The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - The Anchormen Show Episode 85 - #WalkAway w⧸ Brandon Straka

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

00:00:11.200 welcome back to the anchorman show i'm matt gates host of the matt gates show every week night here

00:00:19.800 on one america news at nine o'clock eastern and this is our platform where i get to have some

00:00:24.240 great discussions with the folks who happen to be hanging out here at the studio at one

00:00:28.460 american news i'm joined as always by my co-host pearson sharp host of the sharp report on our

00:00:33.560 network and today brandon strock who is the founder and leader of the walkaway campaign um and so much

00:00:40.360 more we've got so much to get into but brandon first you're very familiar to our viewers but

00:00:44.880 a little bit about the walkaway campaign and the mission that you're on as we're headed into these

00:00:50.120 midterms yeah so in a nutshell uh walkaway campaign is a movement i started in 2018 uh because i was

00:00:55.500 a lifelong democrat who walked away from the democratic party after you know being a two-time

00:01:00.380 barack obama voter and voting for hillary clinton in 2016 and pretty convinced that uh hillary clinton

00:01:07.220 was going to win in a landslide so i was one of these people screaming at the sky and crying and

00:01:11.420 freaking out and breaking down when trump got elected and then i went on what i call a journey

00:01:15.260 of research to understand how the media got it so wrong how he did get elected and what i didn't expect

00:01:19.600 to find out was that donald trump was not my enemy but the media that i've been trusting my whole life

00:01:24.100 was my enemy and that just about everything i believed as an adherent to the left uh was not

00:01:29.260 true so i put out a six minute video detailing all the reasons i was walking away encouraged other

00:01:33.680 people to share their stories and almost uh eight years later hundreds of thousands of people have

00:01:38.780 joined the walkway movement and shared their stories and we traveled the country going into

00:01:42.660 colleges and talking to black people and hispanic people and lgbt people and anybody who is being

00:01:48.200 lied to and indoctrinated by the political left you get behind enemy lines uh we had a rally

00:01:53.540 together in beverly hills right that was raucous and awesome and you've been in new york uh trying

00:01:59.560 to fight against some of the craziness there uh but but you also are very known to our viewers uh

00:02:05.740 because of all the j6 drama you you were uh in washington on january 6th you were forced into a plea

00:02:13.380 uh into a crime you did not commit you got pardoned by president trump and you were really one of the

00:02:20.640 leading advocates for this entire community of j6ers when uh congressmen senators uh governors were being 1.00

00:02:30.180 told by all their political consultants this is a bad issue for us right let's let's uh indeed walk

00:02:36.300 away from these people let's just sort of treat it as a memory hole uh but you demanded attention to it

00:02:43.660 uh we got these pardons and i think there is a sense pearson that this work is done that we have

00:02:51.960 gotten all of the uh you know remediation necessary after january 6th when it comes to the specific

00:03:00.060 people involved following the righteous exuberance we had after the pardons but we know today there are

00:03:05.760 people being prosecuted in arizona there are patriotic americans being prosecuted in michigan

00:03:11.000 the state of colorado still has tina peters incarcerated uh you've done a lot of investigative

00:03:17.900 reporting about the tina peters matter specifically just bring our viewers up to speed on where that

00:03:23.660 stands right now how people are thinking about it and maybe we'll strategize a little with brandon about

00:03:28.520 the tools at our disposal to get folks to actually stand up and care about this yeah to your point this

00:03:34.340 is not over by a long shot i mean we released the january 6th political prisoners but the system that put

00:03:40.360 them there is still in place and as soon as president trump steps down i think those people are going to

00:03:45.280 come out of the woodwork again and we've got tina peters as a prime example of what they're doing 1.00

00:03:49.560 these kinds of people and uh so president trump has given her a full presidential pardon for what it's 0.99

00:03:55.880 worth um obviously that doesn't get her out of prison because it's a state charge not federal but that 1.00

00:04:02.240 raises the bar on the attention for this case that makes it extremely high profile case everybody's

00:04:06.940 paying attention to this right now which is exactly what tina peters needs she needs support from 1.00

00:04:12.560 everybody to raise the awareness and this is putting a lot of pressure on the people in colorado

00:04:19.360 who are holding her um jared paulis the secretary of state all the people who helped put her there

00:04:25.040 is putting a lot of pressure on them which is exactly what she needs right now yeah i i guess brandon

00:04:30.280 you know transport yourself back to those moments where you were trying to bring attention and a lot

00:04:37.620 of folks would give you lip service but not really advocate for the j6 community what was it that got

00:04:43.840 people to get the light to come on with power to actually do something about this and and show up at

00:04:50.440 the jails and start having the vigils and doing the things necessary to to get action i mean honestly

00:04:55.860 to a certain degree i don't i don't know that it ever really did happen i mean there were a few

00:05:00.360 people i mean you held a field hearing for us in uh 2023 i i think and that was really the first

00:05:08.520 action that any congressperson took to draw attention to it and i know that you didn't get a lot of

00:05:14.740 support in that either and i'm not in any way shape or form trying to disrespect what we did because

00:05:19.700 again you were one of the only people who did anything oh marjorie uh taylor green you know went to

00:05:25.260 the jail bob good louie gohmert yes these were people who were who were regularly speaking out

00:05:31.880 against what the leadership was telling us yeah but but what i'm talking about is like a specific

00:05:36.240 almost like a congressional action you know in a way and and we ended up if you'll recall like in a dark

00:05:41.600 basement you know it wasn't really something that anybody wanted to literally shine any light on

00:05:46.640 um but you know what was so frustrating to me was that before i got arrested and you know i'm not

00:05:52.420 going to relitigate my case here but just a few bullet points i didn't go in the capitol on january

00:05:55.980 6th i didn't even witness the riot i was on the other side of the building uh but i entered into

00:06:02.640 what they called the restricted area not knowing that because by the time i arrived the barricades

00:06:06.560 had been open you know so i really maintained i did not knowingly commit any crimes on january 6th and

00:06:12.700 i didn't even you know go in the building or anything but um before january 6th i had a really

