich, the Ukraine conspiracy, lockdowns, vaccines,

00:06:31.240 the freaking auto pen, James Comey. John Durham found that Obama and Clinton colluded against

00:06:37.320 Trump. Obama knew all those guys. He knew Trump was clean and that the FBI was making up charges.

00:06:43.080 Obama told him to run with it anyway. No indictments, no convictions, no arrests. Jack

00:06:48.000 Smith, John Brennan, Hillary Clinton, Christopher Wray, Mark Elias, Victoria Nuland, John Podesta,

00:06:54.040 Michael Sussman, Michael Byrd, Mark Kelly. No one's in jail. We have the Somali fraud.

00:07:01.380 Beyond the food aid, there's the Medicaid fraud, the autism services fraud, 0.98

00:07:05.460 the child care, day care, billing fraud. Nothing is happening. We had in January,

00:07:11.340 Pam Bondi sent Tim Waltz a strongly worded letter. So what? Like this is just, it's great.

00:07:19.440 Southern Poverty Law Center deserves to go down in flames, but there are other more important

00:07:23.660 things that I think we should be focusing on. So, yeah, that's that's my take. Well, I think

00:07:28.860 this new acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, is bringing the heat. I think he's doing a great

00:07:33.780 job. And you may see more action on that incredible list. I certainly hope so. By the way, we should

00:07:38.240 clip and put out to the entire world because I endorse it completely. Pearson, what's the next

00:07:42.620 headline you're watching? So now we're looking at Governor Newsom, who has apparently been

00:07:47.740 and bringing in 400,000 illegal aliens into our great state.

00:07:54.020 Apparently, in the last couple of years, he spent over a billion dollars

00:07:57.600 importing these migrants from poor countries to serve the state's democratic political machine

00:08:02.700 and elite-dominated economy, according to data provided by the Manhattan Institute in New York. 0.55

00:08:08.780 So that's a great story.

00:08:10.140 what are these illegal aliens that governor newsom is is paying to bring into the state doing 0.97

00:08:18.960 well i mean what illegals always do they come here and they soak up welfare and they take up 1.00

00:08:24.420 housing and they commit crime and you know they rape and murder and pillage our our state that's 0.79

00:08:29.280 just typically what they do um he was uh the story was that he wasn't directly you know putting these

00:08:36.220 people on planes and spending a billion dollars bringing them in the story was that he was

00:08:40.400 spending a billion dollars giving them to these ngos and these migrant services agencies uh like

00:08:47.780 catholic charities and one of them was uh to chirla which you probably know that name he spent

00:08:54.220 110 million dollars 110 million dollars on chirla which is a one-stop activist machine with the

00:09:02.800 ability to produce propaganda, engage in legal action, and most importantly, get people into

00:09:07.560 the streets. And these are the guys who last summer were burning down LA. I mean, these are

00:09:13.760 evil people. And he's given them $110 million so that they can bring terrorists into our country.

00:09:19.740 It's just astonishing that we have to put up with this. That's, that's a great story. Like,

00:09:24.820 that's something we should have the FBI going after, honestly.

00:09:27.860 no doubt about it now i i look at it and i wonder to myself what's going to be the newsom

00:09:36.540 immigration agenda in 2028 he's obviously running for president he's doing these things as governor

00:09:42.360 of california are we going to expect a version of gavin newsom in the democratic primaries that is

00:09:49.160 a you know borders are racist import the third world put everybody on welfare or are we going

00:09:57.080 to get a version of Newsom that moderates on this and kind of tries to bring the Democratic

00:10:02.320 Party back to what he calls more normal. What in his history would ever think that he would

00:10:08.380 try and moderate anything that he's doing? I mean, you want to know what he's going to do when he

00:10:13.820 gets in? We've seen what he's going to do. He has pushed the most radical, insane agenda that I have

00:10:20.380 ever seen in my life, consistently, every single thing that he does. And no one stops him. None of

00:10:27.500 the Democrats stand up and say, hey, buddy, that's too far. You need to step back. They're all on

00:10:32.680 board. So I don't think there is a bridge too far for him. And I don't think he's going to moderate

00:10:37.360 himself because he's proven that he doesn't need to. Somehow, like we've talked about, he keeps

00:10:41.780 failing upwards and getting rewarded for it. He's been doing it since he was in San Francisco. So

00:10:48.000 I think he is the political machine of the left-wing party. He is the epitome of all that

00:10:54.680 is evil and corrupt. And God help us if he gets in. I think that there are some areas, Pearson, 0.99

00:11:03.640 where he's tried to moderate the Democratic Party. And by the way, I don't think that that is

00:11:08.080 a sincere effort to bring moderation to our governance. I think that he wants to make an

00:11:14.440 electability argument to people who, in my opinion, lost three elections to Donald Trump.

00:11:20.400 He wants to have the Democratic Party be kind of a centrist entity and try to cast all of us

00:11:28.280 as right-wing radicals. And then if he gets elected, he wants to do the very things like

00:11:34.820 you're showcasing to our audience, where he's drawing in people illegally into the country 0.71

00:11:40.160 and wasting taxpayer money to do it. 0.64

00:11:42.360 But you mentioned failing up, and when it comes to national politics,

00:11:46.560 there's somebody else who has an interest in that.

00:11:48.540 Perhaps Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was not elected president,

00:11:51.300 but now, according to an Axios report, is actively seeking a job in the Trump administration.

00:11:57.280 People have talked about Secretary of War, if Pete Hegseth moves on,

00:12:01.060 Attorney General, or even a spot on the Supreme Court if we get a retirement there.

