The Great America Show - GAETZ FIGHTS FOR MILITARY & VETS, SECURE VOTE

00:00:00.000 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Great America podcast with Lou Dobbs,

00:00:04.200 always in the fight for truth, justice, and yes, our American way of life.

00:00:09.240 And now here he is, the Peabody award-winning voice of truth, the great Lou Dobbs.

00:00:14.600 Welcome to the Great America show, everybody. A lot to take up today. We'll be talking with

00:00:19.760 one of the brightest young Republican stars in all of Congress. He's Congressman Matt

00:00:24.900 Gates of the 1st District in the great state of Florida. He sits on the Armed Services Committee

00:00:30.700 and Judiciary Committee, also one of the most outspoken Republicans, a devout, energetic supporter

00:00:37.120 of President Donald Trump, whether during the two fraudulent, baseless, radical-dim efforts to

00:00:43.840 impeach the 45th president, or the Russian hoax in the almost two-year investigation by the special

00:00:50.260 council. And if you're counting, all of that resulting in absolutely nothing. Or just standing

00:00:57.440 by, the president went on stage with him while both were campaigning. Gates' work in Congress

00:01:03.260 has centered on national security, on veterans' affairs. Congressman Gates is a great American,

00:01:08.960 and also, as do most outspoken advocates for America First, he has, well, he has a few detractors.

00:01:16.780 He also has his own podcast. It's called Firebrand. Gotta love that brand. We'll take it all up here

00:01:24.260 with Congressman Matt Gates, and welcome to the Great America show, Congressman. Great to have you

00:01:30.060 with us. Thanks so much, Lou. Great to be with you. We got a lot on the agenda. You know, the Republicans

00:01:36.520 in Congress have always looked to you to kind of set the course. So, you know, whether it was on Moneyline

00:01:42.680 or Lou Dobbs tonight or now the Great America show, you know, we've got an obligation to make sure that

00:01:47.480 we win, but that we're also worthy of that victory. Yeah, well put. And the Republican Party

00:01:54.640 is always, it seems, struggling with the responses and reactions to the radical Dems. Very seldom are the

00:02:04.960 Republicans, absent Donald Trump, capable of taking initiatives to the Democrats. But one hopes that

00:02:13.480 that will change, and hope it changes with the 22 midterm elections. Let's get to the Democrats and

00:02:21.780 sort of go down what has become a battle plan that is obvious on the part of the Democrats. That is,

00:02:30.520 the January 6th committee, as Speaker Pelosi styled it. I mean, it almost sounds like something out of

00:02:39.140 Stalinist Soviet Union, I was going to say Russia, but Soviet Union style tactics. And, and to not permit the 0.85

00:02:50.760 minority leader of the Republican Party, who, in the House, to put his own representatives on that, on that

00:03:00.420 committee. And instead, the Speaker handpicks Liz Cheney. You know, I can't even say his name. I'm not

00:03:07.640 going to say his name, because I find him contemptuous beyond belief. But let's put it this way, two ultra 1.00

00:03:13.020 rhinos. Your thoughts about the way the January 6th committee has been constructed? Well, the American

00:03:20.640 people don't need the January 6th committee. They don't need the January 6th committee to answer any

00:03:26.780 pressing question in their lives to resolve any challenge that's facing them in their kitchen

00:03:32.140 table economics. It doesn't help America in the world. It actually makes us look quite ridiculous,

00:03:37.740 frankly. You know, you're charitable to say it makes us look like the Soviet Union. I think it looks more 0.99

00:03:43.080 like these third world countries where when dictators roll in, they have the truth and reconciliation

00:03:48.580 commissions that exist largely to purge a society of people who don't agree with the ruling class.

00:03:55.300 But you see, Lou, the Democrats need the January 6th committee more than anything right now.

00:04:02.000 They've essentially shut down their legislative agenda. The foolish, you would call it an 0.98

00:04:09.120 infrastructure bill if there was any real significant infrastructure in it, but it's really just a social 0.99

00:04:13.400 spending bill. That legislation was not popular. It resulted in no boost for a single congressional

00:04:20.660 Democrat, particularly those on the front lines of their razor thin and, in many cases, illegitimate

00:04:27.780 majority. So they're going to spend the next year focusing exclusively on Republicans as a danger to

00:04:36.560 society. You see, they don't want to debate us on trade or on a focused foreign policy or on taxes or the

00:04:43.700 regulatory environment. They certainly don't want to debate us on immigration right now. So their pitch to

00:04:49.600 America is that Republicans are a danger to the democracy when, you know, they always accuse us

00:04:56.140 of the stuff they're doing. They attack us for harming America's institutions. The number one

00:05:03.180 institution in the American economy is the dollar, and they're crushing it. They say that we are a threat

00:05:08.680 to democracy when they change the rules before the last election in order to have the mailbox beat the 0.93

00:05:17.020 ballot box. And so I think that this is an act of necessity for the Democrats to focus on January 6th. And while

00:05:24.400 we certainly have to make arguments for people's civil rights and civil liberties in the broadest sense, I think

00:05:32.480 that we should not follow them down this rabbit hole forever because I guarantee you, Luke, when, you know, most

00:05:39.020 Americans wake up, January 6th is the last thing they're thinking about. They're thinking about the harm to their

00:05:44.480 lives caused by these Democrat policies. It gives them another opportunity to add to the Russia hoax,

00:05:50.980 to add to the special counsel, to add to two bases, baseless, fraudulent impeachment of Donald Trump,

00:05:59.780 to continue to harass and harangue and persecute Donald Trump. And so that's what they're doing.

00:06:06.080 The Republican Party, as usual, is being timid, almost passive in response. There's not a cry from the Capitol in

00:06:19.520 opposition. It's really stunning stuff, as if, you know, this is just the Democrats being Democrats. Well, the

00:06:25.500 Democrats basically neutralized the 45th president of the United States with their tactics. They could have done far worse.

