The Charlie Kirk Show - February 28, 2023


The Vindication of Matt Gaetz


Episode Stats


Length

17 minutes

Words per minute

177.93103

Word count

3,096

Sentence count

213

Harmful content

Toxicity

5

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Former Florida Congressman Matt Gates joins us on the Charlie Kirk Show to talk about his vindication and how he handled being targeted by the Department of Justice for his opposition to President Donald Trump. He also talks about why he decided to go public with the allegations against him and why he chose to fight back.

Transcript

Transcripts from "The Charlie Kirk Show" are sourced from the Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool. Explore them interactively here.
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hey, everybody.
00:00:00.000 Today in the Charlie Kirk Show, super important episode.
00:00:03.000 Stop what you're doing and listen to every word of this.
00:00:05.000 You are going to love it.
00:00:06.000 Buckle up, everybody.
00:00:08.000 Here we go.
00:00:09.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
00:00:11.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
00:00:13.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
00:00:16.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
00:00:20.000 I want to thank Charlie.
00:00:21.000 He's an incredible guy.
00:00:22.000 His spirit, his love of this country.
00:00:24.000 He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created.
00:00:29.000 Turning point USA. 0.65
00:00:30.000 We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
00:00:39.000 That's why we are here.
00:00:42.000 Brought to you by the Loan Experts I Trust, Andrew and Todd at Sierra Pacific Mortgage at andrewandTodd.com.
00:00:51.000 Joining us now is a vindicated man, someone who was targeted by the Department of Justice.
00:00:57.000 They were trying to take him out and they failed.
00:01:00.000 Matt Gates from Florida's first congressional district, host of the Firebrand podcast.
00:01:04.000 Congratulations, Matt.
00:01:06.000 You are vindicated.
00:01:08.000 Celebrate with us and tell us your side of the story.
00:01:10.000 I guess the rumors of my political death were greatly exaggerated.
00:01:15.000 The last two years have been challenging.
00:01:18.000 And instead of facing false allegations by running and hiding, instead of doing what a lot suggested and refusing to talk about anything, you know, I very clearly laid out what had occurred in this matter.
00:01:34.000 And people were trying to extort my family for money.
00:01:38.000 There was a media campaign to endlessly repeat false allegations about me in order to try to take me off the chessboard.
00:01:47.000 And I didn't do those things.
00:01:49.000 I didn't go check in like as John Fetterman's roommate at Walter Reed.
00:01:54.000 I went on tour.
00:01:55.000 I told people what we believed, the work that we had to do going forward in a Republican majority, that we had to keep the America first fire burning in the United States Congress.
00:02:04.000 I had great allies like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Jim Jordan by my side, continuing to make the case to the American people that Trumpism was alive and well and that President Trump was the most inspirational leader in our movement.
00:02:19.000 So I got through it, got the good news.
00:02:23.000 It was kind of odd, Charlie.
00:02:24.000 I was in a whistleblower transcribed interview.
00:02:28.000 Someone who had worked for the FBI and was there telling us the concerns that they had and some very, very concerning allegations about the FBI's leadership and their conduct when I got the news that the Department of Justice was concluding.
00:02:43.000 So I have a couple of thoughts on this, Matt.
00:02:45.000 Again, you handled this uniquely.
00:02:50.000 Can you just tell us how maybe not your lawyers, but lawyers in general thought what you did was a mistake?
00:02:56.000 You went public.
00:02:57.000 You did interviews.
00:02:58.000 You spoke at turning point events.
00:03:00.000 You know, we had you throughout the entire deal and we were proud of that because we stood by you.
00:03:05.000 Can you just add some context of why you made that decision?
00:03:09.000 Because the traditional legal advice is keep your head down, don't say anything, and then wait the five to seven years.
00:03:17.000 Why did you choose not to do that?
00:03:20.000 Well, I remember in the days in April in 2021 when I would turn on the television and every channel, every hour was a different lawyer saying, oh my gosh, you know, Matt Gates is making the worst mistake he could ever make by denying these things and by challenging anyone to check his travel records, by saying that there was this extortion plot that had really undergirded a lot of the lies that were being falsely shared.