00:12:06.040 Question to you, Pearson Sharp. Do you want to see Ron DeSantis in the Trump administration? And if so, where?

00:12:12.540 I think I would I think I'd be all right with that. I know you're not his biggest fan, but I think that what I've seen out of Florida has been mostly good.

00:12:23.980 I was just reading today that he passed and I somehow missed this when it came out.

00:12:28.220 He passed the education bill on communism where all the students in Florida have to be educated on communism and its evils.

00:12:36.040 starting in the sixth grade, I believe, on up through high school.

00:12:39.940 And they have to be taught, you know, what communism does and how evil.

00:12:43.100 You know, that's phenomenal. I support that.

00:12:46.060 So, yeah, I think everything that I've seen him do has has been generally positive.

00:12:51.100 Florida is definitely a much better state since he's taken over.

00:12:54.800 Everybody in the country wants to move there, myself included.

00:12:58.520 So I think that says something about his leadership abilities.

00:13:01.340 And I think attorney general probably wouldn't be a bad spot for him.

00:13:06.040 Well, let me start by saying you would make a great Florida man.

00:13:09.420 And secondarily, I try to see Ron DeSantis through a clear and objective lens.

00:13:15.720 And I agree.

00:13:16.680 He has been a transformational governor.

00:13:18.720 He has done a great job for the state of Florida.

00:13:21.260 He just wasn't a really good candidate for the presidency.

00:13:24.400 And if he's pursuing a job like Supreme Court, maybe that reflects strong self-awareness.

00:13:30.200 Maybe this is a really positive thing.

00:13:32.000 Ron DeSantis pursuing a spot on the Supreme Court because he's young, he's healthy, he is a brilliant legal mind, he's undeniably conservative, he is fearless, and he's not going to be president.

00:13:45.560 And when you put all those together, maybe putting Ron on the Supreme Court would be effective.

00:13:50.080 Now, he had some pretty terse things to say about President Trump during the presidential campaign.

00:13:54.740 That's what campaigns are, rough and tumble.

00:13:56.940 Certainly, President Trump knows that. But do you think that Ron DeSantis said anything on the campaign that to you would be disqualifying to serve in the Trump administration?

00:14:06.700 Not that I recall. I you're right. It does get pretty contentious. And I think that's just the nature of it.

00:14:12.080 But Trump has proven time and time again that if you are loyal, if you pledge fealty and I don't mean selling out, I just mean that you show that you will support his agenda, that he's willing to forgive and forget.

00:14:26.000 I mean, look at Marco Rubio. They were at each other's throats on the campaign trail. I covered it when they were in Las Vegas back on his first term. And now they're best of friends. Trump can't find a position he doesn't want Rubio for at this point.

00:14:42.620 So I think DeSantis would be a phenomenal pick for the Supreme Court, but if they want that to happen, that's going to be, I mean, who's stepping down?

00:14:55.560 Who are we going to replace?

00:14:57.140 And can we do it fast enough before November, you know, before we lose the ability to get him in there?

00:15:03.900 I don't know.

00:15:05.000 That's a pretty tough timeline.

00:15:08.120 Yeah, I think so.

00:15:09.900 So, look, you do have two conservatives on the court who are aging, Justice Thomas, Justice Alito.

00:15:16.520 I have no inside knowledge that either is planning to retire.

00:15:19.880 But there are people saying, gosh, you know, we could lose the Senate.

00:15:23.800 I hope we don't, but we could lose the Senate.

00:15:26.200 And if we do, why wouldn't we take the opportunity to confirm a Supreme Court justice in his 40s who could serve for several decades?

00:15:35.240 That way you ice in somebody like a Clarence Thomas, like a Samuel Alito, with his brilliance and with his persuasive skills.

00:15:44.220 I mean, one of the things that's so bothersome to me is when these people want to be politicians on the bench.

00:15:50.500 And I don't think DeSantis would do that.

00:15:52.380 I think DeSantis would adhere to the rule of law.

00:15:55.060 I think he would be very effective on the court.

00:15:57.020 I think he would do a good job persuading other court members.

00:15:59.980 And by the way, he's eminently confirmable.

00:16:02.260 You put Ron DeSantis before this United States Senate, they will confirm him.

00:16:07.620 Do you see any challenges with this confirmation?

00:16:09.360 You have more faith in the Senate than I do at this point.

00:16:12.060 Well, they didn't confirm me, so I don't have that much faith in him.

00:16:14.320 But I do think they would confirm DeSantis.

00:16:17.740 Yeah, I hope so.

00:16:18.720 I mean, it would be great if we could replace Roberts or Barrett, but that's never going to happen.

00:16:23.220 So I don't know.

00:16:24.380 I hate to lose Thomas.

00:16:26.080 You know, he's one of my heroes, and that would be a real sad day to lose him from the Supreme Court.

00:16:32.500 But, you know, no one lives forever, so we've got to have someone strong to fill that position.

00:16:37.920 Off the top of my head, I can't think of a better person than DeSantis.

00:16:43.180 See, Ron DeSantis, you have our endorsement on the Anchorman podcast to be a justice on the Supreme Court.

00:16:49.300 But under any circumstance, yes, yeah, exactly.

00:16:52.160 I mean, come on, we obviously have it all together.

00:16:54.080 What's your next headline, Pearson?

