The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - The Anchormen Show Episode 67 - MAGA Culture w⧸ Brick Suit

00:00:00.000 now it's time for the anchorman podcast with matt gates and dan ball

00:00:11.360 welcome back to another episode of anchorman i'm matt gates i host the matt gates show here on one

00:00:21.220 american news every night nine o'clock eastern six pacific on weekdays and this is our special

00:00:26.680 project where we get to get friends together and have more extended discussions about things going

00:00:31.140 on in life the news politics and i i have with us for this a program one of the great icons of the

00:00:39.920 maga movement someone i've known for a few years he does not miss the major events that drive the

00:00:46.600 energy and enthusiasm for our cause uh we've been through a lot together and so i'm really looking

00:00:52.600 forward to it but first are you ready for the flu season or are you just hoping for the best

00:00:57.400 don't get caught off guard be prepared with all family pharmacy their process is simple and

00:01:01.820 straightforward a licensed doctor reviews every order and the prescription is included unlike big

00:01:06.400 chain pharmacies that push the flu shot is the only option all family pharmacy believes in medical

00:01:10.880 freedom and gives you real options you pick the medicines you know work for you now's the time to

00:01:16.100 stock up your cabinet they have everything you need tamiflu for flu treatment and prevention

00:01:20.500 antibiotics antivirals ivermectin hydroxychloroquine immune support and more than 200 medications to

00:01:26.420 choose from it's my go-to prescription pharmacy and i also get supplements delivered right to my door

00:01:32.000 shipping is fast and if you need it right away overnight is also available be proactive prepare

00:01:37.200 now and visit allfamilypharmacy.com forward slash matt use code matt 10 to save 10 again that's

00:01:42.960 allfamilypharmacy.com forward slash matt code matt 10 let's get to it brick suit thank you for

00:01:50.120 joining me here in set uh in studio and first like just to set the stage for the kind of the the

00:01:57.920 rarefied air you occupy among the activists and influencers and the heartbeat give me the origin

00:02:06.060 story how how how how did you come to adopt this persona that has become like recognizable at all

00:02:14.740 things maga well before before i give the story congratulations to you and ginger oh thank you

00:02:19.420 thank you we're wonderful news i mean i i know i see those posts i see them on ginger's account as

00:02:24.420 well and it's just it's just i'm very happy for for all three of you oh thank you we we are blessed

00:02:28.920 so um the origin story is way back let's go back to donald trump's first election um 2016 i'm not a

00:02:38.200 registered voter i'm a conservative in california not involved in politics voted for reagan in 84

00:02:44.500 never voted again in any election okay 2016 rolls around i want president trump to win

00:02:51.820 i was not convinced he would be a good president but i hated hillary hated hillary okay why oh well

00:02:59.440 how long was the show i don't know yeah but like give me like give me like the number one thing like

00:03:04.720 word association hillary clinton 0.90

00:03:06.880 crooked still it's still a trump word but she really is she's the worst yes she's just a vile 1.00

00:03:16.680 person and i did not want her to be okay so that motivates you so you get in the game so well i still

00:03:22.700 wasn't in the game i'm just on the sidelines still i want trump to win i'm on the donald on reddit

00:03:27.720 the best subreddit ever on that site and if reddit does nothing else of consequence giving birth to

00:03:34.440 the donald is is enough for me so i'm following how many people are in that community there were a lot

00:03:40.460 because i've heard about it as a social phenomenon there were a lot and you know and it took that

00:03:45.220 website by surprise because we were pulling memes from everywhere we were making memes we were pulling

00:03:50.960 from 4chan they were all getting up there and they had no idea how to keep this influence off of their

00:03:56.380 site and they were not let's just say they weren't conservative friendly so

00:04:00.240 you find your way to the donald find my way to donald i start doing memes after uh that famous

00:04:08.960 president trump meme of him wrestling the cnn logo comes out yes and then cnn threatens to dox the person

00:04:15.020 who made that okay so that's what got me off the sideline i started doing memes and then as we know

00:04:21.220 in like 2018 after the midterms social media companies started catching up to how do we

00:04:27.680 quash down these conservatives and you started seeing accounts canceled on facebook on youtube

00:04:34.100 on on twitter at the time you know alex jones stefan molyneux uh you know all sorts of people

00:04:40.660 their accounts were just going away and i started thinking well if you can't have first amendment

00:04:46.660 on the web i'm just going to do it in real life and i got my first maga hat um and i started wearing

00:04:56.720 it out in san diego but the the online censorship drove you drove me to do it in real life wow that's

00:05:03.640 what drove me to do it in real life this is the online because a lot of people get demoralized by it

00:05:07.640 correct and this was you know and the stories were coming out that time it was like you know the kid

00:05:12.080 a whataburger in texas who got assaulted because he had a hat you remember all the stories about

00:05:16.520 people getting you know physically accosted because they were wearing a mega hat right there

00:05:21.240 were a lot of them and so i didn't really know what to expect so the first time that i'm wearing

00:05:25.960 my mega hat in public i'm just going to like the most liberal shopping mall i can think of fashion

00:05:30.680 valley here in san diego amazing and i'm just walking around fashion valley just camping out in the

00:05:36.240 apple store you know setting all the home pages to the donald doing my thing just having some fun

00:05:41.300 and then when i was done i went to of all places i think it was cheesecake factory just to get some

00:05:47.000 some dinner and i ordered steak which is i don't know go figure that but when i came to pay

00:05:52.220 my bill was taken care of my bill was taken care of so somebody saw me wearing the hat

00:05:58.700 and paid it for me did you see anyone else in the cheesecake factory wearing a hat no oh no no

00:06:04.340 maybe no nobody was wearing hats well right maybe it was someone that didn't have the own courage

00:06:09.720 it's exactly what it was it's exactly what it was you know um it's just people then i realized

00:06:15.240 there is this wellspring of support for the president people aren't willing to support

00:06:18.660 to demonstrate in public and let's be honest there are some people who probably can't do it

00:06:23.920 they might be lawyers they might work in the entertainment industry they might be married

00:06:28.500 it's true so for whatever reason they can't let their their trump flag fly right so to speak

00:06:34.460 and but their little their little act of protest was to buy your steak at the cheesecake factory right