00:06:18.040 squeaky clean reputation and i was like a regular guest on fox news they were having me on all the

00:06:22.400 shows everyone you know and and they loved having me on because i was you know doing this thing that

00:06:27.520 had a lot of energy behind it and again i didn't really have any skeletons in my closet or any scandals

00:06:32.800 so when i got arrested in my mind i thought you know this is terrible but it's also kind of great

00:06:37.860 because i'm the perfect person to highlight like i didn't even go in the building i didn't do anything

00:06:42.840 but just by being in proximity of january 6th it's like nobody wanted to touch it nobody you know fox

00:06:49.480 news would not have me back on at all i was completely blacklisted from the network and a lot

00:06:54.360 of my like congressional contacts and people like that didn't want to get anywhere near it and people

00:07:00.080 really didn't want to know for the most part you know i would say i was like trying to shout from the

00:07:03.940 mountaintops but i didn't do anything like and if you'll just listen to what i have to say i mean it's

00:07:08.020 literally the most like milquetoast case uh that you know it's not like you know i lost my mind and

00:07:14.280 did something crazy there was just nothing but um i had a really there were only a handful of people

00:07:18.760 who were willing to listen to it and and try to do something about it you were forced into a guilty

00:07:23.520 plea you were forced into a guilty now if i understand tita peter's case correctly she was

00:07:28.000 convicted right i mean she went by a jury yeah i mean you know i get you're you're you're young in life

00:07:33.780 you see the federal conviction rate is in the 90 something percent yeah and sometimes you've got

00:07:38.920 to cut your losses and and um deal with it the way you did fortunately we had restorative justice in

00:07:45.040 your case with the pardon but with tina peters she didn't take a plea she went there and defended her 0.88

00:07:50.280 conduct and and the conduct uh that tina peters was engaged in was a search for the truth was to try

00:07:57.540 it was to try to get information out you know i remember during the during the russia hoax when when

00:08:02.780 devin nunez uh was going through all this information and capturing the deep state and

00:08:08.540 lies he said the most important thing is to get the information out not to package it up and just

00:08:14.020 get it out and so she was in pursuit of the truth she had no mens rea to commit a crime and yet finds

00:08:21.540 herself in this circumstance here's what i would do i would designate tina peters a material federal 1.00

00:08:29.800 witness in the ongoing investigations into the stolen 2020 election and uh that is quoting

00:08:37.940 president trump i'm not making my own judgment or pronouncement i'm quoting president trump's

00:08:41.860 characterization of of a stolen 2020 election so if if that is is what is going on she would be a

00:08:48.840 material witness and you can't let state governments lock up federal material witnesses

00:08:54.880 over their own grievances and i would have the federal marshals show up at that prison and get 1.00

00:09:01.020 tina peters out and i think that uh that until we do that that we can't really say that we have

00:09:08.800 fixed the problems of of the over uh in over zealousness of prosecutions following january 6th that

00:09:16.340 sounds like a really good solution so why don't we do that how would that work who would have to

00:09:21.720 instigate that what's the process no i i believe that a u.s attorney a special prosecutor uh a a

00:09:29.100 prosecutor with the authority to convene a grand jury around these questions could make such a

00:09:34.560 designation could engage the federal marshals to do it and i think it ought to be a priority of our

00:09:39.720 government and uh this is an elderly ill woman and there are like i still hear brandon from family

00:09:47.980 members of people who committed suicide following these uh actions from the federal government after

00:09:53.480 january 6th and it is it is heartbreaking and so i do think there is a path i think president trump is

00:09:59.900 paving the way to that with his pardon granted you know people will see this and say well if she was

00:10:05.040 pardoned why why is brandon sitting next to you on the couch and she's in in jail and the answer is

00:10:09.980 the state authorities there will not recognize it absolutely not and and you know we we talked about

00:10:15.400 this a lot at the time brandon but i really believe that the reason people were ever incarcerated or

00:10:20.600 charged is because the left wanted to create a fear around maga around republicans that we weren't just

00:10:28.240 people to be disagreed with or uh defeated in a debate or an election we we might harm you we were scary we

00:10:35.740 were violent and if you don't lock anyone up you can't continue to pursue that narrative and just like

00:10:40.420 with you they went too far because they were charging someone who engaged in no criminal conduct

00:10:45.920 in her case this is not someone to be be afraid of uh and and so i think i think it it is something

00:10:52.020 we ought to we ought to look into deeply uh final thoughts yeah please yeah can i ask so with the the

00:10:58.500 pardon from trump i know it's state charges it's a state conviction so is that just to send a message or

00:11:05.120 does it carry any weight of any kind it has no yeah yeah there is no requirement for the state

00:11:10.740 of california to have any acknowledgement of that i'm sorry i'm sorry i get my crazy c states mixed up

00:11:16.700 sometimes colorado's we're nutty governors i well let's get to california let's just get right to it

00:11:22.160 uh you you have a significant political presence in the state hosting events here doing the the regular

00:11:28.140 events you do uh here is gavin newsom running for president and if so are you bullish on that

00:11:34.620 in terms of his likelihood of getting the democratic nomination um i think that he'll definitely run for

00:11:40.280 president i mean i personally don't think that there's any question about that um am i bullish

00:11:45.220 about which does he win the nomination oh is he your front runner right now to win the i mean harris is

00:11:50.460 out there saying she's gonna run i know rokhana is out there running jb pritzker is running give give me

00:11:56.800 the i'm rooting for kamala uh in fact i'm still rooting for hillary actually i i want to bring her back 1.00

00:12:03.080 it could happen could hillary come back and see this as an opportunity why shouldn't she i think 1.00

00:12:07.060 she should run every time and and as until she's gone um uh yeah i would imagine at this point with

00:12:14.160 options available probably he's he's this their star i would imagine i mean how do you feel like

00:12:20.100 when the people talk about like aoc running to me i think that's a joke oh no she's gonna run 1.00

00:12:24.780 but i mean is it serious look she's gonna run and the bernie will try to hand her the baton of his 1.00