00:16:56.080 Well, after that, we've got the unfortunate incident of Alex Stein, who was at a rally in Michigan giving a speech. 1.00

00:17:08.860 And he was accosted by one of the protesters verbally, a tranny who was just going off on him about their issues. 0.99

00:17:18.480 And, you know, he was very respectful about it. 0.99

00:17:21.040 And as the guy left, he turned around and said, you better watch out for a bullet in your neck.

00:17:26.080 And the shocking thing is not that he said that, because we expect that from these people,

00:17:31.520 but it's that, one, he got away with it, and two, the media came to his defense

00:17:36.840 and attacked Stein for what he was saying.

00:17:39.520 And Stein was just there very reasonably discussing these issues as a normal human being would.

00:17:44.820 And this guy threatens his life, and the media takes his side.

00:17:49.020 It's just insane the way they spin this kind of stuff, and it makes you fearful.

00:17:53.940 Like, what would you do in that position?

00:17:56.440 You know, you don't want to, you're sitting there, you're talking to these people, you're

00:17:59.200 trying to have a reasonable debate.

00:18:00.740 In the back of your mind, you're aware of what happened to Charlie Kirk.

00:18:04.160 You know that's a possibility now.

00:18:06.700 And you know you have a child and a wife at home.

00:18:10.120 You don't want to give up the high ground.

00:18:11.540 You don't want to back down and show that you're afraid of these people and they can

00:18:14.560 control you with just a threat like that.

00:18:16.200 But at the same time, these threats are real.

00:18:18.520 You know, in my mind, I was trying to think about it.

00:18:21.020 What would I do?

00:18:22.260 Would you back down?

00:18:23.220 I don't know. It's it's terrifying that we've come to a place where these these people, you know, that are point zero one thousand percent of the population are running the rest of us in circles.

00:18:33.400 It's just so disgusting that we have to live with this.

00:18:38.960 I averaged one death threat a week when I was in Congress, and it wasn't something where me as a grown guy with some notoriety and platforms could always fight back.

00:18:52.240 Sometimes it was an intern answering the phone.

00:18:55.480 Sometimes it was a staff member opening the mail.

00:19:00.000 And it is intended to terrorize.

00:19:03.300 It is intended to frighten.

00:19:05.500 And, you know, and I guess a bout of dark comedy, my staff actually had a wall in our congressional office where they would put up the photographs of all the people who had submitted death threats against us.

00:19:17.740 At times, the FBI and the Department of Justice would investigate and charge those.

00:19:21.640 At times, they wouldn't. It usually depended on an individual United States attorney and how they viewed these very vicious threats.

00:19:29.540 Sometimes they targeted me. Sometimes they targeted my parents. Sometimes they targeted my wife.

00:19:35.880 It usually went along with swatting, where people would call 911 in my community where I live in Niceville, Florida,

00:19:42.800 and say that me or my wife or my parents were killed or that we were being held hostage.

00:19:49.520 so much so that we literally had to have a protocol with our local sheriff's office

00:19:53.280 and our local police office about what to do when my family was swatted.

00:19:58.060 People would send, like, dozens of pizzas to my home, to my sister's home, to my parents' home.

00:20:04.900 And it never advanced the other side's politics, but it shows what they think of us.

00:20:10.520 Look, as much as I want accountability against the deep state,

00:20:14.400 As much as I cheerlead the Southern Poverty Law Centers being exposed for what they were up to,

00:20:21.920 I never want physical harm to come to my enemies.

00:20:26.400 I don't want anyone to be shot that I disagree with.

00:20:29.760 I don't want their spouses, their children, their parents to be tormented and terrorized.

00:20:35.320 And I think that's actually how most conservatives feel.

00:20:38.160 I mean, to conserve something is to nurture it, to cherish it, to hold it dear.

00:20:42.440 And I wonder what it says about our politics, that it does seem to be one side that is more interested in this type of tactic than the other.

00:20:51.360 Well, I mean, to your point, just you don't see conservatives going out and doing this.

00:20:57.000 I mean, maybe I've missed the stories. Maybe I've missed the headlines. It's possible.

00:21:00.980 But when you look at what comes up in the news over and over and over again, it's these radicalized leftists who are attacking people, who are threatening Supreme Court justices, who are rallying outside people's houses and throwing rocks at their windows.

00:21:18.340 You know, we have we have people in the administration who have to live on military bases because they're so threatened.

00:21:25.040 you just you don't see that from our side and we're the ones supposedly with all the guns

00:21:31.220 and and the other thing you know i agree that most of these threats are probably not to be

00:21:38.920 taken seriously i i had one threat one especially bad threat here where we basically had to shut

00:21:43.780 down the building and it resulted in an fbi investigation um nothing came of it but most 0.91

00:21:51.240 of them you know don't go anywhere the issue is this threat you know this is a tranny out there 1.00

00:21:57.080 threatening to shoot this guy and we know from their population these people more than likely 1.00

00:22:04.000 will shoot somebody you look at the for their percentage of population per capita they shoot

00:22:09.320 more people than almost anybody else all these major shootings we've had in the last couple of 0.50

00:22:13.400 years is it the hormones is it something specific about mental illness taking these crazy hormones

00:22:19.360 that throw their body oh it's you think it's the underlying mental well it's a combination i mean

00:22:23.660 you take you you have a fire and then you put more fuel on that fire what do you think's going

00:22:29.140 to happen like these people are nuts to begin with and they just start taking a cocktail of

00:22:33.940 chemicals what's that going to do to their brains and they live in a fairy tale world and and then

00:22:38.700 they get guns i democrats shouldn't have guns i mean we'll just put that out there if you want

00:22:43.960 to make america safe again take guns away from democrats be pretty simple in my opinion but

00:22:49.000 But Pierson, you know what would happen if there was a law that took guns away from Democrats,

00:22:53.320 they would call us Democrats.