00:06:33.380 They could have successfully overthrown his presidency, which, as you know, is what they were trying to

00:06:38.300 do. But at some point, the GOP, don't you think, has to say, we're not going to put up with this crap 0.99

00:06:47.080 any longer. And we're going to quit being country club Republicans. And we're really going to get down. 0.99

00:06:54.160 And as President Trump taught, we're going to win. I mean, he was the first president to talk openly and

00:07:03.600 honestly about winning. And I have to tell you, there's a one year void here that I really that

00:07:10.580 really bothers me and millions of Americans. And that's Republicans talking about winning and how

00:07:16.900 they're going to do it. And and so now there's the January 6th committee. They're investigating you.

00:07:23.500 I mean, it goes on and on. Where does it stop?

00:07:28.240 Well, I think that they are really doing great damage to our country, but you zeroed in on the

00:07:33.380 right on the right point. And that is the tactical patterns that we see from Democrats that actually

00:07:39.640 run through the Russia hoax, the phony Ukraine sequel to the Russia hoax, and even to this very

00:07:46.840 moment about January 6th. You see, what they do is they secretly try to gather, quote unquote,

00:07:54.620 evidence, and then they leak things out of context to try to build a narrative with a media that is all

00:08:01.760 too willing to do their bidding. You remember during the Ukraine endeavor, Adam Schiff was down in his

00:08:08.380 bunker. And then every day they would leak some statement. And it looked like President Trump had

00:08:13.880 done something wrong when we all knew that he was standing up for the American taxpayer in Ukraine

00:08:19.580 and everywhere in the world and against the corruption that makes our nation look bad,

00:08:25.040 embodied by the Biden. And so I led 50 Republicans down into that star chamber, down into that Adam Schiff

00:08:33.080 bunker. And we jail broke the truth. We said, no, no more of this. This is not happening.

00:08:37.780 If you want to put a case together, you're going to have to do it above ground in the light of day.

00:08:43.360 And when they had to do that, we all saw that it was a house of cards. The challenge now, Lou,

00:08:48.420 just to be candid, is that those of us who are trying to highlight these terrible injustices from

00:08:55.480 the Democrats are too few in number. I've got Marjorie Taylor Greene and the great Louis Gohmert and

00:09:00.740 Bob Good and Andy Biggs and a few others, frankly, the lineup from Lou Dobbs tonight.

00:09:07.440 It's pretty reliable in these fights, but we need to grow our allegiance. We need dozens. We need

00:09:13.800 hundreds of Republicans that are willing to push back with a direct action. You see, our voters don't

00:09:20.640 just elect us to Congress to go and vote yes or no on endeavors and maybe give a speech every once in a

00:09:27.280 while. We are their representatives in the government. And that's why I'm trying to work

00:09:33.140 hard recruiting candidates right now for the midterms. They won't just put an R behind their

00:09:37.940 name and stare at their nameplate and, you know, wander around a bunch of special interest money and

00:09:43.520 lobbyist money to the leadership. I want people who will actually fight these battles. And on January

00:09:49.580 6th, Lou, you know what the key battle is? The involvement of our own federal government. I would

00:09:55.460 encourage your listeners to check out revolver.news. There is explosive reporting there about, you know,

00:10:01.820 the probability of federal assets actually animating the violence on January 6th. And what's so confusing

00:10:11.000 to me is when we ask the attorney general, when we ask the FBI director, just basic straightforward

00:10:17.260 questions. Did you have assets or agents that were on, that were a part of this event on January 6th?

00:10:24.220 And if you did, did they animate or increase the acuity of violence? And we get a whole lot of

00:10:31.040 bureaucratic nonsense answers to that. Now, when you and I saw the FBI and the Department of Justice

00:10:36.560 doing corrupt things during Republican control, you were on TV every night saying, where are the

00:10:42.260 subpoenas? Where is the oversight? And you and I both know that Paul Ryan and Trey Gowdy would not

00:10:48.800 authorize one single subpoena, not one, when they were trying to destroy President Trump in the Russia

00:10:55.140 hoax. And so I'm now pressing Kevin McCarthy and others in Republican leadership. I want a commitment

00:11:01.300 that we are going to conduct the most rigorous oversight. And, you know, you talk about the

00:11:06.620 President Trump's focus on winning and what we're going to do with a majority. Here's my vision,

00:11:12.480 Lou, and feel free to critique it. We convert every single committee in Congress to an oversight

00:11:18.600 committee. And if you want to be a committee chairman, don't come talking about how much money

00:11:23.300 you raise or what lobbyist friends you have. You show up and tell our body, what are the top three

00:11:29.020 investigations that you are going to start out of your committee? And what are you going to do

00:11:33.380 to expose the truth about November 3rd, about January 6th, about the Wuhan Institute of Virology,

00:11:40.660 about the involvement of the squad and other Democrats in Congress in the riots that burned

00:11:46.480 and harmed our country during the summer of 2020? And if we do that, we will actually connect the pain

00:11:53.520 that our people are feeling right now with the failed policies, corrupt actions, and criminal activity

00:11:59.900 of the Democrats who are destroying our country. That's my vision. Don't just tell people,

00:12:04.820 oh, give us the majority, actually lay out a plan for oversight. What do you think?

00:12:11.540 I think it's a terrific idea. And I think it's a wonderful beginning. And I would hope that Kevin

00:12:18.680 McCarthy would make it happen, because it is exactly the opposite, I'm sure, of what he is thinking.

00:12:28.540 I think we have enough rhinos in Congress to populate, you know, most of the seats on the 0.71

00:12:36.360 Democratic side. There are too many Republicans who are Republicans in name only. They're not

00:12:42.580 conservative. They're embarrassed that the 45th president of the United States actually said

00:12:49.120 America first. That seems so parochial in the minds of these broad globalist elites of both parties.