00:06:40.780 or just i love it just appreciative you know so then i would wear i would wear the hat so you're

00:06:45.120 getting positive reinforcement positive reinforcement some negative reinforcement probably oh yeah yeah

00:06:49.160 but but not not a lot because you know even back then when anti-trump hysteria was at probably

00:06:56.160 its peak you still wouldn't get that much because people would not you know they just behave

00:07:01.760 differently online there are paper tigers when you meet them in person you know usually you're also

00:07:08.120 a tall guy well you know you know i wish i was 10 feet taller like all walls do but uh you know

00:07:14.780 a little inside trump joke there but um you know it just it just really it was for the most part

00:07:23.560 positive okay so what brings you to the rallies so yeah so so my dad and i had a trip where he was

00:07:30.680 already back east and i was flying to meet him in dulles airport and we were going to go up to

00:07:37.120 pennsylvania and i had the last two days of that trip free in dc and so i'd already been to two rallies

00:07:42.980 by then and i was thinking well you know what if i'm going to be in dc i need something else to really

00:07:48.320 trigger the leftists more than just the hat that i wear and i found this online there you go i just

00:07:55.060 looked up for some reason it came to my head wall suit and i typed in wall suit and this came up

00:08:00.820 and certainly the best 80 i've ever spent in terms of you know earned media or wherever but you know

00:08:07.800 just just totally crazy so i'm i'm just like i buy this to wear like on the mall i'm thinking i'm

00:08:14.280 gonna go buy the white house maybe to the capitol that's gonna be my my dc trip and the day before

00:08:21.640 i'm scheduled to leave san diego president trump announces a rally in montoursville pennsylvania

00:08:27.300 small small little town airport rally and i look at the calendar and and the map and it's only

00:08:35.420 it's only like 120 miles away from where my vacation already was and it was in the last two days that i had

00:08:41.960 free so i'm like well i gotta go to that rally so i go to that rally and the first place i ever wear

00:08:50.340 the trump suit at a rally the wall suit at a rally i'm changing in the ada porta potty because it has

00:08:57.500 the most room so you know i'm sleeping out there overnight um i was second in line behind a couple

00:09:03.400 from nebraska who had driven out there getting eaten live by mosquitoes i don't have an umbrella

00:09:08.500 it's raining i'm using i'm using the garment bag you know i'm sitting in a chair but then rally energy

00:09:13.960 kicks in the next day i put on the suit and i get to the front row and then president trump saw me in

00:09:22.160 the front row and he's like look at that guy look at get him up here get him up here so you know i went

00:09:28.900 up on stage and i i don't remember much about it matt honestly everything i remember from a certain point

00:09:37.040 it's really just what i watched on youtube later i remember people telling me you know get up there

00:09:41.600 he's calling you and i'm thinking as i'm climbing over the barrier those metal bike racks it's got

00:09:46.520 the flag secret service going nuts the whole time exactly like a normal person like where's the secret

00:09:51.260 service where do i get in no i just start climbing over the barrier and the things that i can remember

00:09:56.020 thinking to myself are don't trip and don't step on the flag two excellent pieces of self-advice don't fall

00:10:03.780 don't step on the flag but you get up there i get up there i shake his hand uh say a few words tell

00:10:10.780 him i'm from san diego um i don't really remember what he said to me or everything i said to him because

00:10:17.440 i just it was like an out-of-body automatic everybody was cheering because of the suit everyone

00:10:23.740 saw this energy and incarnation of support for what was the driving policy of that campaign correct

00:10:32.360 and and uh you were this bundle of energy bounding around on stage i remember watching it i remember

00:10:39.600 being so thrilled and so so you do that and this number i'm sure is going to shock my audience

00:10:45.500 how many trump rallies have you been to i don't count them okay i don't um so like almost i had to get

00:10:53.560 no it's not as many as people think because you know there are times during a campaign where he'll do

00:10:58.040 three in a day and obviously i can only be at one sure so um if i had to guess actual rallies is

00:11:05.720 maybe somewhere around 60 ish but then there's other events too like you know the where he'd be

00:11:10.880 talking at like you know i don't i so so so there are a lot of people who've never been to a trump

00:11:15.880 rally you know if they live in an area that's not a swing state you just don't get them all the time

00:11:20.800 right how would you describe as a man who's been to like 60 trump rallies and we always see each other

00:11:27.100 take some photos it's it's this warm experience how would you describe to someone who's never been

00:11:32.400 but just uh sees the portrayal on mainstream media

00:11:37.180 for the for the most part the portrayal on mainstream media is really doesn't capture it at all

00:11:45.680 and to the extent that they cover pre-rally meetings it's usually negative and in some cases

00:11:52.300 it's used as a foil i mean you know like there are people who go out there to shoot content at trump

00:11:58.380 rallies and they really go out there to make fun of the people who are there to support the president

00:12:04.500 which is cruel it's picking on people it's bullying it is picking on people especially when you consider

00:12:09.800 that those are media professionals with an entire team behind them the power of editing

00:12:14.560 and they have gone through their script versus a person who is there just to support president trump

00:12:22.300 and may not be sophisticated in what to say to the media and how to how to how to you know how to

00:12:28.940 convey their message in that moment sure but the the the energy that i was so drawn to at these trump

00:12:37.000 rallies was very much a family reunion type energy right like if you think about your family reunion

00:12:43.740 there are probably some people who've done pretty well in your family there might be some people who

00:12:48.400 are just getting by uh you're gonna see a warmth an embrace and then what emerged were there were these

00:12:57.160 personas these characters people like the uh the front row joes correct became this iconic group of

00:13:04.500 people and the trumpets and then the ladies from north carolina that would come with the cow the cowgirl hats 1.00

00:13:11.300 and when you can't it it it almost had a production um ensemble cast element to it and and i just i i wonder

00:13:20.940 how you reflect on what you would even compare it to when describing it to someone who maybe hadn't felt

00:13:26.380 it i don't know i i gotta think that maybe there's an some sort of analogous type of experience with

00:13:34.100 people who dedicated fans who follow a band on tour right okay that might be the the the thing that's

00:13:41.520 closest to what i can compare it to because when i accidentally became brick suit you know like

00:13:46.800 when the president of the united states calls you on stage and you are wearing this you become brick