00:22:54.900 They would be like, oh, Mac Yates is like a beatnik Democrat, he doesn't get guns anymore. 0.99

00:22:59.620 That's like what they do with these statistics about the white people killing people. 0.97

00:23:03.120 This is a serious question, though. 0.97

00:23:04.820 What about, do you think transsexuals should be denied gun rights? 0.99

00:23:07.680 Yeah, well, because it's a mental issue. 0.96

00:23:09.780 Just like any other mental issue, you know, where you get red flag for this or that, if

00:23:14.440 you have a mental disease, you shouldn't be allowed to have a weapon.

00:23:17.540 I think the number of incidents of violence that have come out of this microscopic community far 0.92

00:23:23.500 outweigh the Second Amendment's ability to protect them because they represent such a threat to the

00:23:28.420 rest of society. No, no, they should not have weapons, period. All right, I'm going to bring

00:23:35.440 us to our next headline. I want to go global with this, and I'm going right into the Pearson Sharp

00:23:40.840 Batcave. It's a subject you know very well, the U.S.-Russia relationship being impacted by this

00:23:46.680 war between the United States and Iran. And as Americans are seeing higher gas prices,

00:23:53.100 higher prices with fertilizer, food, product prices rising because petroleum is really the

00:24:00.460 feedstock of a lot of manufacturing, clothing, plastics, other goods. Everything. As all this

00:24:06.280 is going on, as all of this is going on, OFAC, which I have great respect for, especially under

00:24:12.120 President Trump. They go and unsanction a bunch of Russian oil that is on Russian tankers out on

00:24:20.020 the high seas so that that can help with this energy market shock that we've been dealing

00:24:27.000 with the closure of the Straits of Hormuz. And the reason I want to talk to you about it,

00:24:31.400 you've done incredible journalism on this war between Russia and Ukraine, and you essentially

00:24:35.640 have a thesis that the war is stupid, that the United States should actually ally with Russia 0.53

00:24:42.380 to try to solve many of the world's problems. And so I'm dying to get your reaction to almost 0.96

00:24:48.540 an admission by the United States government regarding the value of the U.S.-Russian

00:24:54.700 partnership in times of strife and chaos and war. I'm so excited when we get our Merriweather

00:25:00.880 Farms shipments in. You get a beautiful piece of ribeye. Look at that marbling. Now, I take it out

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00:25:28.280 I mean, I think it's a phenomenal story. It shows, I think, some great acumen on Trump's part. One, we can possibly help lower prices. I mean, that's a phenomenal step. Two, I think this just adds weight to my theory that Trump and Putin behind the scenes know what's going on and they're trying to work together as best as possible.

00:25:49.560 If we can unsanction this oil and help Russia and help ourselves, I mean, that's a win-win for everybody.

00:25:55.880 So kudos to Trump. Kudos to all of them for getting that to go through. 0.65

00:25:59.800 Of course, the left has their spin on the narrative.

00:26:02.640 But Russia should not be our enemy. I mean, period.

00:26:06.800 And I think this is a great step towards hopefully, I mean, everyone's focused on Iran right now,

00:26:12.120 but hopefully winding down a war that never should have existed in Ukraine.

00:26:16.540 where if this is like the start of the wave if this if this could ignite some momentum

00:26:25.340 for a stronger u.s russia relationship take just a moment pearson and detail for us

00:26:31.520 where we might see benefits in friendship as opposed to hostilities well energy would be a

00:26:37.800 huge one. Energy cooperation. We could, well, if we could become, I guess that's too much of a

00:26:49.680 fantasy to hope for. Eliminating NATO, the need for it, period, would be phenomenal. And Trump's

00:26:57.060 already sort of hinted that he wants to go that direction. But just the amount of money that we've

00:27:04.500 wasted on this war that could have gone to so many other things. I think having that money back

00:27:10.360 in America would have been phenomenally helpful over the last couple of years. The inflation,

00:27:16.140 the spending, the waste, the fraud, all of that has hurt America. So I think, and just, you know,

00:27:24.480 the threat of a looming war, having bombers flying over, you know, threatening each other

00:27:29.640 and international incidents and saber rattling,

00:27:32.480 just all of that dying down,

00:27:34.880 opening up the economic corridor,

00:27:36.700 cooperation in the Arctic,

00:27:38.200 which is, I think, a huge opportunity

00:27:39.540 that we're missing right now.

00:27:41.280 All of that is possible 1.00

00:27:42.560 if we can just put this stupid war to bed 1.00

00:27:45.700 and finally end what was manufactured 1.00

00:27:49.480 by the Democrats to begin with.

00:27:51.140 Russia never wanted this.

00:27:52.980 Trump never wanted.

00:27:53.660 The American people never wanted this.

00:27:54.940 The people of Ukraine never wanted this.

00:27:56.360 The people who were being kidnapped

00:27:57.360 off the streets in Ukraine.

00:27:59.640 never wanted this. So I think just all of the violence and pain and suffering that will 0.58

00:28:05.380 come to an end when we finally make friends again, and we're going to, it can't last forever,

00:28:11.540 will be just a tremendous step for everyone in the whole world.