00:12:34.520 operation his donor list i mean look you know that a presidential campaign is more than just

00:12:39.160 a person holding an ambition there's a financial infrastructure a political infrastructure that has

00:12:44.460 to be underneath that and if she is able to uh inherit bernie sanders lists and operatives i think 0.84

00:12:52.900 that that makes her more serious than like the meme of aoc would otherwise present and zoron won

00:12:59.120 and zoron won yeah zoron won and it'll be interesting to see how his national popularity

00:13:04.400 moves based on having to actually govern you know we say like we all campaign in poetry and govern in

00:13:11.180 prose when he's actually going down now dramatically because people are seeing who's he's he's appointing

00:13:16.600 he tried to be yeah this hip cool you know uh zoomer and now i think you over promise and

00:13:22.440 deliver and like he he had a friendly meeting with trump that's radioactive you can't do that

00:13:28.280 is it it's a wild world here's my prediction on newsom right now he has shown democrats he knows how

00:13:36.240 to use power like say what you will about prop 50 he squeezed he got it through yeah he did it

00:13:42.360 right he did the thing that's a big point who else in the democratic party is actually doing the thing

00:13:46.720 right now yeah yeah so that's why i think he's he's right rising in fortunes to win that nomination

00:13:53.300 but honestly i would love to run against i mean take take it from the the standpoint of a republican

00:13:59.460 you are a republican operative who is trying to convince people to do what you did and leave the

00:14:04.600 democratic party which of that cast of characters that i named is the best foil for you in in that

00:14:10.760 enterprise um probably gavin newsom i would say because like if we so that you and i were talking

00:14:19.540 about this earlier i spent the year 2025 we were doing work in california new jersey virginia and new

00:14:25.600 york city and a lot of the work i was doing was talking to young people especially new york city

00:14:29.720 because of course they elected zoron and what i was surprised to find was like it wasn't like there

00:14:35.180 was this huge you know i think conservatives get all freaked out and they're like oh you know these kids

00:14:39.480 are getting indoctrinated and they love socialism well some of them do but a lot of them actually

00:14:43.920 it's not that they love socialism it's that they feel that capitalism has failed them and you know

00:14:49.820 and the things that i keep hearing from young people again and again are i don't think i'm ever

00:14:53.620 getting out of student loan debt i don't think i'm ever going to be able to own a home and what is

00:14:56.620 the workforce going to look like for me as ai and technology takes over and you know we're giving

00:15:01.600 jobs to foreigners and things like that and as conservatives all the messaging that we keep saying is

00:15:07.580 capitalism is great and socialism sucks and it's like yeah but we're in a capitalist system and i

00:15:11.140 think it's failing me um so any alternative you see that's very interesting because it's not it's that 0.65

00:15:17.200 it's not really an understanding of our appreciation for socialism it's that the people that keep trying

00:15:22.540 to tell you capitalism is great hate this thing that's socialism right and young people are looking

00:15:27.420 around and saying you know capitalism isn't giving me that opportunity to get to the next level in

00:15:33.020 life to get married to uh build a business exactly right because i'm having to pay a huge amount of 1.00

00:15:39.220 what i i make every month in grocery bills and in housing but did you see the people that were

00:15:44.280 interviewed like the man on the street interviews they did when zoran was running and after he was

00:15:47.920 elected people had no idea what he was running on they had no clue what his policies were they

00:15:53.280 didn't know anything he stood for they just voted for him because it was on instagram it was on

00:15:57.060 tiktok like the people that i saw interviewed but by the way but by the way pearson what does that tell

00:16:02.160 you about how the 2028 democrat primary field could shape up with a candidate like an aoc right

00:16:08.340 if if if the uh if memeing the dream was the way to become mayor of new york isn't isn't the next

00:16:14.560 logical progression the democratic party that could be the way to become their nominee go ahead sorry

00:16:19.280 real quick that was my point because you know you might look at somebody like gavin newsom has

00:16:23.580 a lot of name recognition a lot of experience and compared to someone like aoc or zoran he

00:16:28.340 would appear more moderate but i don't know that moderacy is what people are looking for right now

00:16:33.640 because again both sides yeah so many people are feeling that america has failed them and

00:16:38.680 again it's not that they're like oh great socialism's awesome i think they're like

00:16:42.720 what is the best choice i can make right now that might guarantee that someday i might have home

00:16:47.300 ownership or or something yeah that i might have a future even if that future

00:16:53.480 is dictated by the government which is horrifying right but that that is that is the problem that

00:16:58.920 we are facing even in these midterms before we get to 2028 the democrats have an elegant pitch

00:17:04.360 there's things that cost you a lot of money and we would like the government to provide you those

00:17:09.920 things at a lower cost whether it's government-run grocery stores or government housing or obamacare

00:17:17.000 subsidies like pick the thing whereas republicans right now feel like they're backed into a corner of

00:17:22.000 either doing democrat light or giving you a lecture on on kenzie and economics pearson uh i think

00:17:29.580 it's an interesting case study and the problem is i think a lot of people don't understand

00:17:35.620 the way the issue is going to shape up and i think newsom is going to be the one who takes that

00:17:40.300 uh what's scary is that in the last year after everything that's happened here in california

00:17:46.060 his polling has gone up 10 points he went from 46 to 56 after burning down half the state destroying

00:17:53.800 la in the last four years destroying the the state with the covid lockdowns with the businesses millions

00:18:00.400 of businesses shut down just here in california you talk about slick willy like this guy gets away

00:18:06.380 with anything we can't we can't what do you attribute that to i was actually just going to ask you guys as

00:18:11.340 residents of california is there you know it's really easy i think to to watch the conservative

00:18:16.560 news and and get all the kind of talking points about everything that's going wrong is there a lot

00:18:21.740 of stuff going right in california that we don't hear about well i mean it's like still sunny yeah the

00:18:27.820 climate's great boundless natural resources uh got the beach sometimes when it's yeah but no that would

00:18:34.600 make them like him that would improve his favorability it's just the media he gets unbelievable

