Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is back on The Great America Show with Lou Dobbs to defend President Trump and his right to stand up to the Marxist Left's attempts to delegitimize his presidency.
00:00:00.320Hello, everybody. I'm Lou Dobbs, and this is The Great America Show, coming to you from the U.S. of A.
00:00:07.440Welcome. Delighted to have you with us. There's security in numbers, so I'm doubly delighted that we're together today to take up the fight against the Marxist left.
00:00:17.100They're battling to destroy this great nation and our guaranteed liberty and freedom for all our citizens, the American family, our Judeo-Christian culture,
00:00:26.220our heritage, and history as the world's only constitutional republic, the only one that has succeeded over the almost 250 years of our existence.
00:00:36.980But here we are today, in the midst of what the Marxist Dems would call insurrection.
00:00:43.160That's what they insist on calling the January 6th demonstrators who trespassed on Capitol Hill. Insurrection.
00:00:50.700The vast majority of the Trump supporters at the Capitol that day were peaceful, law-abiding, and even orderly.
00:00:58.620A small fraction of them chose to act as a mob, and dozens of them are charged with serious felonies.
00:01:04.980But because the Dems are exploiting, for their partisan purpose, those few hours that afternoon in and around the Capitol,
00:01:11.960the Dem leadership has acted like the Marxist totalitarians that they are, denying bail, keeping Trump supporters in jail, in some cases for more than a year.
00:01:22.980And think of that. Leftist Soros finance DAs across the country aren't even prosecuting serious felonies.
00:01:30.360And now, for offenses that amount to nothing more than trespass and other misdemeanors,
00:01:36.280the U.S. Justice Department is persecuting hundreds of our fellow citizens.
00:01:40.180That's the same Justice Department that doesn't prosecute Antifa and Black Lives Matter activists
00:01:46.260who attack citizens and property without fear of consequence.
00:01:50.780And in fact, most don't face even arrest.
00:01:53.560And the leftist prosecutors of the Justice Department aren't prosecuting the pro-abortion demonstrators
00:01:59.340who are showing up at the homes of Republican Supreme Court justices now,
00:02:04.440trying to intimidate them into changing their votes against Roe v. Wade.
00:02:09.040So let's call those who would intimidate our Supreme Court what they are.
00:03:55.000And what a lot of people in leadership think about most throughout their day is how to preserve their power and how to grow their power.
00:04:03.420And so to them, and this is very instructive on their thinking, something was so potentially violent,
00:04:09.840something was so potentially criminal about my suggestion that Liz Cheney would be more in line with the Democrats
00:04:16.000and thus wouldn't be proper as a Republican leader, that, like, that was the grave threat.
00:04:21.460You know, not the threat that the Democrats were going to distract the country, throw us into shambles, violate every norm and protocol we had.
00:04:30.880They were worried about criticism from within.
00:04:33.520And I think we need leadership that understands the fight we're in and that understands who the enemy is.
00:06:22.660It was absolutely silly and gossipy and really melodramatic beyond belief.
00:06:31.680I think we learn about a lot of people, how they respond when the going gets tough.
00:06:37.220And my instinct in the wake of January 6th was to defend President Trump, to leap to his defense,
00:06:44.180to showcase to the world the words he used about a peaceful and patriotic protest.
00:06:49.880I thought that the truth would bring down the temperature in the country.
00:06:53.820But in this circumstance, you know, the great threat was that anyone would try to dislodge Liz Cheney from leadership.
00:07:00.940Because remember, Lou, if Liz Cheney can be dislodged from leadership, then being in line to the speakership might not just be a sure thing.
00:08:50.620He was, he was, he was, he, he, he received a standing ovation when, and I just, I thought that was so debasing of the conference to be so like willing to be lied to.
00:09:02.220And let me pause at a hypothesis and allow you to attack it.
00:09:05.320If you, if you disagree, it's, it's not about the truth.
00:09:10.700People get burned in relationships and in politics when they violate sort of the essential understood covenants of the agreement.
00:09:20.020And the covenant between Republican leadership and the Republican conference isn't really based on truth.
00:09:26.120It's just based on the delivery of special interest campaign donations and the doling out of leadership positions and committee chairmanships and committee slots.
00:09:36.260And so, so long as that's not violated, we're actually willing to be lied to.
00:09:41.420We don't care if we're lied to, and we'll even applaud the people who are not honest with us so long as the checks still cash.
00:09:50.000You know, Matt, I'm old enough to know and remember when seniority was the essence of committee assignments.
00:09:59.100It's some, and people got rid of it because that was corrupt.
00:10:01.640This is so much more corrupt than the seniority system that it's not even funny.
00:10:07.520And to have everybody pretend like they're standing up applauding Kevin McCarthy for his, his charisma, his passion, his vision, and his certitude as he leads the conference forward to victory in November is preposterous and laughable.
00:10:25.240And I, and I guess the issue comes down to, in this, in this, this milieu, the fact is there aren't that many people in the Republican conference who want to be speaker or to raise money except for Kevin McCarthy.
00:10:42.480Well, you may, you and I, you and I made a lot of news when we posited a hypothesis in our last discussion on the great America show, when we both took the position that Jim Jordan is a man with great talent and vision and ambition.
00:10:55.540You know, don't forget Jim Jordan was a speaker before integrity, uh, talent, you know, I mean, Jim ran for speaker before, and typically this is not an itch that goes away with one scratch.
00:11:05.840So while Jim posits that he is for Kevin now, you know, being for Kevin McCarthy is actually how Paul Ryan became speaker.
00:11:13.560So maybe being for Kevin McCarthy is how Jim Jordan is going to become a speaker.
00:11:17.220But let me ask you, let me ask you a, a tough question, Lou, what responsibility do you, and you know, I love you, but I'm going to, I'm going to turn the cannons on you for a moment.
00:11:26.120What responsibility do you think you have for this?
00:11:29.300Because at a time when Kevin, when a lot of conservatives were very cautious about Kevin McCarthy, you would give him a platform and you would give him these glowing introductions and you would allow him to come and talk about how much he was fighting for the America first agenda.
00:11:45.440And I mean, I think he could do your show right before hitting up all the lobbyist dinners that were coming after.
00:11:50.700And I just thought to myself, actually, I think I said to you, I said, Lou, what are you doing?
00:11:54.440Why do you get this guy, this incredible platform to be able to go and represent something other than what we see day in, day out?
00:12:02.740And you said that you thought you could have a good influence on him, that by coming on the show, by having frank discussions, you did.
00:12:08.820You said to me that you thought having him on the show, you thought you could make him a better version of himself.