00:28:17.660 I want to add one to the list, and I think that's a great list. But I think if the United States and

00:28:22.880 Russia were interoperable with more military capabilities, were sharing intelligence,

00:28:29.020 were working on geopolitics together, 0.80

00:28:32.160 that would be the worst thing in the world 0.99

00:28:35.260 for the rise of radical Islamic extremism. 0.97

00:28:38.880 And we could see that again in places like Egypt,

00:28:42.940 in places like Syria that seems to be going in the wrong direction.

00:28:46.820 And so maybe you can help educate our audience.

00:28:50.360 How does Vladimir Putin, how does Russia view the threat

00:28:53.860 of radical Islamic extremism? 0.89

00:28:55.880 And how could that be a real force multiplier for safety in the world?

00:29:00.840 Well, I want to add to that, too. I think that if we could cooperate, since Biden pushed Russia away and started this, Russia and China have become a lot closer out of necessity.

00:29:12.620 And I think that is one of the worst things possible for the United States, for the Western world in general. 0.56

00:29:19.000 China should be our number one adversary. They should be the evil that we're fighting. 0.99

00:29:22.680 I mean, they're horrific. All the things that they're doing to our country, the fentanyl and the drugs and the subversion and just everything, planting bombs at our military bases, spying on us.

00:29:35.480 But they're paying Congress. They're paying our lawmakers. They have everybody in their pocket.

00:29:39.660 So it's really easy for them to do that and really hard for us to go after them. 0.90

00:29:42.720 So I think an alliance with Russia would strengthen us dramatically in curtailing China's growing power, which is a threat to freedom everywhere in the world. 0.91

00:29:53.800 As far as Islamic threats, which you know where I stand on that, Russia has its own set of issues. 0.97

00:30:01.960 You know, they have a lot of Muslims in Russia.

00:30:05.020 You know, they have a lot of people from Kazakhstan still live in Russia.

00:30:08.960 um chechnya you know they've had terrorists come out of chechnya before now the the leader of

00:30:15.320 chechnya and putin are close at this point but it hasn't always been that way and there's still a

00:30:19.300 lot of people you know they had the the attack on the school the terrorist attack on the school

00:30:23.180 that was horrific um i think russia who is intimately involved in syria at this point and

00:30:30.000 you know as we know iran would probably welcome a chance to work with the united states in these

00:30:35.520 areas. They've been in Afghanistan. They've been heavily involved in the Middle East for

00:30:39.640 decades. So that would be phenomenal for us as far as getting rid of this existential threat 1.00

00:30:45.940 that is rapidly growing around the world. I would love to see that happen.

00:30:54.840 Chinese President Xi Jinping said that there was a no-limits relationship between China and Russia,

00:31:01.200 No limits. Financial support, military support, support in international organizations.

00:31:08.380 And I just wonder, given that this war has kind of calcified an anti-Russia attitude with a lot of people in Washington, D.C.,

00:31:18.200 is it possible, with a turning point in how we think about some of these things, to pull Russia away from China?

00:31:24.660 Has this gone on so long and created such a negative sentiment that it's inevitable that Russia and China will now be fused?

00:31:32.540 Because you and I both know in the post-World War II era, one of the major geopolitical objectives of Republican and Democrat administrations in the past

00:31:40.960 has been to keep the largest producer of energy on the planet away from such a strong alliance with the largest consumer of energy on the planet.

00:31:49.600 Do you think that there's a chance to fix what's gone wrong here?

00:31:52.760 There is a chance. But the problem is we have to prove that we deserve the chance because we have burned. And I mean, we, the Western world, NATO, Brussels, the UK, America, Washington, we have burned Russia so many times, so hard over the last couple of decades since the fall of the Soviet Union, lied to them repeatedly, villainized them for our own goals, that they have a pretty bad taste in their mouth.

00:32:22.280 as far as trusting the United States, who, from the people I've talked to, they view as 0.69

00:32:25.940 one of the great evils in the world because of our alignment with demonic forces. You know,

00:32:32.560 they view this as a spiritual war. And Russia is holding up the Western Christian world, 0.61

00:32:39.100 the last bastion of that. So we have to prove that we would not turn on them again. And that's 0.98

00:32:46.220 going to be a tough pill to swallow. If I were Russian, I'd have a hard time believing that our 1.00

00:32:50.580 stripes had changed. You know, Trump's in office. That's phenomenal. We'd need another 20 years of

00:32:57.460 Trump, I think, to turn this around because it's we're the neighbor, you know, down the road and

00:33:04.480 out of sight. China's the neighbor who lives next door. Their houses are attached. They live in a

00:33:09.720 townhouse. You know, they can't afford to just turn their backs on China. They have to be very 0.95

00:33:16.980 careful with what they do there because China, if Russia and China went to war, I don't think

00:33:21.800 Russia would win. I mean, they have more advanced technology, but the Chinese have more people to 0.99

00:33:27.480 throw at the war and nobody's in Siberia. They can't control that border. So Russia has more 0.98

00:33:35.560 interest, I think, at this point in maintaining a good relationship with China than they do with

00:33:39.000 the United States. But like I said, it would be in everyone's advantage if they could get that

00:33:43.660 good relationship back, but we just have to earn it. I hope there's a chance to do it. I agree with

00:33:51.780 you. The scar tissue from this conflict could, uh, could last for quite some time. What's your

00:33:56.940 next headline? Well, we have a great story out of Virginia, something finally that we can be

00:34:03.000 satisfied about. Uh, you know, the, the Democrats out there, the communists, commiecrats, uh, are

00:34:09.920 trying to eliminate Republicans out of the whole state, trying to gerrymander it. They had a six to

00:34:15.920 five congressional district map, and now they try to gerrymander it into a 10 to one with no

00:34:21.020 Republicans at all, essentially. And a judge just struck that down and said, no, you can't do that.