00:12:55.800 Oh, how could you say America first? Well, fools, if it isn't America first, who is first? China? 0.98

00:13:03.560 Russia? Where's your thinking? We'd like to hear it. But they won't be straightforward. We know on 1.00

00:13:09.200 Wall Street, it's China first. We know on Wall Street, it's whatever market they want to send 1.00

00:13:14.620 capital to this week. Meanwhile, our own markets, which are behaving badly, could use a stable,

00:13:21.620 constant supply of capital so that the most secure markets in the world could prosper and their

00:13:28.560 investors and the American people prosper along with them. This is madness what we are watching

00:13:34.520 happen because of what the globalist elites, whether they're in finance, Wall Street, corporate America,

00:13:40.440 U.S. multinationals, or heretofore domestic U.S. manufacturers that decided it was a brilliant idea

00:13:48.580 to ship jobs and plants and factories overseas to cheap foreign labor markets. Everyone talks about

00:13:57.860 supply disruptions, supply chain disruptions. It's very simple. They're making stuff overseas,

00:14:06.880 and it's very inefficient and expensive to get that stuff back here. There would be no disruption

00:14:12.960 if those plants, those resources were in this country where they belong. But corporate America

00:14:20.340 and both political parties facilitated the export of all of that capital, all of those great middle-class

00:14:29.860 American jobs overseas. Your thoughts? Republicans have to embrace the economic nationalism that was

00:14:39.260 successful. And every time we say that, people call us fascists. There's nothing improper about wanting

00:14:45.060 our country to be productive and to be self-reliant. For too long, you're right. Politicians in both

00:14:53.340 parties sold the Chimerica dream, that if we only brought China closer to us, they would be more like us. 0.72

00:15:00.780 The reality is the middle class in this country has grown poorer, while the middle kingdom has been 1.00

00:15:07.960 enriched. And in the meantime, we've become less safe, less secure, and the elites are just fine with

00:15:16.240 American decline, so long as they get rich in the process. And that's really the core of it, the 0.99

00:15:22.720 corruption. And, you know, take, for example, in my strategy to convert every committee to an oversight

00:15:28.100 committee, the Education and Labor Committee. One of the first investigations that I would launch out of that

00:15:33.220 committee would be into the Biden Center that existed at the University of Pennsylvania, where they broke

00:15:38.420 the law in accepting anonymous Chinese Communist Party-linked funds to give to the very people who

00:15:45.900 are now working in the Biden foreign policy apparatus. You know, that should be investigated. We

00:15:51.340 shouldn't just say, well, let's go and do a feisty little education bill. You see, Paul Ryan had a

00:15:56.900 strategy when Obama was president, that we should just pass a bunch of bills that Obama will veto,

00:16:03.860 and then we can claim the moral victory about having forced a veto. You know, that didn't work,

00:16:10.240 and we lost trust, because then Paul Ryan was unwilling to put the exact same bills that he put on

00:16:17.100 Obama's desk on President Trump's desk, because then we were dealing with live ammo. And so people don't

00:16:23.160 trust that anymore, Lou. And so I don't want a legislature, I don't even want a Republican

00:16:29.040 majority built around the notion that we're going to work with Democrats on these bills. We have to

00:16:34.780 conduct the investigations. And by the way, let's name names on this podcast. We always name names

00:16:40.580 before when we had our conversations. That's right. By the way, nothing has changed. Nothing has changed.

00:16:46.480 That's right. Well, John Katko of New York is a Republican in name only. He should not be the

00:16:54.680 Republican leader on the Homeland Security Committee. I mean, you ask the question, like,

00:16:59.980 will Kevin McCarthy hold the Democrats accountable? We won't even hold the Republicans accountable

00:17:05.300 today. You explain to me any justification for why this man who voted for impeachment, who voted to put

00:17:12.520 Steve Bannon in contempt, who voted to strip Marjorie Taylor Greene off of her committee, who voted for

00:17:17.800 the January 6th commission, who voted for the Biden infrastructure bill. Why is that man the Republican

00:17:24.180 spokesperson on any issue, especially something so important as the border and homeland security?

00:17:29.960 It is a shrine to the failure of our leadership that he has not been removed from that from that post.

00:17:36.160 And we'll likely get a promotion if Kevin McCarthy has his way. Now, I like Kevin McCarthy.

00:17:42.440 I have to say, but I sure don't like his rhino ways. And I sure don't like the fact that he is not

00:17:49.440 standing strong and animated in his leadership for the Trump policies that are proved to have been the

00:17:58.900 correct policies and the simple two-word slogan that defined his presidency, America first. You see

00:18:08.300 Republicans, rhinos and moderates alike running from America first for crying out loud. How can we 0.96

00:18:16.940 possibly expect the Republican party to prosper, broaden and grow if they're afraid of America first

00:18:24.500 for crying out loud? It's about the money, Lou. And you've always called it out. There are special

00:18:30.700 interest groups, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a group that fights for everything except the U.S.

00:18:35.300 and her commerce, the business roundtable, the think tanks that do no thinking, but that have 0.99

00:18:41.540 all kind of lobbyist connections that fuel campaigns. And let me take you behind the scenes.

00:18:48.860 The big worry in the Republican conference meetings is that the woke corporate PACs have held back some

00:18:56.300 of their money and are not giving it to Republicans who are still talking about issues like election

00:19:01.600 integrity, which, by the way, is still very important in our nation. And so all the strategy

00:19:06.680 sessions are about how do we get back in the good graces of the lobbyists and the special interests

00:19:12.480 and the PACs. And one of the things that those entities are demanding is to surrender the America

00:19:19.520 first mantra. And don't don't be talking about restricted trade and restricted immigration and,

00:19:25.760 you know, having fewer wars abroad, you know, the special interests of Washington benefit.

00:19:32.320 And God forbid, tariffs, more tariffs. Meanwhile, the current account deficit just rose to levels

00:19:41.040 not seen in the past 15 years. We have a all time record high trade deficit in this country,

00:19:50.180 the exact opposite of what President Trump was trying to achieve, which is something that,

00:19:55.120 you know, you would think those fancy economists sitting at Harvard or Yale or Stanford would be

00:20:01.520 considering kind of important balanced international trade. But the fools are so committed. The academics 0.99

00:20:10.560 who would otherwise be writing scholarly papers and providing independent, objective, informed judgments

00:20:17.620 on economic policy are instead under contract to corporate America, to the think tanks that are

00:20:24.080 funded by oligarchs. It goes on and on. The middle class in this country has less of a chance right now of

00:20:34.320 prospering than at. Well, Donald Trump was the best chance and that chance has been removed.

00:20:44.640 Well, I think that, look, I mean, you know, you speak to the former president frequently. I do as well.