00:13:54.020 suit you don't really have an option there's no turning back so i you know i leaned into it and then

00:13:58.700 wanting to get up near the front i would get there earlier than most people would and that's when i

00:14:06.100 discovered what exactly you're talking about meeting the people became as enjoyable for me if not more

00:14:14.000 so in some cases than the actual rally itself and so once you turned it into that it's like not only is

00:14:21.080 the rally fun but uh the process of meeting people and being able to freely speak your mind

00:14:28.160 politically which for me wasn't that difficult but i could tell that for other people who would be

00:14:34.360 there it was very much they were now in a safe space and you know they may not have been and suddenly

00:14:40.760 they're surrounded by like-minded people and it's just a very enjoyable time the label that the media

00:14:48.440 tries to put on this movement is hate and that this is this is a movement of grievance and hate and

00:14:54.040 and scapegoating others and it is just so far from the experience i have where completely opposite

00:15:00.520 right it love is the organizing principle love of country and and that's a really powerful thing

00:15:06.760 and complete inclusion for everyone who loves america so it's not just love of country it's just like

00:15:13.940 if you love america you're with us it has nothing else matters nothing else matters

00:15:19.420 uh the uh what what what do you think is your favorite rally you want to

00:15:24.280 all right let's if we're gonna we're talking about rallies we gotta throw out madison square garden

00:15:31.600 okay because that's not that wasn't really a rally that was more like a one-day

00:15:35.660 convention extravaganza it was fantastic okay and then

00:15:40.360 both the butler rallies have to be taken out yeah the second one was fantastic it was perfect

00:15:46.860 um um but i you know again i don't think it really it's not really fair to compare that to

00:15:53.360 the other rallies so honestly the one in montourisville i really liked not just because

00:16:00.340 it was the one that i was called up on the first time but it was just the type of setting i really

00:16:05.040 liked you were at an airport it was outdoors the sky was dramatic it wasn't too hot it wasn't too cold

00:16:11.160 you know so people were in good spirits um and you know because sometimes if it's a hot rally like

00:16:17.980 i went to one in yuma where it was 114 degrees and you wore the polyester suit yeah in 114 degree

00:16:25.900 weather yeah exactly so you know it can sap you and like that'll sap the energy from the crowd too

00:16:31.240 so you know the optimum rally weather is is you know i would say 70 degrees so montourisville

00:16:38.620 um

00:16:40.940 anyone put on by turning point yeah a turning point rally so there was a little more magic to that

00:16:50.180 yeah absolutely number two is the one where in glendale where where uh rfk jr oh yeah joined up

00:16:57.320 you know this is after after butler where rfk jr comes out on stage that was fantastic a great moment

00:17:03.880 of unity and trump understands like that a good show has to have a little surprise it has to have

00:17:11.040 a great warm-up acts it there has to be a constant theme and i i went to so many of these rallies and

00:17:19.940 would look around and i would even ask myself is this politics it didn't really yellow was pretty

00:17:25.280 awesome right yeah coachella was hot yeah coachella was hot but but at all these it felt

00:17:31.080 part cultural part spiritual part nationalist in in all the right positive ways but but it didn't

00:17:39.460 feel like anything i had ever encountered in politics before as someone who's run for office

00:17:44.900 you know uh at the state and in federal level and i wonder why you know i i wonder what it is about

00:17:52.700 president trump that turned politics into a cultural phenomenon uh and and created this kind

00:17:59.360 of platform for uh for you know personas and and and people like you to really emerge and captivate

00:18:07.180 people's interest well i think i think at the root of that is he's the first politician in my

00:18:15.100 experience who just made it so that you have the permission to be patriotic that you have the

00:18:23.260 permission to advocate for your country before others i'm so excited when we get our merriweather

00:18:31.100 farm shipments in you get a beautiful piece of ribeye look look at that marbling now i take it out of

00:18:36.460 the package let it get down to room temperature all i've got on here is a little salt a little pepper

00:18:41.580 and then a little avocado oil and then i've had my pan preheating with a little oil

00:18:46.140 head to merriweatherfarms.com and enter promo code matt g for 15 off your first order you didn't

00:18:59.260 feel that way about the bushes i did not no i did not they they had the whole texas machismo thing

00:19:05.020 you know i will give the i will give um i will give him credit for throwing a great first pitch

00:19:12.120 yeah after 9-11 totally best moment of his presidency you nailed it absolutely we'll have

00:19:17.900 to put that in in post yeah no you're right i will give him credit for that yeah you know that

00:19:22.900 was kind of the high point right but um but not across the board were you able to be patriotic

00:19:30.880 i president trump breaks all the molds and the conventions that people expected from politicians

00:19:37.680 and he did so at a time when media was

00:19:41.840 really newly able to bring that type of image to the populace via the web so it wasn't just

00:19:49.580 it wasn't just the broadcast networks it wasn't just conventional mainstream media it was the

00:19:56.680 underground that really conveyed that and people wanted to be part of that because they could feel

00:20:01.620 that energy well right and your story is so interesting because you emerge just as a guy out

00:20:07.000 of a reddit forum who was tired of being censored online and so you're like well i guess you'll have

00:20:11.620 to deal with me in real life now so when people meet you at these rallies like what do they say do

00:20:16.280 they ask you questions about the suit oh yeah they ask me questions about the suit like where'd you get

00:20:20.340 it and uh do you sell them they ask you those things there are other people who if you know

00:20:25.780 sold knockoffs you know it's but i don't i don't really try and monetize it um i think it's i you know

00:20:33.760 it's it's really it's really interesting because from the very beginning when i just because i had no

00:20:38.840 social media presence at all so i was able to decide like do i really want to do this you know am i

00:20:45.320 gonna am i gonna go to these rallies and do this more so what am i gonna call myself so i just i

00:20:52.260 didn't want to use my name because it's not about me it's about president trump's connection with the

00:21:00.300 voters and so i decided to go as brick suit because people would remember that moment and that moment

00:21:07.260 is unlike anything else you would see in american politics or foreign politics for sure

00:21:15.300 because can you see macron calling up anybody from the audience you know angela merkel she's

00:21:20.880 going to call anybody it's not going to happen anywhere else except in america and even in america