00:03:46.000 And I just remember thinking to myself, I am not going to let them do this to me.
00:03:51.000 I have seen too often people retreat from the fight.
00:03:54.000 And to be honest, Charlie, I drew a great deal of inspiration from President Trump that when they were trying to smear him as a Russian agent, when they had the steel dossier allegations to try to distract and discredit a remarkable movement that he led, he kept his eye on the prize and he viewed the success of the American people as the principal objective.
00:04:16.000 And he was willing to punch back when there were people lying about him.
00:04:20.000 Like there was an instance where an FBI agent showed up at a disabled veteran's home at night, unannounced, who had previously worked for me.
00:04:30.000 And the FBI agent had all these crazy allegations that they thought had occurred at my congressional office.
00:04:35.000 And this disabled veteran who worked for me said, that was nuts.
00:04:38.000 That couldn't be farther from the truth.
00:04:40.000 And then when the FBI agent was challenged as to what the basis was for this, the agent told my former employee, well, we heard it from a journalist, from a media reporter.
00:04:50.000 And so you had this like feedback loop with the FBI, the Department of Justice, and media outlets who were trying to destroy me.
00:04:58.000 And Bannon called it divine intervention when Project Veritas, under the bold leadership of James O'Keefe, got tape of a CNN director saying that they were purposefully propagandizing my life because I'm effective.
00:05:13.000 And I remember actually Charlie talking to you one time.
00:05:16.000 We were at Mar-a-Laco and you walked up to me, you know, you put your hand on my shoulder and you said, Matt, your strategy is total and full aggression.
00:05:24.000 I wish you the best, but they never really stopped coming for you.
00:05:28.000 And I absolutely believe that you see the full field here.
00:05:33.000 I don't view this as a conclusory moment on anything.
00:05:37.000 I understand that based on my high-profile work, based on the importance of it, based on the agencies of government that I have jurisdiction over because I'm on the judiciary committee, there's going to be just kind of an endless effort to discredit people who hold the views I do.
00:05:54.000 But we always end up being proven right in the end, right?
00:05:56.000 They said we were Putin's lawyers because Trump wasn't a Russian agent.
00:06:00.000 And they said we were tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists when we said that COVID originated from the Wuhan lab.
00:06:08.000 And now just this past weekend, you see major reporting from the Wall Street Journal saying we were in fact right about that too.
00:06:14.000 So there's like a, there's a life cycle of kind of the lies and the nonsense we hear.
00:06:20.000 Like first, it's a conspiracy theory.
00:06:22.000 Then it's Russian disinformation.
00:06:25.000 Then it's true, but the other side was justified.
00:06:27.000 And finally, you should be thanking them for the experience all along.
00:06:30.000 And, you know, time and again, we just have to debunk it.
00:06:32.000 So, Matt, you mentioned something that I said at an event that you were at.
00:06:36.000 We both spoke in the same evening with a lot of the Freedom Caucus people, taking off the chessboard, people off the chessboard.
00:06:42.000 And I know this resonated with you.
00:06:44.000 I believe that sinister forces are trying to take James O'Keefe off the chessboard.
00:06:49.000 Do you have some thoughts on this as someone who just went through a difficult two years understanding and recognizing and acknowledging the importance of James O'Keefe?
00:06:58.000 How should we think about the Project Veritas circus?
00:07:00.000 Well, here's how I think of James O'Keefe.
00:07:03.000 Whatever assets I acquire in my life, I am putting in my will that a portion of it is going to go to whatever organization that James O'Keefe leads.
00:07:13.000 One, because I'm certain he's going to outlive me, but also because there is a type of journalism that only James O'Keefe right now is inspiring and encouraging and curating within the media landscape.
00:07:24.000 This guerrilla journalism that finds truth in the most uncomfortable of places and works then to expose it.
00:07:32.000 If there's no James O'Keefe, that entire vertical goes away.