00:20:50.240 He is not unplugged one bit. He is so dialed in to the politics and policies. And really, he's making his game plan for a

00:21:00.480 return to power. And he's already influencing a lot of the candidacies and campaigns of people who want to

00:21:07.760 shape the Republican majority in that America first image. I mean, the most powerful endorsement in American

00:21:14.560 politics today is still the endorsement of Donald Trump. He has to use it wisely. And it's my hope and

00:21:20.560 expectation that that he will in those circumstances. But, Lou, I've taken a lot of heat from the media

00:21:25.840 for suggesting that maybe the person that we ought to nominate for speaker if we take the majority is

00:21:31.840 Donald Trump. You know, I'd even if it was for like 20 minutes, even if he just got up there, took the

00:21:38.320 dabble from Nancy Pelosi, gave a speech, set the agenda and got on the next flight back to Mar-a-Lago.

00:21:44.320 I think it would be significant. But look, I mean, there's nobody else in our movement that really is

00:21:49.760 the leader. Right. I mean, we we see great things out of Governor DeSantis in Florida showing how this

00:21:55.040 agenda can actually help people's lives. But he's done a terrific job. I mean, oh, fantastic. But I mean,

00:22:01.520 we look at Washington and by the way, DeSantis and I were usually back to back guests when he was in

00:22:07.120 Congress on your television program. But, you know, the the Washington, D.C.-based Republican Party

00:22:14.640 is not America first. OK, it is lobbyist first too frequently. And that's what we've got to change.

00:22:21.040 You know, I try to tell my colleagues, if you'll just do these things that we talk about on the

00:22:26.000 campaign trail, economic nationalism, fighting for our people, you won't have to raise as much money 0.95

00:22:31.920 from the special interests because you won't have to be explaining dumb votes. Lou, 0.98

00:22:36.400 give me some advice. I'm the only Republican in the whole Congress who doesn't take any money

00:22:42.320 from political action committees or lobbyists. I find the whole thing disgusting. You know,

00:22:46.480 I will I will win or lose based on what actual human beings in America choose to contribute to me.

00:22:53.120 And folks can go to MattGates.com to help me out. But what would you say, Lou, to colleagues who say,

00:22:58.320 well, gosh, Matt, we've got to go back to the ways of the establishment because that's where the money is. 0.98

00:23:04.080 Yeah, I would say they're fools and and they obviously are not paying any attention to history 0.99

00:23:09.440 and miss the import of the four years of the Trump presidency. This is an opportunity to to right 0.99

00:23:19.040 wrongs, to right the state, the ship of state, to do all of the things that we should have been doing

00:23:25.680 over the course of 30 years, come to terms with the fact that we're getting out hustled,

00:23:30.240 out beat. We've got idiots in the and the general staff in the United States military that are more 1.00

00:23:36.000 worried about CRT than they are about winning, whether it's Afghanistan, whether it's Iraq. 1.00

00:23:42.880 And it's about time everybody understood this military has been its leadership has been an

00:23:50.320 abject failure. And people are afraid to say that we have great young men and women who make up the

00:23:58.960 military, but they deserve far better leadership. And so does the nation. It's it's disgusting to think

00:24:07.120 of the what has been squandered over the last 30 years by the military, by our civilian leadership,

00:24:15.360 with these adventuresome wars in third world countries. And good Lord, to come home, you know,

00:24:23.200 with our tail between our legs after 20 years in Afghanistan is disgusting. But what Biden did was

00:24:31.120 he he boggled, blundered through a surrender. He couldn't even do a surrender right.

00:24:39.840 It is so tragic that the Biden administration believed the lie that there was an Afghan government

00:24:48.560 that was going to be there to facilitate future departures of Americans and the maintenance of

00:24:55.120 military material. The reality was that was always a fiction. That government was always going to fall.

00:25:01.360 And frankly, politicians from both parties lied to the American people. And Donald Trump was the one that

00:25:06.000 told the truth. And, you know, there for all the criticism of Donald Trump's foreign policy, you know,

00:25:11.520 we didn't start new wars. Russia wasn't invading any other countries. We kept North Korea at bay. 0.80

00:25:18.000 We got tough with Iran. It really was an era of great foreign policy success. And now that's 1.00

00:25:24.480 being totally reversed. Now, Lou, I represent the district in Congress. It's got the highest

00:25:28.480 concentration of active duty military and veterans. And it gives me no joy to report to you that I've

00:25:34.320 never seen morale lower in my life. I see the vaccine mandates really causing people to think that

00:25:43.360 their faith is illegitimate when they apply for a faith based exemption. The United States military is

00:25:48.800 not granted one faith based exemption. That's demoralizing to people. The white supremacy stand downs,

00:25:57.040 as if the big problem our military has is that people are, you know, evil to one another based on the color of

00:26:04.480 their skin. That becomes very divisive, very corrosive. And then, of course, Afghanistan. I mean, 1.00

00:26:10.800 the number of global war on terror suicides and drug overdoses that occurred following Biden's

00:26:18.320 calamitous withdrawal really, really struck at my heart. And I know yours as well. There are a lot of

00:26:25.440 people in Congress who don't like to push back on these woke generals. You know, they walk in with

00:26:30.960 all their military regalia on. And the sense is you shouldn't ask them any tough questions.

00:26:36.400 But I went after Mark Milley and Lloyd Austin and the Armed Services Committee for what they did with

00:26:42.880 China, what Milley did with China, especially. I mean, Lou, I mean, you focus on the China threat

00:26:49.040 and you think about it a lot. I mean, what was your reaction to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs

00:26:55.600 going and speaking with his counterpart in China and taking American first strike off the table

00:27:00.880 we're lucky he didn't start World War three. Well, he should, in my opinion, have been 1.00

00:27:06.400 court-martialed on the spot. And instead, of course, the left wing brain nincompoops in corporate media

00:27:14.800 did nothing but support him. And Biden, of course, applauded him because he's like-minded.