00:18:39.560 coverage and the getty props him up and people just play propaganda the prop 47 has destroyed

00:18:45.400 our state which are you familiar what is that what is that prop 47 was the one that basically turned a

00:18:51.120 bunch of felonies into misdemeanors and all the smart on crime agenda yeah exactly now you can steal

00:18:56.880 anything under 950 dollars and it's not you know it's not a crime it's fine just walk in and take

00:19:01.540 whatever you want that's why democrats are brilliant that's how they say crime went down under their

00:19:04.940 leadership and that's the thing they just put out to find less stuff as crime correct and that's how

00:19:09.020 it works and they just put out newsom just put out a list where he's tracking uh the top 10 cronies

00:19:13.980 of trump uh where he shows all the criminals that trump is putting into government as as an example of

00:19:19.540 you know look what california is doing we've lowered crime but trump is just putting in criminals into

00:19:24.220 office but the stats they use when they when they talk about lowering crime are exactly what we just

00:19:28.780 discussed well then let me throw out this this uh hypothesis and let you agree or attack newsom is

00:19:35.800 actually the scariest candidate for us to run against because yeah despite catching the state

00:19:41.880 on fire nothing can touch him the man has shown an increased approval rating and an ability to wield

00:19:46.640 power we should fear newsom more than we fear harris more than we fear pritzker more than we fear

00:19:52.220 rocana aoc or whoever else is that he is relentlessly failing upwards like from san francisco

00:19:58.740 to sacramento he's destroyed our state up and down and nothing stops him well i think i think that

00:20:04.700 that that is deeply worrisome do you do you think he's the scariest candidate in the field is there

00:20:08.080 is there one as as someone who does a lot of the the communications work you look at and say

00:20:12.780 that's who i sure hope they don't know maybe mark kelly the astronaut from arizona i think i think that

00:20:19.180 yes i think he's he's probably the one to be the most concerned about but again i want to keep my eye

00:20:23.840 eye on the growing socialist movement yeah well i want to talk about that in the policy choices too

00:20:29.780 because we saw something this week in congress we don't see often we saw four republicans join with

00:20:36.740 the democrats to give the democrats 218 votes to force a vote on the the obamacare extensions that

00:20:43.980 were the subject of this shutdown and that have the senate all tied up and so they've shown they have

00:20:50.040 218 votes in the house 214 democrats for republicans to pass the obamacare subsidies now uh we used to

00:20:59.120 run against obamacare by saying well this is socialism this is socialized medicine this will lead to single

00:21:04.860 payer i don't know that those attacks on this policy choice really even ring or resonate anymore i think

00:21:12.340 people are out there saying what's going to make my health care cost less and i don't want to be in some

00:21:16.800 system over overrun by illegal immigrants or folks who make it where i got to drive four hours to see

00:21:23.540 a specialist but but how do you assess that coalition of moderate republicans and democrats

00:21:29.500 rolling house speaker mike johnson and the rest of the republican conference i don't know how i assess it

00:21:35.940 but i'll look i'll say this um i think i don't understand why anyone votes for democrats like obviously

00:21:42.760 i walked away even as a democrat yeah you don't get it you don't have the insight well i'm not

00:21:46.520 anymore and i haven't been i haven't been for a while um well no i you know when i was supporting

00:21:51.240 the democratic party before it was all about propaganda and believing you know media narratives

00:21:55.680 that largely i i found out to be not true to me i think there's a lot more information out there so i

00:22:00.320 don't get why people are not getting it but the point i was going to make was um look even when

00:22:06.800 republicans do get power it we disappoint people like constantly and maddeningly maddeningly and

00:22:15.440 you know we were supposed to repeal and replace obamacare and people don't even talk about that

00:22:20.000 anymore you know it's just sort of like a repeal and replace it right now the fight the the energy

00:22:24.260 is to extend it yeah right so i i think we have the power and we're making it last longer yeah i i don't

00:22:29.980 necessarily i i don't get what the draw is for the democratic party but i do get why people lose faith

00:22:35.900 in supporting republicans because it's like okay well you know we got trump back in office we got

00:22:40.780 what are we doing about the weaponization of of justice what are we doing about obamacare what do

00:22:45.920 we do we talk about this every week right yeah i know i just was having so much fun talking to you

00:22:50.700 about it i wanted to bring everybody else into the conversation but but let me let me take the

00:22:55.120 contrarian position and and let you attack it i'm so excited when we get our merriweather farm

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00:23:15.520 head to merriweatherfarms.com and enter promo code matt g for 15 off your first order okay this is what

00:23:29.380 the folks that have signed this discharge are saying in the house republican conference according

00:23:33.500 to my sources well hey republicans every single election that is about health care in recent times

00:23:40.380 since 2010 we've lost you know obama's elections were about health care we lost those his midterms

00:23:47.000 were about uh you know or his second midterm was about uh health care we got our clock cleaned and so

00:23:52.580 if we want to have another election about health care in in the upcoming midterm then let's have a big

00:23:58.160 fight about this and give the democrats their high ground but the smart political move they'll say

00:24:02.680 is just take it off the table do an extension and then let's let's keep the lights on for the trump

00:24:10.700 administration to go about its business on the other things they're doing to help the country so if

00:24:14.900 that's the argument they're making how do you debate against it they're just extending it i mean like

00:24:19.580 like every single issue that comes up that they they kick the can down the road that never gets

00:24:23.640 addressed i mean we've had this for 13 years now or or more when are we ever getting rid of it we've

00:24:29.660 controlled congress twice in that period completely and we didn't do anything about it i want it gone

00:24:36.220 i'm going to admit i don't fully understand the ins and outs of the insurance intricacies and how

00:24:41.500 something like that would work that's the point but oh and yes but democrats are very good at getting

00:24:47.040 that message across the obamacare everybody's going to get health care it's going to be free it's going

00:24:51.780 to be easy everyone's going to be taken care of that's a great message that sells really well

00:24:56.280 republicans don't have a counter for that republicans need something very simple to come back and explain

00:25:02.780 what we're going to do instead if we don't try it look trump had the compelling message which is