00:07:37.000 And I think it would be a very bad thing for our democracy or for our republic if that were to occur.
00:07:42.000 Now, what I think is happening at Project Veritas is that there is a veneer, a construct that somehow James has done something wrong.
00:07:50.000 And they're using that to try to seize control.
00:07:53.000 And it just looks like a power grab to me.
00:07:55.000 And I am entirely on the side of James O'Keefe, as are countless whistleblowers who trusted him with their story.
00:08:03.000 You think about the trust that that has to annure.
00:08:06.000 And let me tell you something.
00:08:08.000 One of the things that the Project Veritas board put out to criticize James O'Keefe is an event that he held in Miami that was like a musical celebration of the story of Project Veritas.
00:08:20.000 And I got to meet the person at that event who was the journalist who got the admission from CNN that they were lying about me and propagandizing my life.
00:08:31.000 And now the Project Veritas board wants to act like that was this extravagant expense that was unworthy.
00:08:37.000 But what I saw, I saw in the eyes of those insiders and those journalists who put it on the line each and every day for the truth.
00:08:44.000 And they got to be thanked and they got to be celebrated.
00:08:47.000 And that is something that was so worthy of the contributions that donors had made to Project Veritas.
00:08:53.000 And I saw that that was what they were criticizing him for.
00:08:56.000 It just struck me as a total construct.
00:08:58.000 I mean, just if you take a step back outside of whatever personal envy or animosity they might have towards James O'Keefe, and you just look at this fairly, James O'Keefe has produced billions.
00:09:08.000 That's right.
00:09:09.000 Billions with a B dollars of value of ROI for what he has done over the last decade, period.
00:09:14.000 There is no debating it.
00:09:16.000 Even a left-winger would be like, yeah, you know, he's done more to expose, to be able to, you know, challenge corruption and the deeds of darkness.
00:09:25.000 And so here we are, all of a sudden the board is like, well, yeah, James O'Keefe took $150,000 in black cars.
00:09:30.000 By the way, not as for his own personal wine tours in Napa Valley.
00:09:35.000 This was for business use, multiple meetings a day, security death threats at him.
00:09:39.000 He needed it to be able to do his job.
00:09:41.000 There's no other way to do it.
00:09:42.000 If you don't like that.
00:09:43.000 Do people want James O'Keefe rolling up in a Chevy Malibu Uber?
00:09:48.000 Is that what they're expecting?
00:09:49.000 But also, that's a great point.
00:09:50.000 Confrontations?
00:09:51.000 Well, how about this?
00:09:52.000 So James O'Keefe is talking to probably a confidential source at the CDC, and he's supposed to have to worry about ordering an Uber X and being overheard by that person. 0.74
00:10:00.000 The whole thing is so silly, right?
00:10:02.000 I mean, the idea that you have to have secure transportation while you're running an entire organization based on confidentiality and close-knit sources. 0.73
00:10:10.000 I mean, that's what the board decides to attack him with.
00:10:13.000 It's reprehensible.
00:10:14.000 Some of the most powerful companies in the entire world want James O'Keefe dead.
00:10:20.000 And worse goes to balk at the fact that he had $150,000 and over 18 months of 300 days of travel a year. 0.92
00:10:28.000 It's so transparently ridiculous.
00:10:33.000 Do you or someone you know need to relocate, upsize, or downsize your current home? 0.89
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00:10:44.000 We see the world the same way.
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00:12:17.000 Janet Yellen made a surprise visit to Ukraine, not East Palestine, not actually our own country.
00:12:24.000 Ukraine might as well be part of America now. 0.99
00:12:26.000 We're spending more money on Ukraine, and it sure seems we're spending on our own citizens. 0.55
00:12:31.000 Play cut three, please.
00:12:32.000 Let me make clear, the United States and the allies.
00:12:38.000 Our support for Ukraine will be lasting and is unconditional.
00:12:44.000 We stand with Ukraine and want to support Ukraine.
00:12:48.000 Of course, there's the immediate need for military equipment.
00:12:52.000 In addition to that, they need ongoing economic support.
00:12:57.000 We've already provided $13 billion in support, and there's an additional $10 billion that we expect to provide over the next nine months.
00:13:09.000 Unbelievable.
00:13:10.000 Matt Gates, unconditional, Matt, no matter what they do, unconditional.
00:13:16.000 Your thoughts.