00:34:27.900 We need to take a look at this and make sure it's actually legal. So now it's going to go to

00:34:34.000 the Supreme Court, which it's a seven member Supreme Court in Virginia. It's four to three

00:34:40.660 Republicans to Democrats. So there's a possibility it could go our way, but these are little c

00:34:46.200 conservatives on the Supreme Court. And they were the ones who allowed this map, this vote to go 0.92

00:34:52.600 forward in the first place. They tried to shut it down previously. The legislature did. And the

00:34:57.940 Supreme Court said, no, we're going to let it go to a vote. So it's anyone's guess what's going to

00:35:03.660 happen. I don't have a lot of faith in these weak-kneed Republicans anymore, but there is a

00:35:08.700 chance that it could be permanently shut down. Well, a chance, but I actually think your analysis

00:35:15.160 there is spot on. This is one trial court ruling on one injunction matter. This is not final. This

00:35:22.140 is not determinative. And you're right. If the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of Virginia

00:35:26.640 allowed this matter to go to the voters, if they allowed it to be the subject of an election that

00:35:33.380 incur at all these costs, well, why would they then go and invalidate it later? I think it would

00:35:38.760 have to be a very persuasive order by the trial court to have the Supreme Court not ultimately

00:35:47.000 validate what is going to be approved by the voters of Virginia, which is this terribly

00:35:51.700 gerrymandered system. And I think it teaches us a really important lesson about how the Democratic

00:35:57.740 Party campaigns and governs in the modern era, there's a real delta there. I served in Congress

00:36:04.720 with Abigail Spanberger, the current governor of Virginia. She always took great care to project

00:36:10.840 this image that she's a moderate, she's a national security professional, she's not one of the kind

00:36:16.840 of purple-haired, woketopian leftists, but she always voted with them. She always voted with

00:36:23.520 Nancy Pelosi. She always voted with some of the most extreme power grabs from the left, some of 0.98

00:36:29.160 the extreme social policies. And once she got into that governor's mansion, the moderation was gone.

00:36:37.140 And I don't think Abigail Spanberger is unique in this respect. Right now, there's a big

00:36:41.000 governor's race going on in your home state of Ohio. And in Ohio, Vivek Ramaswamy is the

00:36:48.140 Republican candidate, and I've not seen a poll showing him within even two or three points of

00:36:53.260 the lead in that contest. And the Democrat there, she's running as a moderate, but she will do the 0.59

00:37:00.560 exact same thing as Abigail Spanberger, essentially the exact same thing as Gavin Newsom. Moderates in

00:37:06.600 the Democratic Party are dead in 2026, and I think that they will campaign one way, but every single

00:37:14.840 governmental decision is going to go through the praxis that is approved by George Soros

00:37:19.520 and the crowd out in Silicon Valley. Am I wrong about that? No, you're absolutely right,

00:37:23.660 which is horrifying. The moderate is dead. The extreme eats them alive. They put them up in the

00:37:33.100 spotlight and say, you're not left enough. And then they just destroy them. And there's a bill

00:37:40.840 that Virginia is, I'm not sure if they passed it or if they're working on passing it, but

00:37:47.540 it's terrifying because it would essentially invalidate all the Republican voters in the

00:37:54.800 state. The concept is if Republicans, if there's like a presidential election and Virginia

00:38:02.660 votes for the Republican president, the voters choose a Republican, if New York and California

00:38:10.560 voters choose a Democrat, then Virginia's electors will side with them and choose the

00:38:18.320 Democrat and invalidate all the voters. And they're serious about this. I feel like I remember

00:38:25.700 it. Why would somebody in the Commonwealth want to dilute their own vote? To me, I love being a

00:38:31.760 Floridian. I love being a part of contributing to Florida's decision on where the votes are going

00:38:38.440 to be cast in the electoral college it is like a self-defeating self-harm uh political act to say

00:38:46.320 we are actually going to ignore the votes of our own voters and what if some democrat runs it up

00:38:52.440 enough in california new york that's where we're going to send our electoral votes yeah what is

00:38:57.860 compelling about this message what am i missing well it's not the voters who want that i mean

00:39:03.600 that's the point. This is a top down decision. And the Democrats, they vote in block. And if

00:39:09.460 you're a Democrat, you're a radical lefty in Virginia and you think, oh, there's a chance

00:39:14.560 a Republican might win here. Well, how do we fix that? Oh, we can vote with New York and California.

00:39:20.460 Hey, that's a pretty good idea. We should do that. And, you know, I agree with you that you

00:39:26.240 don't want to sell out your vote if you're a Virginian to somebody else. But I'm also thinking,

00:39:30.960 you know if we're we're here in california if we had a way to vote with ohio or utah or something

00:39:41.040 you know where california's vote would be invalidated we would go with whatever ohio voted

00:39:45.240 for i might take that deal that might sound like a pretty good proposition from where i'm standing

00:39:50.240 you know what if you want if you want to contribute to another state's electoral vote

00:39:57.400 count, move there would be my answer. No, I agree. I don't get it. And I wonder, are there other

00:40:03.060 states that were concerned might follow that type of a decision? I'm sure there are. I'm sure there

00:40:11.340 are. If this passes, I mean, this is what we're seeing them do. They're trying to work around

00:40:17.680 Republicans. They're trying to cut us out of every possible place that we exist. They did it here in

00:40:23.360 California. We just lost five of our congressional members. We're down to four now in a state that

00:40:32.460 has 52. So any chance they have to cut us out of existence, they're going to do that. And this is

00:40:41.160 going to spread. This is so insane that if Virginia passes it, everybody's going to want to do it to

00:40:45.720 get rid of Republicans. They don't care about representation. They care about power. That's all

00:40:50.300 this has ever been about. Well, and I want to make a principled argument against a national

00:40:56.620 popular vote and for the Electoral College. We are not just the United Citizens of America. We

00:41:02.560 are the United States of America. And states have dignity. They have purpose. They have structure.