00:25:08.920 instead of that web of complex insurance marketplaces and a series of coverage plans that are like more

00:25:17.260 difficult to understand than any any other choice you make in your life let's just take the money and give

00:25:21.700 it directly to people in their hsa's they can choose the coverage that they want to go by

00:25:25.800 let let the funds uh accumulate if if people are at a time in their life where they're planning for

00:25:31.940 something else later where they might need more different types of coverage and do it that way

00:25:36.080 and it got 51 votes in the senate which by the way i don't i don't grimace at because i couldn't get 51

00:25:42.140 votes in the senate but it got 51 votes in the senate and it's still not available for the house to

00:25:47.440 consider because of the filibuster rule so i mean even when the republicans had a plan that i think

00:25:53.980 is easy easy to sell that is what president trump's guiding light of leadership laid out we did self

00:25:59.540 harm by admitting by adhering to to the filibuster rule uh where do you think that leaves us brandon well

00:26:05.880 so you you think this is going to be a big issue going into midterms if it if these if these subsidies

00:26:14.640 expire the democrats have a clear message to to those americans that the republicans have no

00:26:21.260 massively and that's unfair to president trump because president trump has a plan it's actually

00:26:25.580 pretty easy to understand pretty good and would have money directly hitting people's hsa's tax-free

00:26:30.320 but we we have we have bound ourselves to the filibuster in a way that won't allow us to proceed

00:26:36.300 on that and so yeah i i think what what is the other thing you can foresee other than this is going to

00:26:41.900 be an issue in the election and i think it kind of weaves into the affordability debate it becomes

00:26:46.680 one of the talking points in that affordability narrative and i mean you've shared with me

00:26:52.060 that's all you're hearing from people right now right like yeah bring us inside those discussions

00:26:57.180 you're having uh with with people around the country about how they're viewing the price of

00:27:01.580 american life well yeah no i and i'm glad you told me that because that's an important data point for me to

00:27:08.000 start researching more and learning more about but um so for anyone who doesn't know i i went into new

00:27:13.680 york in uh june and we started this pretty staunch like defeat mom donnie effort uh which you know

00:27:20.520 i'm not an idiot i i knew there was a very slim chance we would be able to defeat him but you know

00:27:26.160 i'm a firm believer fight until the the ship goes down and um so one of the things we were doing all

00:27:32.380 over new york city was these open mic debates kind of like on college campuses but we took them to the

00:27:36.220 streets of new york city and so we had a lot of young people approaching the mics but we also had

00:27:40.440 adults and like people of all different ages and all different backgrounds and that's well there

00:27:44.300 were two things we kept hearing over and over again affordability which like i said before student

00:27:48.340 loans cost of housing uh groceries things like that uh the other issue was israel uh all all people 0.82

00:27:55.520 wanted to talk in new york oh yeah i mean i would think almost i would think in new york you'd have a

00:28:00.620 really strong pro-israel uh no bend on things it was different than that no um especially with

00:28:07.560 anybody under the age of 30 um they right or left or did it matter uh pro-palestine uh very anti-israel

00:28:16.340 and that this is one of the things that they perceived to be something that they liked about

00:28:20.020 zoran mom donnie is that he was shocking just to interject shockingly i saw a poll that said i need

00:28:25.320 to double check but i saw a poll that said jews were one of the highest supporters of mom donnie

00:28:29.280 which i found unbelievable in new york yeah how do you square those two things that's

00:28:34.700 maybe he's the scariest person to run for president if he can have that that message and then and then

00:28:40.780 count that as a key cohort for him so in this weird way and it's almost impossible to articulate

00:28:46.120 it it doesn't totally surprise me because even when i was a liberal living in new york i knew a lot of

00:28:52.700 jewish people who were not pro-israel and had this sort of sense of guilt guilt yeah

00:28:59.120 uh about you know what they feel israel represents or what it is or some need to sort of articulate

00:29:07.380 publicly that you know the wrongdoings of of israel and definitely anybody under the age of 30 um

00:29:13.780 has a very uh more pro-palestinian did it matter if they were like male or female white or black

00:29:21.860 not at all wow do you think that'll be a big part of the 2028 presidential contest where uh where

00:29:28.860 candidates on either side will have to kind of pick a lane there yes there's not an opportunity for

00:29:33.240 nuance you think there should be because it's actually not that complicated and i say this on

00:29:39.880 both sides i think you're right i say this on both sides because um you know i have for my

00:29:45.800 organization i have a lot of jewish donors and a lot of these jewish donors have soured on other

00:29:51.720 organizations that haven't taken a staunchly pro-israel stance but a lot of their feeling

00:29:59.180 about it the way they're saying it is that it's anti-semitism or anti-jewish and so that side is not

00:30:06.440 being nuanced about the fact that we can criticize the government of israel without being anti-jewish or

00:30:11.800 anti-semitic um and then the the other side i think is uh it has gone off the rails uh i mean

00:30:20.780 there are too many people in the conservative movement as well that believe like we're completely

00:30:25.900 controlled by jews and that we're completely it's both sides are going to an extreme that's 0.68

00:30:30.400 not healthy yeah i i think the right position is to criticize the government of israel because you

00:30:35.240 are in a government because you're pro-jew yeah i am definitely pro the jewish people and it is my

00:30:40.880 affection for them which is why i criticize netanyahu because i think he's making decisions

00:30:44.980 that are really bad for them yeah and and making things worse i think we learned during the uh all

00:30:50.080 these wars in iraq and afghanistan that sometimes we create more terrorists than we vanquish and i think

00:30:56.740 that's kind of what's happening there now but it's interesting that you saw that with such intensity and

00:31:01.660 i wonder whether or not that political intensity is uh reflecting off of or through some of these current

00:31:09.040 events we're seeing in the middle east where i mean you know we're we're having caskets draped in

00:31:13.640 american flags that that are coming back and dignified transfers i've been with president trump on the

00:31:19.220 cliffs of dover on those dignified transfers and it is awful and and so painful and he always takes