00:13:17.000 The only love that is truly unconditional is the love between the Biden administration and Ukraine, where we are currently now funding the pension liabilities within the Ukrainian government.
00:13:29.000 We have firefighters and police in this country in dilapidated areas where they wonder whether or not their pensions will be fully funded, but we can do that in Ukraine. 0.92
00:13:39.000 Tomorrow, we will have leading officials at the Department of Defense before the House Armed Services Committee, and they will lay out their vision on Ukraine.
00:13:48.000 And we will hear a lot of that information.
00:13:50.000 One of the witnesses will be the DOD Inspector General.
00:13:53.000 And this is the question I will ask.
00:13:56.000 Have we followed U.S. law with the monitoring end-to-end of U.S. materiel and munitions and military equipment into Ukraine?
00:14:11.000 And if they are honest, the answer will be no, because we have not followed our own laws regarding monitoring and tracking as we've sent this equipment into hostility areas.
00:14:23.000 And then you look at these sums of money.
00:14:26.000 It is outrageous to think the way we had to beg fellow Republicans in the United States Senate for a billion here, a billion there to secure our own border.
00:14:38.000 And now when it comes to Ukraine's border, unconditional.
00:14:42.000 It's more like unconditional surrender, frankly.
00:14:45.000 How many of your Republican colleagues are willing to actually take a stand against this?
00:14:50.000 It's a growing number, but it's certainly not a majority of the majority.
00:14:54.000 When people like Chairman Mike McCall go out and say on the Sunday shows, well, you know, Matt Gates and his band of isolationists are in the minority, he's right.
00:15:04.000 He's right.
00:15:05.000 We are in the minority, but Congress right now is a lagging indicator.
00:15:09.000 If you look at public sentiment on this, Joe Biden is not going to be running on Ukraine in 2024.
00:15:16.000 He needs this war to end probably.
00:15:17.000 And gosh, I hope it does, not for political reasons, but for the human reasons.
00:15:22.000 But Joe Biden needs this thing to end because this is going to be around his neck.
00:15:26.000 And he is going to have to constantly explain to Americans why their problems get subjugated and the priorities of Ukraine are enhanced.
00:15:34.000 And like what?
00:15:34.000 We're sending more now to Yemen.
00:15:37.000 We're still in Obama's Syria war.
00:15:40.000 We just saw an American injured in Syria.
00:15:43.000 Like, what are we doing in the Syrian civil war?
00:15:46.000 Someone explained to me what we're trying to win there.
00:15:48.000 And so even though I'm in the minority, I think I'm going to do everything I can in this Congress to force votes.
00:15:54.000 And let's force these Democrats and Republicans.
00:15:57.000 By the way, the previously anti-war Democrats, now totally part of the war machine.
00:16:02.000 Let's have everybody take a vote on whether or not you think we should have troops in Syria or whether or not we should have people that are a part of the supply chain for the Abrams and the High Mars and the like that we're sending to Ukraine.
00:16:16.000 And how many days, Charlie, until the F-16s are going?
00:16:19.000 I mean, it seems like there's a constant pattern here.
00:16:22.000 First, Biden says if we send the Stinger missiles and the High Mars, it's going to be World War III, then we do it.
00:16:29.000 Then they say, oh, we're not going to do the M1 Abrams.
00:16:31.000 Oh, then we do it.
00:16:32.000 Now we're saying we're not going to do the F-16s.
00:16:35.000 What are we going to send?
00:16:35.000 Nuclear weapons to Ukraine next to deter Russia?
00:16:38.000 Yeah, well, we're going to send troops soon.
00:16:40.000 Just wait because all of a sudden they're going to say, well, you know, we don't know how to work all this stuff.
00:16:44.000 And so can you just come over here and kind of show it to us and maybe that's happening now. 0.97
00:16:48.000 Yeah, shoot a couple bullets.
00:16:49.000 Do you know for certain that American troops are on the ground in Ukraine, Matt?
00:16:53.000 American personnel are actively involved in supply chain and logistic kits for all these folks, right?
00:17:01.000 And there's no way we do not have employees of the U.S. federal government on the ground in Ukraine right now.
00:17:09.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
00:17:11.000 Email me your thoughts as alwaysfreedom at charliekirk.com.
00:17:14.000 Thank you so much for listening and God bless.
00:17:19.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk dot com.