00:21:26.660 it only happens with president trump and so it's it's really you know it shows his populism yes it shows

00:21:35.520 that any one person matters to him you know that the people aren't just kind of the sum of their parts

00:21:42.740 we aren't just producers and consumers we aren't just orbs or blocks of votes we're like human

00:21:48.780 beings and he takes the care with people you know come up have a moment you know he uh he doesn't

00:21:55.600 always have to score the basket you know he could have an assist in that moment have you there celebrate

00:22:00.800 you and those are some of the best moments and they're the unscripted moments and that's what most

00:22:06.980 politicians hate right the people i used to work with they want everything down to the minute by

00:22:12.560 minute that's when this person says this to this that trump wants it to be kind of a big raucous

00:22:18.380 uh energetic experience and as you became prominent at a lot of these things i can i can only imagine it

00:22:26.360 was quite a moment when people get to meet you i did people ask often for selfies and those types of

00:22:32.700 interactions did you ever have like a selfie you wouldn't give because there's a few because people

00:22:37.640 wearing something i don't want to be associated with okay so you're looking at t-shirts to make

00:22:41.120 sure it doesn't say something that you don't really want to be you know like that's not something i want

00:22:44.580 to support um i think the favorite moment i have is in that 2020 campaign um you know i had the

00:22:53.040 opportunity to be a correspondent to some rallies and so i was actually up on the media riser

00:22:59.120 and my favorite moment of that was having jim acosta right in front of me oh wow and and you

00:23:05.740 know just jim having to treat me cordially which he did to his credit but he's like he's like but i

00:23:11.700 know i i would imagine that inside he is seething and uh sure and and i'm i'm up on the riser in the

00:23:18.800 suit yeah in the suit doing it so um yeah and now where's like jim acosta like canned from cnn is

00:23:27.000 we're celebrating our triumphant president leading our country back to success uh when when we were

00:23:33.840 on that campaign trail in 2020 man we we had to face a lot um and i really thought about you

00:23:41.620 when president trump was shot because i knew i i assumed you'd be there i and i i know how much you uh

00:23:48.040 care for the people who attend and uh it was literally one of my first thoughts uh you know

00:23:53.660 it it it did it did it at any point in time discourage you from wanting to go back to these

00:24:01.280 things did it shatter that spirit of love and togetherness we've been talking about or

00:24:05.800 because i mean just for myself i was i was grief stricken that that type of violence would be brought

00:24:12.880 upon a moment of such celebration i never i never had qualms about going back never uh in fact i i

00:24:20.660 wanted to um it actually made me redouble my efforts and made me commit to going to even more

00:24:27.600 rallies than i could now i was back at butler because uh some people don't know this but i was

00:24:32.320 actually an rnc delegate from california oh so i was already planning to go to milwaukee and they added

00:24:38.860 butler two days prior i'm like well maybe they're gonna announce the vp maybe i can get change my plane

00:24:46.280 ticket so i was able to change my ticket to be able to go to the butler rally um and you know i went

00:24:52.820 straight from there to the rnc so i don't think you know it wasn't like i went home and really had

00:24:59.460 time to reflect on it i thought about it a lot at the convention and a lot of people were asking me

00:25:05.620 about it because you know i did some interviews and they could see me in the footage i was in the

00:25:10.500 front row right there um but it never made me think that i wouldn't want to go back to a rally

00:25:16.520 um because that would be you know what was it like seeing him there on the ground this triumphant

00:25:23.220 president president this person we love well i couldn't since i was in the front he was behind

00:25:28.500 the lectern and they've got that kind of like a yeah the glass bunting but they didn't have glass

00:25:33.960 there i mean like this is before any of that so i see they've got the bunting they've got the lectern and

00:25:39.540 then they've got basically about like three feet high and it looks like a little parapet wall

00:25:43.460 but it's it's steel so you know like if you hit the floor it it it would stop you know rounds from

00:25:51.360 coming at you from my vantage point i could not see him on the ground i could only hear and so i heard

00:25:59.140 you know the secret service saying things like let's get ready to move him and not knowing if he was

00:26:06.020 you know incapacitated or not because i didn't have a direct line of sight to him now the people

00:26:12.100 in the back in the stands they'd be able to see that because they're you know that have a direct

00:26:17.500 line of sight to the president i did not and so what were people around you doing every possible

00:26:23.900 reaction you know i i had reached down to get my camera because i wasn't filming at the time the shots

00:26:31.200 came and i figured well i in my you know i'm looking i can't see anything i better i should

00:26:37.480 film this and so i got and i just filmed him getting up other people were just staying on the

00:26:42.160 ground people were crying um it was all going very quickly and then we saw him stand up

00:26:49.180 and you know i was close enough that i could see his expression i could see the fire in his eyes

00:26:57.200 um and then he said fight fight fight made that gesture and even if you were in the very back row

00:27:04.860 and not 10 yards away like i was you knew what was happening in that moment and i think that people

00:27:12.000 don't and president trump took a lot of criticism for for making that gesture for taking the time to do

00:27:19.040 that i think that people who criticize that don't realize how crucial that was to reassure everyone

00:27:26.820 that he was okay and if he had just been whisked off the stage right away and taken to the hospital

00:27:34.240 and there been no word for a few hours

00:27:36.460 bad things could have happened oh so you think part of of of that moment part of the miracle of that

00:27:45.620 moment because truly a miracle that it was that he wasn't killed is that you know despite

00:27:51.220 cory coppator's death which is just deeply sad and tragic and awful we could have even had more

00:27:57.320 casualty of of injury or or or some other chaos ensuing and and chaos does seem to be kind of the

00:28:05.140 goal of these these political assassinations and assassination attempts and uh you know for all we are

00:28:11.620 criticized for of being insurrectionists or being anti-democratic we're the ones trying to keep people

00:28:17.760 alive keep people calm keep people secure in in the version of events you're sharing um you know the

00:28:23.740 the campaign goes on from from there we we also we get this switch from biden to harris and i remember

00:28:32.400 just you know being on the inside of the campaign the the tumult that caused it's like it'd be like if

00:28:38.400 you were preparing to play football against the new york jets and you show up and it's like oh well

00:28:42.880 you're playing against the giants instead and you um meanwhile not just different teams it's like