00:27:20.480 It's interesting, isn't it, that, you know, the boogeyman is Vladimir Putin. And we are the ones

00:27:26.400 encroaching on, in point of fact, in Eastern Europe. One can understand why he could use that as at least

00:27:34.960 a discussion point that we are subsuming influence with Poland, with Eastern Europe. And at the same

00:27:46.960 time, we talk about the boogeyman of Putin as President Xi is taking over the South China Sea,

00:27:56.320 extending his influence, preparing to, by all, nearly all accounts from China hands, preparing to be in a

00:28:05.680 posture to take over Taiwan. And the mindlessness of the national security establishment is really born in

00:28:15.760 one thing. And we go back to your word. It's money. It is the interest of Wall Street. It is the

00:28:21.920 interest of corporate America, who still, for all the experience we've had, want to go over and sell

00:28:28.320 one dollar of profit into China. Just sell one product that gets a dollar of profit, they'll have

00:28:34.640 a billion four dollars. I can't tell you how many CEOs have spewed that kind of nonsense over the years.

00:28:42.160 And here we are with our biggest trade deficit. It's perpetual. We're talking trillions of dollars

00:28:48.480 that have been lost to the American economy, because we have become a dependent, a dependent

00:28:55.040 satellite of a communist nation. Now figure that one out. Well, you, you totally nailed the frame.

00:29:04.000 You know, Russia is not our friend. They engage in malign influence all over the globe. But Russia

00:29:11.440 is not an existential threat to the United States or our people or our economy. China is. And 0.92

00:29:18.880 increasingly, the pro-China, Joe Biden foreign policy establishment is trying to do everything to

00:29:26.720 turn away from China and to really engage in Russia and Eastern Ukraine. And when they're asked just

00:29:33.920 basic questions about how people in Eastern Ukraine feel about Russia and what the real impact is to

00:29:41.040 Americans, their answers are very lackluster. If there's a challenge in Europe, you know, I think 1.00

00:29:47.200 Europe has a role to create stability on on their continent. But the linkage, the linkage of Russia,

00:29:55.360 the greatest producer of energy to China, the greatest consumer of energy would be the big threat. And 0.93

00:30:01.760 that's what we've got to keep our eye on. And everyone in Washington is trying to distract away from that,

00:30:07.680 that very reality. And that reality is as if our national security establishment and the leadership,

00:30:16.880 the global elitist leadership of both parties can't comprehend the depth of the threat posed by China.

00:30:27.680 Hypersonic missiles, they now lead the United States and Russia in development of highly effective

00:30:35.520 hypersonic Mach 9 plus speeds, able to deliver a warhead, well, right anywhere in the world,

00:30:48.000 with just a couple of hours flight time. It's really stunning stuff. And meanwhile, the US military is

00:30:55.440 saying, you know, I don't know how they did that. That was really amazing. And the fact of the matter is,

00:31:01.680 the fact of the matter is, it's based on US technology from 2000, that the Clinton administration

00:31:08.240 chose not to fund. It was that simple. And as a result, now here we are 21 years later,

00:31:15.120 and we are deficient in hypersonic technology and weaponry. Yeah, while the United States is still

00:31:24.120 researching hypersonic weapon systems, and developing them, China is actually fielding them.

00:31:31.280 Exactly. And we can get a whole lot of things right. But if we get wrong, how to protect our

00:31:37.520 country from low earth orbit hypersonic munitions that have global strike capability,

00:31:44.080 we will not save America, we will not ensure prosperity for the next generation. And what is

00:31:51.280 frustrating is that, you know, when when you look at what China's top military leaders spend their time

00:31:57.040 doing? You know, they are trying to have global domination, strategic assets, upgraded technology.

00:32:05.920 Meanwhile, in our military, you know, we've got our top advisor to the president wondering how to get

00:32:11.280 more in touch with his white rage. You know, we have hours and hours and hours of mandatory training

00:32:17.600 for our service members about how to think about gender and transgenderism. You know, I mean,

00:32:23.360 is this really the role of our military? I thought the role of our military was to protect our country,

00:32:28.000 to win wars, to stop other people from killing Americans and harming our interests. And instead,

00:32:34.560 it's become this woke social experiment. And the problem there, Lou, the real problem is that it

00:32:40.400 impacts the next generation of military service members. I've already seen the impact with the people

00:32:47.360 who apply for military academy service nominations for members of Congress. And I don't want to see a

00:32:54.400 world in which people who are patriotic or liberty minded or independent thinking feel unwelcome in our

00:33:01.760 nation's military, because we need our military to be one of the strongest and most capable institutions

00:33:08.640 in our government. What do you think about how these policies are reshaping the recruitment and the

00:33:14.400 pipeline into the military? Well, the other part of it is you're exactly right. But what about our military

00:33:21.840 academies? Based on the accounts that I'm reading and with a few conversations I've had with representatives

00:33:32.320 of one of the academies, I mean, they're trying to pretend that they're MIT or an Ivy League school

00:33:40.240 people with like a social focus, with a woke interest. It's nonsense. They're not being,

00:33:49.920 you know, they have entire curricula that are devoted to creating warriors. And what we're,

00:33:57.520 what we are putting out in many instances are, you know, innervated clerks who are trying to be

00:34:05.040 socially and politically correct, rather than the finest warriors they can be. The educational

00:34:11.840 curriculum, if those institutions needs to be, I think, examined carefully, and, and to understand

00:34:20.560 the atmospherics that have been created in our academies, because they aren't what they were

00:34:25.680 40 years ago. It's that simple.

00:34:27.760 Yeah, I mean, we actually went, we went through some of that curriculum. And I mean, there,

00:34:33.280 there are classes like understanding whiteness. I mean, Lou, is that, is that something our military

00:34:39.200 leaders need to really delve into is understanding whiteness? I mean, you know, one of the things that

00:34:44.320 I appreciate about our military is that you got folks who go through the same kind of training,

00:34:50.480 have the same experiences, build lifetime bonds with one another, and race has nothing to do with it.

00:34:57.760 It has to do with love of country and unified patriotism. And then when you go into these

00:35:03.120 elite groups, and you start to say, well, you might be disadvantaged, because you're not white,

00:35:08.480 and you might be fragile, because you are white, and you might have implicit bias based on your,

00:35:14.160 you know, structural deficiency, and you start to slice and dice and divide. And it's really what

00:35:20.800 they're trying to do to our whole country. Sure.