00:31:26.300 occasion to really highlight that he did it his first term because he wanted the country to see

00:31:31.380 the cost of of these wars and and to gain sufficient support to to wind them down uh pearson we've seen

00:31:38.240 these two americans die in syria i wanted to talk to you about i was really eager to talk to you about

00:31:43.120 it on the platform pearson has spent time in syria he's reported there on the plight of christians in

00:31:48.420 syria and other ethnic minorities and in this particular case these american service members

00:31:54.160 these guardsmen were doing a key leader engagement which is just military term for going and talking to

00:32:02.380 people who might have influence and convincing them that americans are good and they should generally be

00:32:07.720 cooperative with americans uh i have no idea why the national guard is doing that not that the guard

00:32:12.960 isn't capable but that seems like weird to me that that is the position that we put those guardsmen in

00:32:18.180 um you know as someone who's been in country who's covered it what are your reactions to these events

00:32:23.320 i mean it's it's horrifying and it's tragic but it's not unpredictable we basically installed isis as 0.79

00:32:31.120 the government of syria and so when when people talk about the government talks about fighting isis and

00:32:39.860 uh al-jalani i won't use his new name i mean he's a terrorist when he pledges that he's going to help

00:32:45.820 fight isis that's meaningless he is isis he's running the country and it's it's also indicative of the fact

00:32:54.900 that it was afghan or it was syrian um security forces who carried out this attack one guy in one

00:33:02.160 guy and and i mean it's not like one guy in the u.s security forces goes represents shooting people

00:33:07.980 and that that represents like how trump is thinking about stuff so but but our government isn't run by

00:33:13.540 islamic fundamentalists like these people are rampant with hatred for the u.s and i don't think 0.90

00:33:18.980 we can actually have peace in the region as long as these terrorists are in charge of syria 1.00

00:33:23.540 does that justify more u.s involvement in your mind my question yeah i don't know what the solution

00:33:31.280 is matt i really don't we've we've created a terrible situation here first we created isis

00:33:36.280 and then we overthrew a fairly stable government and then we installed isis so where do we go from

00:33:43.340 here how do i'm against war i think some wars are justified certainly but i'm against just u.s

00:33:50.000 involvement willy-nilly all over the place but now they're killing u.s service members but this wasn't

00:33:54.900 like a a war event this no it wasn't this was almost like a a civilian engagement and if you can if you're

00:34:01.960 putting people at risk for that uh i i wonder what what the gain is and and i also wonder if there's

00:34:08.560 going to be a retaliation and uh escalatory cycle of violence are we going to see uh the united

00:34:15.260 states drawn into the middle east more before these midterms and what's the political effect

00:34:19.940 of that going to be what so i was doing a one of those news panel shows recently just talking about

00:34:25.720 a bunch of different topics and this came up and i to be honest i was a little caught off guard and

00:34:29.580 the question that i essentially got asked was you know uh does the u.s have some sort of obligation

00:34:36.520 to get involved if there's some sort of like christian genocide happening you know as we

00:34:40.760 like nigeria right and and i'm i'm thinking to myself well because you said earlier uh we you said

00:34:48.880 we said a bad something but i was my first thought was that we also set a bad precedent and it's kind

00:34:53.700 of hypocritical because it's we do so much talking now about how we shouldn't be involved in foreign

00:34:57.840 wars but then it's when the issue of christianity and things like that gets in the mix then all of a 0.76

00:35:02.380 sudden it sort of changes but does it change it and i don't know i mean are is our policy

00:35:07.380 that we're just not going to get involved in other people's wars another or do we make exceptions

00:35:12.880 when i think it starts with our interests right isn't that what our voters want don't our voters

00:35:17.820 want us to because you're right i mean these are not easy these are not uh like black and white issues

00:35:23.360 right and and i do think that uh we have a military for the protection of the homeland i think we've

00:35:29.060 stretched it to provide defense to a lot of places uh on the back of our taxpayers and and the

00:35:35.800 sacrifices of our service members and uh you know when we can make things happen elsewhere in the world

00:35:42.620 through allies through partners i i think that we still can have great moral clarity but um you know

00:35:49.580 the like in syria i don't know if i totally agree with you pearson that we installed this government

00:35:57.140 i mean you know we paved the way for it i think that we allow we we did so much to discredit

00:36:03.920 assad who was no you know who was no boy scout but we were so hostile toward assad it created an

00:36:10.800 ecosystem where this could happen well the goal was to overthrow assad that was the goal and he

00:36:16.740 eventually was overthrown and we didn't have we didn't have a game plan for who's going to take

00:36:22.040 over after that he's apparently living in russia do you think next time you're over there you can

00:36:25.220 interview yeah no uh apparently the terms of his uh confinement uh preclude talking to the media

00:36:31.360 apparently he spends his time in a series of hotels that his family bought uh like decades ago

00:36:36.840 and he plays video games sounds rough rumor yeah sounds rough um the uh the other big foreign policy

00:36:43.660 um hobgoblin now is venezuela and i think brandon brandon's question about how do you set the terms of

00:36:50.540 when your interests are at stake uh really presents in venezuela because it is easy to see that when

00:36:56.580 a place is a narco trafficking launch pad into the united states that you can't just allow that 1.00

00:37:02.880 and i think that trump uh wants to see maduro gone and wants to do it at kind of the the lowest pressure

00:37:11.180 point possible without the united states becoming like the block captain of caracas uh where do you

00:37:16.640 think you know where do you think the voters are on this or have you heard about it much at all from

00:37:21.680 from people who are out there in the in the political fist yeah and definitely as of late and i i think

00:37:27.480 that's i i unless you're somebody who just absolutely hates trump and hates every single thing he does and

00:37:32.720 you're prepared to just come up with some sort of contrary position and on anything he ever does um

00:37:38.400 i think most people think uh that anything that we can do to prevent american citizens from

00:37:44.880 dying of drug overdoses and and drugs coming into our country i mean this is something i think most

00:37:49.760 people care about and i think it's super important yeah i think it's rational reasonable i think it