00:28:48.740 yeah going against the passing team now to a running team it's like totally different styles yeah it's

00:28:53.800 not even like it like nothing you're preparing for works because you're running against it you know

00:28:59.520 infirmity you're running against it you know abject failure and now uh and you're running against his age

00:29:06.340 and now you're running against kamala and it's a whole different thing that they're putting out here

00:29:10.300 totally and the media made her to be this this grand star darling in in in a completely uncritical

00:29:17.120 way and i almost think that was her downfall i almost think her downfall was she never faced the

00:29:23.820 the tough interviews with grit she never uh was willing to be pressed on a viewpoint she had or positions

00:29:31.600 she had taken it was a candidacy that was uh just so uh i would say plastic in a lot of ways

00:29:39.900 whereas trump you may not like the words he uses you may not like his tone of voice at times but

00:29:45.960 there's something real and authentic about it that america had been craving after joe biden what what

00:29:51.320 did you think in that time when harris steps up to become the candidate well you know i had seen her 1.00

00:29:58.240 here in california and i think she was ill served to be in that moment because she really has never

00:30:07.300 faced a contentious campaign she's a machine candidate correct you know that's how she got 1.00

00:30:13.440 advanced and other ways and so people in california knew that people in california knew she was a machine

00:30:19.700 candidate had never really been challenged never really tested gets made a star of the senate primary

00:30:24.560 when she drops out before she even gets to her home state where she's polling under like two percent 0.61

00:30:29.700 do you think she's going to come back and run for governor oh no way no i don't think so you would 0.91

00:30:35.120 california democrats don't want her you don't think i'm i'm actually i'm really hoping for the katie

00:30:42.440 porter experience here why is that because she's just she's so off the rails i want to make memes about 1.00

00:30:49.440 potatoes and i want to i want all of her tapes of like is she the most memeable oh absolutely

00:30:55.020 candidate of the dems candidates for for governor right now i would say so yeah yeah she is i don't

00:31:00.120 i don't think i don't think kamala's going to come back and run for governor um could she 1.00

00:31:04.640 yeah but i don't see that as i think that she

00:31:09.040 hard for me to get inside of her head and imagine what she's thinking because that's a really big open

00:31:17.500 vocuous you know empty space that i could really run around in for for days um but i think that she

00:31:25.220 would see that as a step down and above all i think that she is concerned with face and she can now

00:31:32.400 retire as having run complain it was just 107 days when in fact it said nobody wanted her

00:31:39.580 complete rejection of her personality yeah it wasn't it wasn't like with another 107 days we were going to

00:31:45.060 like kamala harris more we would have had an even greater probably we would have won the popular 1.00

00:31:49.840 vote by even more and we probably would have picked up two or three more senators yeah and we would have

00:31:54.720 maybe won even some additional states run in 2028 kamala we're here for it um i do want to get

00:32:01.000 your assessment of just kind of how things are going having been a part of this activist base because

00:32:06.420 what we've covered is trump is so unique and how he was able to draw from people based on the sense of

00:32:12.280 patriotism a deep commitment and you embodied that commitment and just what you meant to people

00:32:18.760 looking to have that rally experience you became a part of that experience and in other functions

00:32:24.640 but as you look at the administration now we're in a shutdown uh he's carving he's trying to make

00:32:31.300 peace in the middle east a place that's been blood soaked for forever and he is giving giving peace a chance

00:32:37.560 there uh he we see the economic growth at 3.8 percent now uh annualized what what's what's your

00:32:46.480 assessment of where we are in this moment well there's a couple things happening here uh one is

00:32:52.480 that the team this administration is just head and shoulders above the first administration not even

00:32:58.700 the same it's just it's phenomenal um you know marco rubio is doing great harmeet dylan my my

00:33:06.100 my favorite dark horse candidate for like most impactful player in the administration it's one

00:33:11.720 four years from now when we look back three and a half years from now i mean she's stacking up w after

00:33:16.660 w well because there was so much bad the civil rights division was doing i if i'd been attorney

00:33:21.720 general i was going to hire harmeet for that position or or an even higher one because she has got 1.00

00:33:26.680 the ability to just go in and and cut all this nonsense that they've been doing uh pushing dei

00:33:33.800 limiting the appropriate election integrity efforts going on around the country i think you're right i

00:33:40.920 think she's one of the total stars of this and then you've got robert kennedy who's just making great

00:33:44.820 inroads in the maha coalition which people thought was just going to be like oh that's just a gimmick for

00:33:49.740 the election and then they'll forget about it but no he's hhs secretary take that democrat yeah exactly

00:33:55.740 not only did we take your black and hispanic males we took your kennedy yeah your most handsome kennedy 0.83

00:34:01.620 we took and you know tulsi as dni is doing fantastic and just across the board it's better so all we're

00:34:09.000 we're just seeing progress now against that backdrop of progress oddly enough there's still i think

00:34:16.800 unfortunately a segment of trump supporters who are not happy with the progress because they want even

00:34:24.020 more faster and that's just so us isn't it wanting more wanting it faster yeah exactly but but if you

00:34:31.460 look at it that's okay president trump says we're allowed to want more right right and there will be

00:34:35.800 more winning but i think if you look at what president trump's second administration has accomplished so

00:34:41.900 far in into it it is light years ahead in terms of pace of anything we could have realistically expected

00:34:48.260 look it's already made your suit not trendy the border is secure i know it's like nobody's been

00:34:54.340 nobody's been nobody's been paroled into the border for four months you know it's like so and remember

00:34:59.560 remember the way they acted like we can't do anything without the laws being changed they acted like it

00:35:06.120 would be easier to go to mars yeah then secure the border then to build the wall you don't hear uh people

00:35:12.380 saying uh walls are racist anymore isn't that something no no they don't say that you know why because it's

00:35:17.700 working is there a single democrat in america who is suggesting that we take down the wall anywhere

00:35:24.580 because like if the walls were so racist and so evil how come aoc and bernie sanders and elizabeth

00:35:30.600 warren aren't filing bills to remove the wall if that's what you believe but they won't do that

00:35:35.620 because they see the american people are invigorated by their new security and people appreciate that and

00:35:41.420 we are a nation that deserves to know who is coming and going that is not unreasonable uh