00:41:09.180 You are a citizen of your state, in addition to being a citizen of the country. And the move for

00:41:15.400 a national popular vote is basically to create massive centers of voter fraud in urban areas.

00:41:22.040 And by the way, kudos to James O'Keefe for putting out reports recently showcasing how

00:41:27.060 on Skid Row in California, votes, petitions, political participation, it's just all being

00:41:34.600 bought and sold. And so they want a national popular vote. They want to go to places where

00:41:40.160 they have huge voter bases and no rules. And then they want to make the people of Florida

00:41:45.080 and Ohio and the suburbs and the rural areas of this country. Just live with it. And that isn't

00:41:50.600 politics. That is the type of stuff that I fear could lead to violence, and we would never want

00:41:57.120 to see that happen. And so I think that the Electoral College gets a lot of unfair criticism,

00:42:03.160 and I think that it's okay to stand up for the dignity of our states. What's your argument for

00:42:07.460 or against the Electoral College? No, I would completely agree with that. We need the Electoral

00:42:11.140 College to balance out these massive blue centers, these massive blue utopias that spring up wherever 0.86

00:42:17.300 the Democrats congregate. You have centers, these bastions of Democrats that run ragged

00:42:25.640 the rest of the population. When you look at the maps of the United States, when you have an

00:42:31.140 election, the country's red, Matt. It's freaking red. And you have these tiny blue dots on the

00:42:38.220 coasts. And those destroy everybody else because there's so many freaking weirdos who live there. 0.97

00:42:44.320 We need the Electoral College. That's the only thing that's saving us right now.

00:42:49.640 Amen. Matt and Pearson will stand for the Electoral College. Maybe the only college

00:42:54.020 that we're in favor of is the Electoral College. Absolutely, at this point.

00:42:56.400 All right, let's go to another headline. Here's one I got for you. Okay.

00:43:00.820 Lauren Boebert has just found out that she was under criminal investigation by the FBI

00:43:07.600 for more than a year for the terrible crime of giving her family a tour of the Capitol

00:43:15.300 as she was being sworn in to Congress.

00:43:18.560 Now, I am so taken by this story because, first of all,

00:43:23.780 if anybody was going to do a recon tour of the Capitol to tell others where entrances were and hallways were,

00:43:30.660 you definitely wouldn't pick someone who was a freshman member of Congress who just showed up.

00:43:35.260 When I got to Congress, it took me 18 months to figure out where the bathrooms were, and it was so wild and so crazy, but it didn't stop.

00:43:43.720 Even after prosecutors put in writing that there was no basis for this whatsoever, that it did look like a woman just giving her family a tour, they still subpoenaed her bank records.

00:43:57.380 They still went through her travelogues.

00:44:00.220 They were trying to dragnet the life of Lauren Boeber to try to find any criminal activity 0.97

00:44:05.620 because the woman gave her family a tour of her workplace.

00:44:09.560 Your reaction?

00:44:11.020 I mean, I'm having trouble wrapping my head around that story, honestly.

00:44:15.900 I can't fathom a legitimate reason for going after someone like that,

00:44:20.080 which just tells you that there is no legitimate reason, that it's purely politically motivated,

00:44:23.400 which is what everything, that's everything they do.

00:44:25.100 they just wanted an excuse to to sniper someone and and gain another seat in congress the fact

00:44:32.200 that they never went after swalwell until this very moment you know it tells you they don't care

00:44:37.680 about corruption they don't care about what you're doing criminality they just wanted to eliminate a

00:44:43.620 seat a conservative seat you know thank god they didn't succeed but who knows what the next effort

00:44:48.620 will be well and what's wild to me pearson is they had a judge in on it like a judge signed

00:44:55.100 these warrants that's wild can you imagine that oh hey your honor hey your honor we have we we've

00:45:01.380 got this video of a woman giving a tour to her family please sign this warrant to give us access

00:45:07.260 to all of her bank records and her calendar and everywhere she's ever been i mean it shows i think

00:45:15.180 how important a warrant requirement is in this whole FISA debate.

00:45:18.720 Like, if it's that easy to get a warrant where they can go and crawl around the life of Lauren Boebert

00:45:23.200 for a year based on a family tour, then a warrant isn't too much to ask for

00:45:27.780 if the federal government wants to spy on American citizens.

00:45:31.620 I'm sure you've been watching this FISA debate.

00:45:33.820 Do you think if the federal government wants to query the data of Americans,

00:45:38.260 even if it was collected incidentally, that they ought to be able to do so without getting a judge involved?

00:45:43.060 Absolutely not.

00:45:44.240 100% not. If there's anyone I don't trust with my data, it's the United States government.