00:35:22.800 I mean, one thing we, we liked about Trump is that you make America great again, right? We're

00:35:28.640 all in the same boat, we all have to succeed, we all have to do better as a country. And that was

00:35:34.320 even different than some of the other Republicans. Remember, Karl Rove would tell us that, well,

00:35:39.360 there's a special message you send to a suburban person in this district. And if you've got a left-handed

00:35:45.120 lesbian Eskimo, they get a specific message. And Trump said, no, no, no, no, we're all Americans.

00:35:51.360 We have one message, we're going to build our country back to greatness for everyone. And that

00:35:56.640 egalitarian invitation to people led to the realignment on the issues. And now I fear that

00:36:04.320 the right and the left are too willing to kind of slice and dice and act as if the American experience

00:36:10.080 is different for, for each of us. And it's not a shared experience. Exactly. Well, the great thing

00:36:18.720 to me about this country has always been, it's egalitarian heritage, culture, tradition throughout.

00:36:27.440 It becomes more egalitarian as we evolve and create an even greater America. But we're,

00:36:35.440 we have people walking around as if there are some, I mean, the mindlessness of those who will take

00:36:41.280 seriously academics or whomever that want to judge 1820 by 2021 standards. It is silly. It's an 0.95

00:36:51.520 intellectual disaster and they should be forfeit. They're standing in any university if they

00:36:58.560 indulge in that kind of crap, because it is really mindlessness that we really don't need in 0.96

00:37:04.960 institutions of quote unquote, higher learning, even though there are more about the, in too many 0.99

00:37:10.560 instances, indoctrination than education. Well, and I'll brag on Florida. We've had an anti-China

00:37:17.440 initiative in our universities. We've been working to highlight those programs that work for the

00:37:23.600 Chinese Communist Party's interests, not our interests. And we're, we're trying to de-wokify 1.00

00:37:29.760 some of these universities that spit out anti-American hate. And there was recently a

00:37:36.240 circumstance at the University of Florida where Governor DeSantis got involved to ensure that

00:37:41.200 our state's values were reflected in the education there that, that students were receiving. And there's

00:37:47.040 nothing wrong with that. Everyone acts like we have to hold up these universities like they're,

00:37:51.120 they're entirely independent of our society and government. And they're these freestanding nodes.

00:37:57.280 That's nonsense. You own those universities. The American taxpayers pay for them if they're

00:38:01.760 public universities, tuition pays for them. And so we have a say in this. We don't have to just

00:38:06.800 sit back and take it. We can actually exercise some agency in shaping the future in a positive way.

00:38:13.280 And God bless the parents in public school board meetings who are saying, we're going to take,

00:38:19.520 we're going to take charge here. We're not going to put up with the NEA, the Federation of Teachers,

00:38:25.680 on all of the union nonsense, which are frankly just the conduits for critical race theory, for all of the

00:38:34.480 woke nonsense that is being bloviated through public education and higher education as well.

00:38:41.520 Uh, and actually it's spread to now to, uh, HR departments and corporate America, uh, to government,

00:38:50.000 uh, just as well, do you mean parents or domestic terrorists Lou? Because you know that we've now got

00:38:56.320 exactly national security division, uh, you know, in the highest levels of our law enforcement,

00:39:01.440 that says that if a parent loves their kids and shows up and wags their finger in the face of a

00:39:05.520 school board member, that they could be facing a threat tag. And I mean, that's very serious. I

00:39:11.120 don't think this story has been reported enough. Uh, because it, it, it, it's the infrastructure

00:39:16.880 for them to tag all of us and to de-platform us from the financial world, from the digital world,

00:39:23.600 from the political world. It's very scary stuff. It's very serious stuff. And I want to say something

00:39:29.760 that I hope everyone listening will pay attention to this one thing. We have fellow Americans who now

00:39:38.960 are afraid to speak their minds. We have fellow citizens who are frightened of saying, uh, what

00:39:47.920 they think about critical race theory. They're frightened of talking about wokeness, uh, in some

00:39:54.560 of the complete madness of it all. And when we have a country that is now constrained in exchanging ideas,

00:40:03.760 expressions, opinions, and views, this shouldn't be just the purview of, uh, uh, a podcast, whether it's

00:40:11.360 yours or mine, Congressman, this should be the purview of every home, every neighborhood, every

00:40:17.920 community, every city in this country. And it should be, there shouldn't be these, uh, artificial, uh,

00:40:24.480 constraints, uh, on, uh, American citizens, because let's be clear. This is an attempt at mind

00:40:32.960 control. This is an attempt at controlling language. This is an attempt to control thought

00:40:40.000 and it's got to be stopped and it's got to stop now. Well, let me ask you to diagnose this because

00:40:46.240 there's two different, different schools of thought on the Republican side. One is that

00:40:50.400 they were trying to secretly tag parents and they got caught with these terrorism labels.

00:40:56.560 Uh, the other school of thought is they actually wanted to get caught doing it because it's part of a

00:41:02.400 bigger plan to chill speech and to send a message. Well, maybe you haven't gotten engaged yet and mad 1.00

00:41:09.120 enough to show up at a city hall or at, uh, uh, America first gathering or at a school board meeting,

00:41:16.960 but you know, we want you to know that we've got these tags out there. So do you think they were

00:41:21.120 busted or do you think it's all part of a grand plan to chill speech and political activity?

00:41:26.400 Well, I think that the democratic party, the left in this country, the Marxist left in this country,

00:41:32.480 let's say it the way it is, are all about trying to stop free speech, free assembly. They're trying

00:41:40.240 to strip the bill of rights from the constitution. It's that straightforward. And it is a purposeful

00:41:47.200 act of wherever, uh, wherever it takes place. There are, there are no accidents so fast.

00:41:53.760 It changed so fast. I mean, wasn't the left in this country, the ones that said, no matter how

00:41:58.880 weird or bizarre your comments or speech or performances, we're here to embrace,

00:42:04.480 you know, every bit of it. And, you know, the right was a little timid about some of the, uh,

00:42:10.080 some of the absurdness of the speech that Democrats were protecting. And now it's like, man,

00:42:14.960 they seem victimized by, by speech, right? Like speech has now been converted to violence. You

00:42:20.640 know, it's your speech can be violent against me. No, it can't. It's just words. If you don't like

00:42:25.520 it, speak back. Uh, but think about this black lives matter. Okay. What is the, you know, 0.98

00:42:33.680 do white lives matter? Can you ask that question? Can you say all lives matter? No, you can't in many 0.99

00:42:42.320 schools in many parts of this country. You can't say that because I mean, it just madness ensues and

00:42:50.480 people are scared to death. Well, let me tell you all lives matter. And if, if that is a radical

00:42:58.960 statement, then we are in deep, deep trouble. And yes, I'm suggesting we're in deep, deep trouble.