00:35:46.600 but as you look at the deportation agenda is that is that is that really what uh you wanted to see

00:35:53.120 100 absolutely um it didn't really it's not really playing out the way that i envisioned it

00:36:00.660 but i think that it's um you know because really during the campaign i'm just like yeah

00:36:06.480 we have to deport everybody's here illegally but i really wasn't thinking about the mechanics 0.97

00:36:10.600 how's it going to work it's kind of like we'll cross that bridge when we get to it

00:36:13.720 but i think that the way the program's been structured loosely is it's very effective

00:36:18.460 you're removing all of the incentives for people to stay okay you're actually incentivizing them to

00:36:25.120 leave we will help you leave if you leave of your own accord you can make an orderly retreat

00:36:31.040 you can sell all your stuff here retain that money go back to your country and have the ability to

00:36:38.240 apply for readmission or you can stay here risk it all that you don't get pulled over for like a

00:36:45.040 tail light and then you're you know on a bus somewhere because there's already been an order

00:36:50.580 against you and you're going to be deported and you're going to lose everything you've got and

00:36:54.560 you're going to incur fines and you're never going to be able to come back so there's part of that and

00:36:58.640 that driving of self-deportation is what i didn't really see as happening i knew we'd be able to

00:37:06.600 capture people um you know and i knew we'd be able to track people down on court appearances

00:37:11.180 but i didn't foresee the shift to self-deportation and i think that when people look at what's

00:37:18.100 happening in deportation deportations right now they're they're focusing on chicago they're focusing

00:37:22.280 on portland they're focusing on the hot areas like that but it's like that's just underscoring

00:37:27.560 two people who are in our country illegally the need for them to go i mean and you know and that's not 0.60

00:37:34.860 cruel we're not we're not suggesting that there's some sort of retribution element to this but the

00:37:41.300 country cannot simply absorb the 20 million plus people that biden harris let in and then just have

00:37:47.780 kind of a de facto amnesty around that those people have to go and then i agree with you of course there

00:37:53.560 should be opportunities for people to make their case for immigration to our country as they've always

00:37:58.360 had the opportunity to and throughout our country's history we have accepted immigrants or had more

00:38:04.140 restrictionist immigration policies at different times depending on our own interests correct and

00:38:09.800 that's okay it's not xenophobic it is not hateful to the people on the other side of the wall it is

00:38:15.860 loving to the people on our side of the wall and i think that is something we should expect from our

00:38:21.060 politicians um the the the part of the base you referenced that wants to see more let's get into

00:38:28.980 that what what is what is the more they want to see

00:38:32.040 it varies by person um it there's there's people who want to see in sense of more they want to see

00:38:43.560 less foreign involvement so maybe that's a more okay see you know more reform to our foreign policy

00:38:49.440 correct so that's like they want you know where do you what do you think that we're involved where we

00:38:54.000 shouldn't be uh pretty much everywhere i love you pretty much everywhere i mean it's like

00:38:59.600 you know if you're buying munitions from us that's different than us loaning that's commerce i don't

00:39:06.620 have a problem with that so like if if the european union wants to buy arms from america and then give

00:39:12.400 them to ukraine i don't have a big issue with that me either that's we shouldn't be giving them to ukraine

00:39:18.060 no and then we do this phony lend lease thing which is just another way to put the burden on the

00:39:23.560 taxpayer uh it is very hopeful to see president trump forging some peace in the middle east

00:39:31.160 is that something that you think uh people voted for getting that that peace dynamic

00:39:36.940 and peace paradigm in place absolutely i mean he said he was you know he's he's trying to end the

00:39:42.320 other big war too and i think that eventually we'll be successful in that um uh but yes i definitely

00:39:51.840 voted for him to be someone who was ending conflicts rather than starting them and he had opportunity

00:39:58.220 in his first administration to start conflicts do you remember when we had our reconnaissance drone

00:40:04.080 shot down do i ever 300 million 350 million dollar reconnaissance drone and then people are like we need

00:40:10.520 to go to war we need to go to war i'm like dude that's why we have drones so we don't get pilots shot

00:40:17.800 down so we're not forced to go to war when the people were spying on shoot down our tools of observation

00:40:24.200 that's exactly why you have a drone you know and so but i in that time you had lindsey graham 1.00

00:40:33.020 you had mike pence you had the the the pompeo bolt yet all those guys is suggesting that

00:40:40.340 because an mq9 drone got down we had to go to war with iran so i remember it's so crazy so i remember

00:40:48.260 talking to the president during those moments uh and i was in a attack in an uber and i'm i'm sitting

00:40:55.300 there saying you know this or that and uh the uber driver looked over at me and i said before you say

00:41:01.760 anything no one will believe you if you repeat this and he said my english isn't so good i said where

00:41:09.560 are you from he said northern virginia but uh but yeah i i think that it's so interesting you

00:41:16.440 highlight that because it gets glossed over by history but it is so telling that president trump's

00:41:22.220 instincts are are uh lashed with reason and logic yeah and and not beholden to you know the the

00:41:32.200 globalist neocon uniparty that wants conflict for the sake of commerce you know yeah and so but that

00:41:40.420 is a key defining characteristic of maga that i think the people who try to co-opt maga don't really

00:41:46.720 understand and they won't be able to like the people who go to these rallies the people who

00:41:50.980 knocked on doors in pennsylvania they believe in trump because they trust him and they trust that he 0.98

00:41:57.620 will not you know sleepwalk us into some stupid conflict where our interests are not clear are 0.99

00:42:04.380 are you confident brick that this change in ideology that president trump brought to the issues we've 0.99

00:42:11.320 discussed like immigration enforcement like foreign policy are durable in the republican party beyond

00:42:17.660 president trump's tenure i absolutely think that they are i mean because at the core of it they're all

00:42:22.980 they're all evergreen issues they're not going to go away um will a politician emerge who can be as

00:42:30.040 successful in conveying them and articulating them to the public that's a really tall order um but i

00:42:37.300 think we have a deep bench and i'm i'm i'm hopeful that someone will take up the mantle successfully

00:42:43.020 and i think that part of that is going to be where we're at in two years from now two and a half years

00:42:52.700 from now where the 28 campaign has begun in earnest okay so do you expect a competitive republican