00:37:54.360 speaks to the middle but i i wander into pearson's office earlier today and you know he's like deep

00:37:59.040 in reading all the news consuming it and it was like you were saying that all of the people that we

00:38:03.920 don't trust on foreign policy are for this aggressive action and like almost almost anything

00:38:09.940 lindsey graham and john bolton and i'm gonna go the complete those folks we we almost reflexively go

00:38:16.440 the other way but how are you thinking about this question yeah uh i'm of two minds one i he's obviously

00:38:22.820 a nasty guy and there's credible evidence that he stole the last few elections he should not be

00:38:28.720 president is not president uh clearly things in venezuela are not going well the country's run into the 0.95

00:38:33.800 ground so that's not great they're sending you know terrorists into our country sending drugs into

00:38:41.240 our country sounds like it needs to go on the other hand when i started investigating researching into

00:38:49.460 syria you know my initial reaction back in the day was oh yeah assad's a dictator like he needs to go we

00:38:55.940 got to get rid of this guy and so then i started learning more about it and hearing these these voices

00:39:00.480 from people who were there uh that i learned to trust about these issues saying no there's actually

00:39:05.500 a much more nuanced take on this this is what's really going on and so the people i've learned to

00:39:10.940 trust there and about the russian and ukraine war are also saying that we have no business being involved

00:39:17.240 in venezuela and there's a bunch of other issues that are actually going on i don't fully understand

00:39:21.480 uh but that this is a deep state operation and we need to we need to stay out of it and so i'm

00:39:28.360 i'm so you're you're venezuela skeptical brandon and i definitely we are riding with trump well yes

00:39:34.340 on this i'm gonna go with that okay let's let's take it out but i still feel like maybe there's

00:39:39.440 more to this issue that i don't understand because there are people i trust who think that this is not

00:39:43.460 a good idea but clearly he's done a lot of terrible things hundreds of thousands of people are dying

00:39:50.180 every year because of the drugs coming up through there which i also think we need to hold china 1.00

00:39:53.660 accountable for that too because where are those drugs coming from you know they're shipping them over to

00:39:57.460 south america to central america and they're going what are you going to do we're not going to go over

00:40:00.800 there and start blowing up chinese very good at this precursor he's very good at facilities no but he 1.00

00:40:05.840 can figure out something sanctions uh anything tariffs i don't know something sneaky like he's very

00:40:11.380 good at putting pressure on people in these situations and so i think china is one that i would

00:40:15.660 definitely hold accountable for this i think a lot of this is happening because of the success on the

00:40:20.400 border and a lot of people don't talk about that but 90 of the drugs getting into the united

00:40:25.540 states were going uh on the eastern pacific because we had this porous border that created

00:40:30.860 an environment where they could pass easily well when you shut down the border then they start

00:40:36.240 hitting the gulf because that you know it used to be 90 of the cocaine that came into the country

00:40:40.960 came through the florida straits well now that is being reopened because of this it's a push and

00:40:45.860 pull i think it's strategic that you close the border you go after the venezuelan launch point

00:40:50.900 you're starting you're starting to really be able to put downward pressure on the overall

00:40:55.440 volume into the country to your previous question though because i think that still needs to be

00:40:59.180 addressed lindsey graham has never seen a conflict that he didn't want to get into a regime that he

00:41:05.020 didn't want to topple i i just saw a quote from him the other day where he was he was in ukraine

00:41:10.260 and he was speaking to ukrainian troops saying we're behind you 100 of the way america's gonna fight

00:41:16.320 with you we've got to get rid of russia we're gonna take them down everything that he gets involved in 1.00

00:41:21.380 is just a neocon deep state operation and so him wanting us to go in there and overthrow this regime

00:41:28.640 you know that's that's a danger signal for me and i'd also like to ask when in modern history has the

00:41:36.160 u.s ever overthrown a country and it's ended well when have we ever installed a government that was 0.63

00:41:40.640 friendly to us that successfully ran the country panama was great we threw out we threw out i mean

00:41:45.940 everyone who makes the case for venezuela says this is another panama scenario you've got a

00:41:50.780 narco trafficker running the country that's turned it into a narco state you go oust that person and 1.00

00:41:56.540 you're able to have relatively i mean right now it's a center-right government in panama we have

00:42:00.840 i mean but they were resistant to trump he said you know we need to open up the freedom to the

00:42:04.240 panama canal and they're like no we're siding with china bro and then trump had to crack down and

00:42:08.280 they eventually relented yeah it's like it's still a center it's still yeah china of course has

00:42:12.480 influence in panama over the last 20 30 years we've allowed them to get a foothold in latin

00:42:17.540 america but i think this is a part of reinvigorating that that monroe doctrine but i mean pretty much

00:42:22.420 everywhere we go libya syria iran iraq we just create enemies in every situation this is not

00:42:29.580 something i think we should i apply a different hemispheric lens well who yeah yeah this is our

00:42:35.140 back this is our backyard i would feel differently if venezuela was in asia but we need to know what

00:42:39.760 we're doing before we go in there who is going to take over if we get rid of maduro well they the

00:42:45.520 the argument that uh the pro invasion or pro regime toppling crowd says is they had an election and

00:42:54.900 they elected edmundo gonzalez and they elected him because because maduro said uh maria carino machado

00:43:03.000 couldn't even run so they've elected edmundo gonzalez we recognize that election and put him in

00:43:07.600 i think the reality could look like a lot of different venezuelan generals just being like

00:43:12.960 i have some guns and i have some homies and that gold mine belongs to me now and when you try to

00:43:18.420 install some sort of government order over that it's it you could frag you could have you could

00:43:23.220 have violence um i wanted to address another issue that is that i think is going to come to a head

00:43:28.600 soon we got news this week from the department of war that they are escalating this investigation

00:43:33.240 into senator mark kelly for the seditious six video where uh mark kelly along with other lawmakers

00:43:40.540 tied to national security the cia said that uh people don't have to follow trump's orders if they

00:43:46.680 themselves deem them unlawful yet they weren't able to identify a single unlawful order from president