00:43:06.080 I want to turn to the January six, uh, committee, uh, and its investigation, which basically has

00:43:12.000 nothing to do with those detained as a result of the riots, uh, on Capitol Hill on January 6th. Uh,

00:43:22.160 and I, there's so little outcry, so little, uh, attention talking with, uh, Marjorie Taylor green.

00:43:29.680 Uh, uh, she talked about a visit that she and Louie Congressman Louie Gohmert, uh, made to the,

00:43:36.800 to the facilities. It was hair raising. Why is there not more attention being paid to what the,

00:43:43.440 the Democrats are doing? Because our leadership has told us to stop talking about the January six

00:43:50.640 detainees. They've said, you know, this is something we shouldn't, uh, be advocating for discussing

00:43:57.440 because we don't know the specifics of any of their cases. And to me, that misses the point entirely,

00:44:03.360 right? I mean, we're not anybody's lawyer, but we should be for every single American having access

00:44:09.600 to counsel and due process and medical services and religious services. And when there are people

00:44:15.600 that are being treated differently, not as a result of their criminal offenses, but as a result of their

00:44:21.120 politics and, and the need to sort of maintain them as some grandiose threat to the American

00:44:27.200 Republic, well, that should concern us all. And we just shouldn't leave people behind any people

00:44:33.040 when it comes to the, the benefits and the rights that undergird our constitution.

00:44:38.960 I mean, the madness again, of all this is your leadership is telling you not to talk about it,

00:44:45.360 but you could, we, we, we did, we bent over backwards, radical Islamist terrorists get more due

00:44:54.080 process than some group of Americans who were rioting on the, on Capitol Hill and may be accused

00:45:03.040 of, uh, even greater crimes. I don't care who they are. They deserve due process. These are American

00:45:09.120 citizens. And that means your leadership is giving the field to the radical dims who are saying and doing

00:45:16.240 whatever they want without recourse or response. I mean, that's horrible. That's horrific.

00:45:25.040 Weakness is not a winning strategy, you know, and, and we cannot allow the left to set the frame

00:45:31.280 on these issues or frankly, any other, but, but that's going to be their alpha to their Omega

00:45:36.880 is January 6th. And, you know, the, the troubling thing now is that the media is so willing to take

00:45:44.080 these really, uh, I think virtuous text messages, uh, to Mark Meadows and from Mark Meadows and

00:45:51.200 actually, there's something wrong about them. We, we should have been talking to Mark Meadows

00:45:55.840 about election integrity and investigations that needed to be pursued. And the people at

00:46:00.320 the department of justice who were blocking legitimate investigations into voter fraud.

00:46:06.000 I mean, I was getting reports even from Florida that the department of justice was, was, was throwing

00:46:12.640 a wet blanket over real investigations with real evidence where Democrats were trying to falsify

00:46:19.760 vote by mail request forms. And when we learned that people watching television on election night,

00:46:28.160 they watched what happened in Wayne County. They watched what happened in Fulton County.

00:46:33.680 They watched, uh, you know, elections being called along lines of voters were outside.

00:46:39.760 They were watching as people were complaining about it, Philadelphia, there were no Republican

00:46:44.800 poll watchers and the list goes on and on and on. Does all of that rise to changing the outcome of the

00:46:51.840 election? Perhaps not, but perhaps the law, the odds are against it, but there it's still a,

00:46:59.280 perhaps it deserves investigation. That's all I'm saying. Anomalies, irregularities. And how is it that

00:47:06.880 the president of the United States can warn everybody for months on months that these changes

00:47:14.560 in election laws are going to create an opportunity for electoral fraud and nothing happens. His justice

00:47:22.000 department doesn't do anything. His political organization doesn't do anything. The Republican

00:47:27.280 party doesn't do anything. And then all of that washes over the election of 2020.

00:47:35.440 Well, we had the better candidate. They bet they had the better operational plan.

00:47:39.520 You can't, you can't dispute that. I mean, we need to take a page out of the book of Barack Obama

00:47:45.760 and Eric Holder on this, because when they left power, they went right to work, putting their most

00:47:51.040 talented operatives and assets in supervisor of elections positions as secretaries of state on

00:47:58.320 canvassing boards. And frankly, we were so excited about sharing the America first joy at a traveling

00:48:06.400 carnival show known as the Trump campaign, where we went from town to town and brought together tens of

00:48:11.840 thousands of people. And what we didn't do was, I think, that legwork. And a lot of that falls on

00:48:18.080 the Republican Party. And we have to change those tactics to give people confidence that we value

00:48:24.880 their vote. I mean, there are a lot of people who think, well, gosh, the Republicans didn't even fight

00:48:28.640 for my vote to make it count, to make sure that it wasn't diluted by illegal immigrants or 0.98

00:48:34.000 people voting illegally or mail ballots that were just filled out. Uh, and, and so why should I

00:48:39.600 give them something that I value if they don't seem to value it? And that's a, that's a trust

00:48:45.280 we have to rebuild. And if we don't take that seriously in a lot of these close races that we

00:48:50.700 need to win, we may come up short. So it's very important. Yeah. And you're making a very important

00:48:57.720 point. I want to spend on it very quickly. And then I want to turn to some of the tactics that have

00:49:02.780 been employed against you. Uh, the, the idea that the Republican Party should not be taking the lead

00:49:10.660 in understanding what happened in 2020, in taking action to correct those election laws as a party,

00:49:18.280 as the Republican National Committee, as the Republican Party, uh, and the political apparatus

00:49:24.060 of the party shouldn't be making certain that there is electoral integrity and that there will never be

00:49:30.040 a repeat of that again, no matter what the cost, how many lawyers you have to put in the field,

00:49:34.740 uh, and how many candidates you have to screen, but it needs to be done from the local level all the

00:49:40.640 way through the federal. And because I think the American people were so dismayed by what they