00:45:49.740 They absolutely need a warrant. And I think it's appalling, appalling, Matt. There's no word

00:45:56.760 for how outraged I am that the majority of the United States of America is demanding that we

00:46:06.960 have free and fair elections, that we pass the SAVE Act. 83% of America wants this passed,

00:46:14.680 Democrats and Republicans. And the Senate can't do it. But wait. That brings us to our next

00:46:23.480 headline. When they decide that they want to spy on us, they're all on board. They have time for

00:46:31.600 that. Thune can get that passed. That's no problem. But we can't freaking save our own

00:46:38.680 elections. It's sickening, Matt, that we have to live with these people and let them just destroy

00:46:46.400 our country. It does feel like we've lost momentum by not passing the Save America Act. And I give

00:46:55.060 enormous credit to President Trump. I mean, he was out there every day, publicly, privately,

00:46:59.760 doing anything to get the Senate, if you weren't going to pass it, at least force the Democrats to

00:47:04.640 stand up and say why they're against voter ID and proof of citizenship. Now, this brings us to our

00:47:10.300 next headline. You're following some criticism coming from Ana Paulina Luna directed at John

00:47:14.820 Thune. What's that about? Well, that he won't pass the SAVE Act. I mean, specifically that.

00:47:20.780 He has every opportunity here and he's chaired it or he's put it aside and said they don't think

00:47:26.140 they have time for it. They can't make it happen. They're going to look into sexual assaults or

00:47:31.360 something like that and try and pass FISA. Yeah, this is the one thing, the one thing that we

00:47:41.380 should all rally around. And if there's anything that the Senate and Congress could ever have

00:47:45.700 passed, it would have been this. Thune needs to go. He's a criminal, in my opinion, an absolute

00:47:51.200 criminal. He's getting paid to do nothing and he's making the most of it. And America is suffering 0.98

00:47:57.180 while he's out there making these speeches about not having time or ability to pass something or

00:48:01.860 to get rid of the filibuster while we have a freaking chance and just ramrod everything that

00:48:07.640 Trump wants to do through. Get it all passed, all of it, so that we can't have these Democrats take 0.77

00:48:13.580 it back as soon as the next president comes in and wipe all of Trump's accomplishments out. 0.92

00:48:18.680 It's disgusting, Matt. 0.97

00:48:19.880 I'm sick to my stomach over this.

00:48:23.600 John Thune's never been charged with a crime.

00:48:25.480 We should point that out.

00:48:26.380 And you're allowed to have your opinion if you think that there's not been a legal basis for him to draw a salary with what we see going on in the Senate.

00:48:34.060 And I do worry that it's demoralizing to our voters.

00:48:37.920 I worry that when voters see that you can't even get voter ID, what you start to tell them is you don't really cherish their vote.

00:48:45.120 If a Republican government won't stop legitimate votes from being diluted,

00:48:50.480 then we're not really telling people that their vote is important.

00:48:55.100 And if you signal that enough times, people will start to believe it.

00:48:58.600 And then they won't vote.

00:48:59.560 And then what you get is Skid Row voting 11 billion times

00:49:04.380 and regular Americans just being stuck with those consequences.

00:49:07.940 So let me put you on the spot, Pearson.

00:49:09.860 If John Thune weren't the majority leader of the Senate,

00:49:12.400 Who do you want to lead the Republican team in the House of Lords?

00:49:18.580 I don't know that I have a person in mind, honestly.

00:49:22.460 My outrage exceeds my ability to pick somebody at this point.

00:49:27.380 I think we should just burn the place down and start over, you know, metaphorically.

00:49:32.400 We just need a new crop of people who take this country seriously.

00:49:35.620 Well, let me serve one up to you.

00:49:37.200 Who would you choose?

00:49:37.920 the leader of the Republican Party in the United States Senate should be Senator Rick Scott of

00:49:45.740 Florida. He was a transformational governor. He is a fearless advocate for the president's agenda.

00:49:51.620 You know what Rick Scott said he would do if Democrats wouldn't confirm the president's

00:49:55.760 choices? He would work with Mike Johnson, put the Senate into recess, and unlock the entire

00:50:01.020 government for Donald Trump to be able to fill those billets, put his team in place, and save

00:50:06.160 the country. John Thune won't do that. And I think it's fair for people to ask why. He's not passing

00:50:12.020 our bills. He won't give Trump recess appointments. Rick Scott would do those things. Rick Scott would

00:50:17.640 get those executive orders on the table. He would ensure that Democrats had to actually do more than

00:50:23.100 send a scheduling email to invoke the filibuster. Rick Scott for majority leader. I'm here for it.

00:50:28.280 Are you on the team? I'm on whoever gets the job done. At this point, a promise from any of these

00:50:33.620 people is worth nothing. So I'd just like to see something get done. Americans are hurting.

00:50:38.660 We're hurting hard. This is a really rough time. We can't afford anything anymore. And it doesn't

00:50:43.900 feel like anyone in Congress or Senate anywhere cares what's happening to us. So yeah, anyone who

00:50:49.540 can get it done, I'm behind, but I don't think anyone's going to do anything, honestly.

00:50:54.700 C. Pearson, we start the show with this great indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center,

00:50:59.220 a restoration of free speech, a new guy in the attorney general's seat moving cases forward,

00:51:05.720 doing a great job, and it ends with you being disappointed in the United States Senate.

00:51:09.660 Such is this episode of Anchorman.

00:51:11.760 Thanks, as always, Pearson Sharp, for joining us.

00:51:13.800 We'll be back next week.

00:51:14.960 Thanks, Matt.

00:51:29.220 Thank you.

The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - May 19, 2026

The Anchormen Show EP 121 - Fraud. Spying. Power w⧸ Pearson Sharp

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