00:43:53.000 trump this this is a call to violate the chain of command you can't do that mark kelly could be uh

00:44:00.600 court-martialed for this potentially uh i worry about i worry about this because i worry that

00:44:07.300 you lionize him and you give this guy a pedestal if uh if this happens but others say look the guy

00:44:15.080 violated the ucmj and should be held accountable do you worry about the political consequences

00:44:20.120 of the trump administration does anybody worry about the political consequences of of bringing

00:44:24.440 mark kelly before a court-martial absolutely not i think that that is i mean you want to talk about

00:44:29.460 insurrectionists like that why'd you look at me you're obviously the insurrectionist like you were

00:44:36.240 in dc when it happened you must be guilty right uh no i i think absolutely and i'm getting um i'm

00:44:42.380 getting mark kelly confused with the other general the dei general um milly milly yeah yeah where where

00:44:48.700 he actually came out and said you know i called china and i told him you know look i'm not going to

00:44:52.760 attack you guys if trump gives me the order you have an insubordinate class of military leadership

00:44:58.600 they're they're installed by the deep state to follow these these rules you got to get rid of

00:45:03.920 them you can't let this this infection fester you can't have a country running if trump is planning if

00:45:09.880 he needs to defend our country for from whoever he's got to know that his military will follow his

00:45:15.480 orders you can't run a country otherwise do you worry about if if we charge this guy he could he could

00:45:21.360 build himself up um you know i don't know enough about it okay but um yeah i mean i can say that

00:45:29.020 from in a general sense i'm uh deeply concerned about uh internal sabotage uh from the trump

00:45:35.200 administration or you know of trump's administration what's going on right now and this again kind of

00:45:40.440 brings it back to the point we were making earlier you know right now we have an opportunity we're kind

00:45:44.620 of in control of everything so let's get rid of all these people yeah well they're ready for action

00:45:50.040 yeah on anchorman uh before we get out of here christmas coming up you got a got a good holiday

00:45:54.720 tradition got a got a family christmas tradition uh at the sharp family what does christmas day look

00:45:59.700 like with you and and the crew actually this year is gonna be really special because uh my my wife is

00:46:05.800 from lebanon and her brother has been living here but his wife was stuck in lebanon uh due to visa

00:46:13.540 restrictions for the last four years so they got married and for the last four years she's been stuck

00:46:18.220 over there they haven't been able to get back together so her visa was finally approved and

00:46:22.440 she's coming over uh well she's over here now and so this is her first christmas here so that's gonna

00:46:26.580 be really so you cooking oh no man we're getting honey baked ham honey baked ham what what what is

00:46:33.020 what does christmas look like uh at the strock house at the strock house uh well my dad just had

00:46:37.660 ankle replacement surgery which a lot of people don't know you can do that it's a fairly new procedure

00:46:42.480 so he's gonna be recovering typically we go to my parents house they cook um i don't know if we're

00:46:48.040 still gonna make my dad cook while he you know is like laid up with this but he's the cook of the

00:46:52.000 family he's typically the cook of the family all right on what ankle we'll see but it's it's newly

00:46:55.540 replaced so you never know well it like it just happens so he's still he's still recovering but i will

00:47:00.960 say um i actually would like to try doing the cooking uh so this gives me like the perfect opportunity

00:47:07.060 to slide in yeah i want to do it like i want to cook a turkey i want to know what that feels like

00:47:11.620 i want to make stuffing we you gotta you gotta send pictures so that we can uh on your next uh

00:47:16.840 visit on the mac gate show we'll do it uh how can folks follow the the walkaway campaign and get

00:47:20.900 involved uh highly encourage people to go to walkawaycampaign.com uh we were almost universally

00:47:26.500 deplatformed after january 6th but um i'm happy to say that within the next month we're gonna have a

00:47:32.000 big announcement about a legal action that we've had with facebook that's been going on for years and

00:47:36.000 years and uh we're coming out victorious in that action which is pretty exciting um so yeah so you

00:47:41.480 can follow me um at brandon strock on all social media platforms and uh walk hashtag walkaway campaign

00:47:46.740 uh we'll be back on facebook very soon and uh we're on x and go to walkawaycampaign.com if you

00:47:52.300 want to learn more and also a fantastic occasional guest host of the mac gates show at the gates

00:47:56.760 household a christmas tradition is uh we go uh we go get the pine cones that are very plentiful

00:48:02.540 in north florida and we roll them in a little bit of glue and then glitter and then make our own uh

00:48:09.400 ornaments for the christmas tree so that is the the gates family tradition by the end everyone

00:48:14.240 this is going to be an extra extra special christmas for you guys that's right we got a

00:48:18.600 new addition baby lucky gates is uh is going to enjoy his first christmas at that age you know people

00:48:23.300 always want to get him stuff but all they're interested in is playing with the crinkled up paper

00:48:27.120 and of course so you know a merry christmas to all we will be back after the holidays but

00:48:32.500 if you are traveling if you are moving about the country don't spread your germs go to all family

00:48:38.960 pharmacy enjoy the great blessings that we have as americans but ensure that when you're traveling

00:48:44.720 gathering and interacting with others you are protected go to allfamilypharmacy.com forward slash

00:48:50.640 matt this is a company that keeps you healthy and prepared no matter what comes your way you're going

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00:49:05.860 maintenance meds vitamins they've got you covered fast private reliable they've got a travel kit you can

00:49:12.540 take care of yourself and your family this holiday season and support a pharmacy that believes in

00:49:16.900 service and freedom go to allfamilypharmacy.com forward slash matt save 10 with code matt 10 today

00:49:23.020 and we will join you after the holidays with my colleague pearson sharp thanks for stopping by

00:49:27.160 brandon we love having you out here in california thank you appreciate it we'll see you soon

00:49:30.560 want to see more great videos like this click on the link below to subscribe to oan live and watch

00:49:35.780 dan ball's real america and the matt gates show on dish channel 212 tune in subscribe and watch today

The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - December 19, 2025

The Anchormen Show Episode 85 - #WalkAway w⧸ Brandon Straka

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