00:49:45.560 witnessed and the way they felt at the end of that election, that I don't know that they'll ever give

00:49:50.500 a Republican a vote again. If they don't think he or she, their candidates aren't serious about making

00:49:57.340 sure they don't, uh, they don't see a repeat of 2020. I want to turn to, I want to turn to the, uh,

00:50:05.780 you're under federal investigation. Uh, so it is reported, uh, and you are now engaged in defending

00:50:15.580 yourself. Where do you believe all of that started? I believe that the lies that were told about me

00:50:23.440 and endlessly retold by the media, uh, were rooted in an effort to extort my family. Uh, that's not a

00:50:31.200 conspiracy theory. Someone has pled guilty to trying to extort my family. Uh, and it was, you know,

00:50:38.100 a very uncomfortable endeavor to go through. I know that there are people at the department of justice

00:50:44.400 who, uh, would love nothing more, whether it's legitimate, illegitimate, factual or not to try to pin

00:50:50.960 my scalp to the wall. Uh, and I know there are probably some good folks out there that work for

00:50:55.500 the FBI and department of justice around the country and around the world that are, they're patriots that

00:51:00.280 are doing the right thing. Uh, but there is corruption at the head shed. We've pointed that out over the

00:51:05.880 years. Uh, and it's my hope to continue to clear my name, but it certainly feels, uh, vindicating in

00:51:12.460 part, um, to have someone pleading guilty to spreading these lies about me. Uh, and, and really also the,

00:51:19.680 the great work of project Veritas. I think when I pass along, I'm going to leave project Veritas in

00:51:24.520 my will, um, because they actually got on camera footage of a CNN producer, essentially saying that

00:51:31.180 they were propagandizing my life, not because of the, uh, the truthfulness of any of the allegations

00:51:38.000 against me, uh, but because I was effective because I'm conservative and because I get in the way of

00:51:44.640 the Democrat agenda. And that really, uh, is, is what this has been all about for the media.

00:51:50.080 And, uh, you know, I just, uh, learn a lot from president Trump. You got to be a happy warrior.

00:51:55.040 You got to keep fighting and, uh, you never, you never allow the process to become the punishment.

00:52:01.480 So is there any communication between your lawyers and the justice department over all of this? I mean,

00:52:07.480 is there, uh, this has been going on for months and months. Uh, what, what is the, the current status?

00:52:16.860 Yeah, I don't know what I don't know, Lou, you know, and, and sometimes you just sort of feel like,

00:52:21.100 you know, one smear effort runs into the other, you know, just about when they were done smear and

00:52:25.880 Trump on, uh, Russia, which was false and phony, they went right into Ukraine. And here now that,

00:52:32.160 uh, these allegations that were anonymously, uh, made about me nine months ago, uh, now that they

00:52:41.100 have not resulted in a single person actually stepping forward to accuse me of wrongdoing on

00:52:46.180 the record, uh, they're trying to smear me on the January 6th stuff. I'm one of 11 lawmakers,

00:52:51.280 uh, who has had their phone records put under a preservation demand by the department of,

00:52:57.040 I'm sorry, by the January 6th committee. And, uh, and so it's my expectation that, that these,

00:53:02.580 uh, these efforts to de-platform and smear don't ever really began or end. They just change form.

00:53:09.240 Uh, and, and I get the sense with, uh, what they're doing to Jim Jordan right now, what they're doing to

00:53:14.440 General Scott Perry, Congressman from Pennsylvania, what they're doing to Marjorie Taylor Greene and

00:53:19.520 myself, it'll all be kind of wrapped up in this next endeavor. And Mark Meadows, uh, you know,

00:53:25.240 it's, it's, it is, it's appalling. Um, give us your judgment about how, how you think this will

00:53:33.560 wrap up in your own case. Oh, well, I mean, I, I've been very clear that the thing I did not do

00:53:40.220 the things I've been accused of and like, it's, it's verifiable that I haven't. I mean, the accusation

00:53:46.080 that I brought someone across state lines and traveled with them for illicit purposes, you can

00:53:51.100 actually review records and see that that's completely false and never happened. And so

00:53:55.660 I'm very confident in the ultimate result. I do know these people play dirty. I know they fight

00:54:00.680 dirty. I mean, Lou, we live in a world right now where Rudy Giuliani, one of America's greatest

00:54:06.500 crime fighters who cleaned up New York and defeated the mob cannot practice law in New York state.

00:54:13.920 Meanwhile, last week, the DC bar, uh, gave the law license back to the FBI lawyer who altered

00:54:23.340 evidence before a secret court in the Carter page matter to smear Trump. So like, if you go after

00:54:29.580 the left, they do everything they can to destroy you. And if you literally commit crimes to change

00:54:36.500 evidence, uh, well, then you're rewarded with the privilege to practice law again. So I I'm not

00:54:42.220 Pollyanna. I'm not naive about how vicious my opponents are in the media and, uh, in the deep

00:54:49.360 state, but I'm also determined that the truth will prevail. It prevails with Trump and it'll prevail

00:54:54.980 with me. Well, Congressman, I know if anyone can prevail, it will be you. And we wish you all of the

00:55:01.040 luck in the world as you take on the forces who mean to do you harm. Uh, we wish you the best of luck.

00:55:09.200 Uh, we also, uh, want to thank you for spending this, uh, hour with us here on the great America

00:55:15.340 show. It's been, uh, I think a fascinating, uh, discussion with, as I said, at the outset of the

00:55:22.620 contest, one of the Republican party's brightest stars. Uh, you can see why he would annoy a few

00:55:29.740 people on the left. Can't you? Uh, a very effective spokesman for the party, the principals and the

00:55:36.260 country. Thanks Lou. And, uh, I look forward to being a subscriber and a regular listener to the

00:55:42.100 great America show for all your fantastic conversations with guests, my friend. Thank

00:55:46.760 you very much. And a reminder, firebrand that is Congressman Matt Gates podcast. We recommend it

00:55:54.980 to you highly Congressman Matt Gates. And we also want to thank all of you for joining us today

00:56:01.160 for the great America show. See you next time.

The Great America Show - December 22, 2021

GAETZ FIGHTS FOR MILITARY & VETS, SECURE VOTE

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