00:43:01.120 primary in 2028 or do you think there'll be a lot of appreciation for you know jd vance being an

00:43:07.460 exceptional vice president and a desire to give him a run at the presidency i think jd vance is an

00:43:12.660 exceptional candidate i'm extremely happy when he was chosen as vp same um you know if we compare him

00:43:20.360 to kamala just like no experience running kamala versus jd fresh off a very contentious senate campaign

00:43:27.400 where he performed very well and be built the guy built businesses the guy was a brilliant so you know

00:43:34.040 i think that the the american public is the well the republicans and in the non i boy do i hate do i 0.99

00:43:42.220 hate open primaries i hate open primaries open primaries are so dumb it's ridiculous to democrats 0.94

00:43:48.920 anywhere should have any say in who the republican nominee would be for president in 28 it's absolutely 0.98

00:43:53.820 hysterically ridiculous they should be gone we should have closed primaries and no rank choice voting

00:43:59.240 get rid of that baloney as well yeah like that would be like you at your church inviting people in 1.00

00:44:06.280 who don't share your religion to pick the pastor like it makes absolutely no sense so i think that

00:44:14.480 if we continue on our current track of success i believe that jd vance has really the inside track

00:44:23.060 and does that mean that no one should oppose him no i don't think so i think that if there's

00:44:29.080 people within a republican party who want to run they should be free to throw their hat in the ring

00:44:34.760 and see how well they do um i can tell you as someone who's been to many many rallies and i had the

00:44:42.360 the pleasure of going to a few that were just jd during the campaign and he does something that

00:44:47.880 more effectively than any other candidate i've ever seen is he would go through his remarks and then he

00:44:54.480 would open them up to the floor to the reporters in the back for unscripted impromptu questions that

00:45:00.800 he had no rehearsal for and he handles them excellently it shows confidence yes and it shows a breadth of

00:45:09.100 knowledge yeah it shows that he has mastery over what he's talking about and it's not let me get back

00:45:15.560 to you on that i mean there was never a kjp moment or you know or uh or uh uh a circle back moment for

00:45:24.200 him or anything like that it was like you know it may be a small super nuanced detail but for the most

00:45:29.020 part he was able to do that effectively and i think that um i think that the american public will

00:45:36.640 conservatives will reward him with the nomination if we have continued success and i just think that's

00:45:42.560 that's just the obvious way to go i think that that's well deserved but it's not by no means will

00:45:48.560 it be a coronation by no means will it be no one else has the right to run no that didn't help the

00:45:54.440 democrats that's not going to happen well no that that's not who we are i think even jd would say that

00:45:59.080 competition makes people better it sharpens our ideas i never minded when people ran against me for

00:46:04.500 congress i thought more choices was typically a good thing for the voters uh and then it's your job to

00:46:10.520 make make your case and and like you said if he continues this great work that we've seen on

00:46:15.680 display he's obviously got the political skills uh it could be a pretty exciting time for our movement

00:46:20.960 to maintain that continuity because what i don't want to see for all we've done as hard as we've

00:46:26.780 worked for this president if at the conclusion of his time in public office we'll go back to some

00:46:32.920 mitt romney paul ryan version of the republican party guys like you aren't going to be awakened

00:46:39.840 out of regular life to you know devote yourself to political messaging and political causes and

00:46:46.380 political organization people just won't do that and and and it's something we we have that's very

00:46:53.180 special and it's not our birthright we have to continue to nurture um the sincerity that we get

00:47:00.320 from trump and and the policy portfolio as well i i can't let you go without talking a little

00:47:06.380 california stuff okay because this proposition 50 thing that gavin newsom is doing is a direct

00:47:13.100 attack on democracy i 100 call me old-fashioned i actually think that the voters should pick the

00:47:20.020 representatives rather than the representatives picking their voters but it doesn't seem like

00:47:25.600 there's really much of a fight going on it seems as though if they put gavin newsom and barack

00:47:32.000 obama's picture on an ad in california there is a sufficient voter base to do whatever they want

00:47:38.520 even if it's really harmful to the voters themselves california politics are discouraging

00:47:45.460 at times and this is one of the reasons i didn't vote from 84 onward because you know with the democratic

00:47:52.940 majorities it was really difficult to have anything happen there were some bright spots i mean they

00:47:57.560 say schwarzenegger was governor you know we all thought that was great at the time which was better than

00:48:01.580 the alternative but sure um i think you're right i think that the democrats are able to call their

00:48:08.060 shots in in the state of california which other states should look at as being a cautionary tale

00:48:17.340 you don't want to become like california where it's just one party rule and and i'm not going to say

00:48:25.120 it's one party rule because that's not true republicans are active where they can win battles

00:48:30.800 at the local but they have no real power at this they're not going to it's going to be extremely

00:48:35.400 difficult to win the governorship it's going to be extremely difficult to win any statewide office

00:48:39.520 so you you've got it it's got to be a multi-year plan where you're you know you're defending the

00:48:47.700 areas where you have power and marginally increasing into the areas where it's kind of purplish

00:48:54.900 i think that steve hilton is running a spirited campaign based on practicality he's saying to

00:49:01.960 californians things like the fire hydrants should work and you should be able to walk down the street

00:49:07.440 without worrying that some methed out homeless guy is going to try to like rob you for twenty dollars

00:49:14.260 you should know that when you leave your car in san francisco somebody isn't going to break into

00:49:18.780 it and try to steal all of your contents and these things aren't uh right coded or right wing

00:49:25.400 they're just offering people better than what they've had well i just think that there's people

00:49:30.160 outside of california and even some in california you just don't realize how many more registered

00:49:33.920 democrats there are yeah it's like four and a half million more registered democrats really want to

00:49:39.060 see the houses burned and the fire hydrants not work and the homeless take over the streets

00:49:42.940 the thing they're registered but they're not necessarily logical or rational that's so sad

00:49:49.660 they're just vote blue no matter who you know and so they get and that's how you get kamala harris 1.00

00:49:56.160 and that's how you get you know gavin newsom it's not really it's like whoever gets anointed to run

00:50:03.740 for the campaign they're going to win and so they don't face they don't face uh real adversarial

00:50:10.860 campaigns in the general election and so they don't develop that that skill which is fine with

00:50:17.220 me because if gavin newsom thinks that his track record in california is going to transfer to the

00:50:22.540 rest of the country it's just not he's the look just not democrats who want to be president who i know

00:50:29.520 have told me that they believe gavin newsom will be the democrat nominee for president and it very well

00:50:34.280 may be but i just don't think he can be successful well it's the fact that democrats would even nominate him

00:50:39.960 that they don't have a better case study to present the country than what we've seen in california

00:50:45.600 that that that's their lead-off hitter well you know if it i could find that the astronaut from

00:50:51.940 arizona give him a shot or if you know that there's the jewish obama in pennsylvania i was going to say

00:50:57.460 if it weren't for a questionable suicide verdict in pennsylvania there might be you know a more viable

00:51:02.260 candidate there jeez you know like that uh um basically what many people believe was a murder

00:51:10.400 was ruled to be a suicide when underneath his office jeez so well well that's coming back to

00:51:16.180 bite him i i guess i guess that but they don't but you're right their bench is not as deep as ours

00:51:21.460 but they're gonna what are they gonna go to like the proven record of people who haven't been

00:51:25.560 successful mayor pete right gonna come out bernie's too old he's got a beard now so maybe bernie's too old

00:51:31.220 not that kind of beard and you know like honestly nobody got jobbed in 2016 more than bernie

00:51:38.560 supporters got jobbed by the democratic party oh yeah nobody well dean phillips didn't even get to

00:51:44.280 debate yeah dean phillips ran against if dean phillips had been given an opportunity to debate joe biden

00:51:49.420 he would have been the democratic nominee because joe biden biden wasn't able to stand on two feet

00:51:53.540 and complete a paragraph yeah so i don't know so that they have they've gone through several election

00:51:59.320 cycles where they really haven't had a really robust campaign and even and even 2020 you just

00:52:05.960 know that whole thing everybody's dropping out before super tuesday except except you know pocahontas

00:52:11.240 is going to stay in just to keep enough liberals out so right so that you know bernie can't really gain 0.70

00:52:15.960 ground they just basically ceded the the field to biden and and picked their horse behind the doors and

00:52:22.580 the the the voters were were left with a fait accompli so it's so crazy how the the power moves

00:52:31.800 behind the scenes uh swamp even the opportunity of voters to be able to choose their own adventure

00:52:39.160 uh before we go i do want to know what's next for you you know you you went to all these rallies you

00:52:45.160 were you've been this iconic figure folks follow you you online how they how can they continue to

00:52:50.360 follow what you're doing and what are your plans well the the main social media outlet i have is

00:52:55.040 is on x and it's brick underscore suit pretty easy to remember i'm gonna brick suit with a little

00:53:00.700 underscore um and you know right now there aren't a lot of political events happening that's going to

00:53:08.180 pick up in 26 i think i'm going to go to uh as many as makes sense and it's not just trump rallies it's

00:53:14.680 going to be america first rallies or candidates so i consider to be america first like andy biggs in

00:53:19.580 arizona yeah yeah i'm gonna do a lot with turning point great i was just out with them in arizona

00:53:24.320 doing some ballot chasing wonderful for uh doreen taylor who's trying to unseat basically a rhino city 0.96

00:53:31.780 council member who got elected and then headed up arizona republicans for trump so you know so we're

00:53:37.800 doing i mean republicans for harris excuse me yeah not republicans for trump that that would be the

00:53:42.400 natural thing she headed up republicans for harris so we're doing a ballot chasing for a recall 1.00

00:53:46.560 initiative there brick suit will chase you down if you're on a city commission are there any

00:53:49.980 homeowners association races you're getting involved no and then we're not going down that

00:53:53.340 low but but you know i'm going to be doing some stuff and i'm going to be traveling more because

00:53:58.180 i'm you know uh up until 2024 i was still working full-time and now i'm really more kind of retired

00:54:05.160 semi-retired so people could see you popping up around the country in battleground races yep

00:54:10.960 supporting candidates you care about and and helping to emblazon that maga brand on people

00:54:18.220 who can help us who can help us succeed in the government and have the president's back that

00:54:22.280 sounds like a wonderful thing to do do you think we're going to win the midterms

00:54:24.740 there's a couple x factors out there um one is continued success of the the administration which

00:54:31.800 i believe uh portends well for us yeah uh right now today the supreme court was looking at that uh

00:54:38.480 changing things about the voting rights act which may allow for certain states to redistrict in ways

00:54:43.680 that could create more more cartography correct um eliminate eliminate basically the things that

00:54:50.860 were done um in the past that favored one group i got you know and so just bring it back to

00:54:58.400 a more rational less gerrymandered way of creating congressional districts i think that would favor us

00:55:05.020 so but do i think that can i say for sure that we're going to win in the midterms no i will retain

00:55:11.580 the senate i believe i don't think that that's at issue um the house is is open question much tougher

00:55:18.340 as you look at it historically party in power always loses house seats i don't know always i get it

00:55:23.920 i'm still bullish on republicans maintaining the house and you know why the democrats don't have a lot

00:55:28.960 to run on a shutdown over nothing no they're kind of leaderless their their movement is basically a

00:55:35.880 bunch of people who are out like throwing paintballs at ice agents and i don't think that's going to be

00:55:41.180 appealing to the country but you certainly are you're appealing to our movement i'm so grateful

00:55:45.420 that you gave so much of yourself to um you know rally people together to organize and to earn

00:55:53.180 this victory and i tell you when i think about those 100 plus degree days in coachella or in yuma

00:56:00.140 when i think about those cold cold days in iowa and new hampshire i was minus 40 with the windchill

00:56:06.700 in indianola that was i tell you what i don't regret it i don't regret a day of it and and and i would

00:56:11.440 do it all over again seeing the success of the country and uh and if i could i would do it all over

00:56:17.620 again with you my friend thanks for stopping by thanks for joining us on anchorman been my pleasure

00:56:21.200 thank you want to see more great videos like this click on the link below to subscribe to oan live

00:56:26.500 and watch dan ball's real america and the matt gates show on dish channel 212 tune in subscribe and watch

00:56:32.920 today

The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - October 16, 2025

The Anchormen Show Episode 67 - MAGA Culture w⧸ Brick Suit

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript