Rep. Greg Stubbe (R-Florida) is a member of the Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees in the House of Representatives and represents Florida's 17th congressional district. He is also the co-founder of the Freedom Caucus, which is trying to elect a new House Speaker.
00:00:00.000Hello, everybody. I'm Lou Dobbs, and welcome to The Great America Show.
00:00:04.180What a country we have. America is truly beautiful, and that's despite the way we Americans run our government, our politics, and our national lives.
00:00:13.560But we usually do find our way forward. That's usually, not always.
00:00:19.360Take, for example, what the Republicans are doing right now.
00:00:23.340Projected to win a huge majority in the House, 20 to 30 seats, some thought maybe 40 to 50.
00:00:30.600But the GOP turned out to be just lucky enough to eke out the smallest midterm gains for any party out of power in decades.
00:00:39.420But they won control of the House. And unfortunately, they also appear intent on screwing it up.
00:00:46.660Kevin McCarthy won nomination to be Speaker. But he's a rhino. He is a very nice guy. He is very likable.
00:00:54.320Heck, I like Kevin. But there's no way the Republican Conference should have nominated a rhino to be Speaker.
00:01:01.920And certainly no way they should turn over the third most powerful office in our government to a Romney-Ryan rhino.
00:01:09.500And now that everybody understands that Congressman Andy Biggs, the co-founder of the Freedom Caucus, means business in running against McCarthy,
00:01:19.200they're also coming to the realization there are more than enough votes to block McCarthy.
00:06:04.860And although we have a difference of some opinions, we're going to work together to accomplish the goals that the American people elected us to do.
00:06:12.360I think, Congressman, if I may, my perspective is somewhat different.
00:06:18.140It seems to me the American people don't want no more of the Republican nonsense.
00:06:22.520And by that I mean putting committee chairmen into roles in which they basically are toothless and unarmed,
00:06:32.040coming together as a conference and putting up one of the premier rhinos to lead what is a conservative conference,
00:06:41.240conference in point of fact, a MAGA, and much of it MAGA and America First.
00:06:47.740I think they're a little dismayed at the games that are being played by the Republican Party.
00:06:53.060I think that McCarthy, in my opinion, has made huge mistakes.
00:06:57.500He told the Freedom Caucus his first bargaining position was to go to hell.
00:07:33.880But I do not disagree with you for a second on the committee process, the way the steering process worked.
00:07:40.160There's a number of different amendments that the Freedom Caucus has that would address those issues.
00:07:46.160And frankly, it's going to impact my decision on if I stay on judiciary and foreign affairs and make a move somewhere else based on who the leadership of those committees are going to be.
00:07:54.800And we don't have what we should have within the conference, a meritocracy, where we put the best.
00:08:01.780I play baseball, and I'm a former military guy, so I'm a big team guy.
00:08:06.840And you put your best players on the field.
00:08:09.040You put your best players in positions where you can accomplish the mission on the battlefield.
00:08:13.860And if we're not going to do that, then it's a huge discouragement to the base back home when you put a rhino in charge of one of the most powerful committees.
00:08:23.200And it's also unfortunate because we're not going to get the things done that we want to get done.
00:08:28.180And I can tell you from being very active during the campaign season in my own district, going to almost every other day, I was at Republican Club meetings.
00:08:39.500And the base does not want us to do things the way Paul Ryan did things.
00:08:45.060They want us to go up there and do the things that the American people want us to do, like shut down the border, impeach Mayorkas, the type of things that the American people are claiming for.
00:08:54.960And the American people gave us the House.
00:08:56.900And if we don't do those things, we're going to do what happened with Paul Ryan, and we're going to lose the majority again.
00:09:02.380Or worse, we're going to lose a republic.
00:09:06.980We don't have time to screw around anymore.
00:09:11.860I don't think there's any time here for platitudes and pleasantries.
00:09:15.820Either the Republican Party decides that it can't compromise with Marxist Dems who are destroying the nation before our very eyes.
00:09:23.080You can look at any public policy that they are initiating and supporting or advocating, and none of it is none, not one, is in the interest of the United States of America or relates to our heritage, our values, our foundation, and our founding documents, including the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
00:09:44.500So I don't understand why there's even a discussion in the Republican conference about putting a man with a track record that Kevin McCarthy possesses even near the speakership.
00:09:56.180I don't understand why a Mike Turner would be the person that you would want to have chairing the Intelligence Committee.
00:10:05.440I think, for example, there's some great selections as well.
00:10:16.420Why don't you, you know, why does everybody have to follow in?
00:10:20.300I mean, it's a bizarre thing for me to witness.
00:10:22.860All of you type A, terrific, talented people suddenly deciding that it's, you know, some sort of coffee clash where no one wants to bruise the other's eardrums.
00:10:35.340I think it's time for somebody to slam the damn table and start raising your voice.
00:10:40.300Well, I think a lot of these guys who are standing up and saying exactly that, you know, again, it's basic math.
00:10:47.240If McCarthy can't get there, then somebody in the conference needs to stand up and say, look, this is the direction that I think the conference can go.
00:10:55.760The challenge that you have is you have a lot of the Mike Turners of the world and you have a lot of these Republicans in more moderate districts or more moderate members that are obviously a part of the conference.
00:11:08.820So let's say a Jim Jordan does run or somebody else like Banks ran for whip and I supported him for the whips race and he didn't get there.
00:11:18.620So you have somebody that's more conservative, but these establishment Republicans aren't going to support them.
00:11:23.800And you still got to get to that 218 number.
00:11:25.780So it's it's it's an interesting challenge that we find ourselves in because I'm hearing from people just like you in my district that want me to stand up and not vote for Kevin.
00:11:35.960And my response to that is, look, I would support a guy like Jim Jordan, but he's not running.
00:11:40.800There's no way that Biggs is going to be able to win the majority of the conference, let alone to get to 18.
00:11:48.660So I think, first of all, January 3rd is going to be a very interesting, long day, because if Kevin doesn't get there, somebody else is going to have to say, look, I take this challenge on.
00:12:08.860But it's been my experience, at least in watching the process now for for some time that the Republicans make one mistake that repeatedly, and that is that they bring a moderate to right conference to bear and then elect a damn rhino to lead.
00:12:28.200And immediately the negotiation is over with the other side.
00:12:32.480And by the way, the other side is no longer waiting for the Republicans to to negotiate.
00:13:01.140They don't want Paul Ryan as a speaker in the proxy of Kevin McCarthy.
00:13:08.100They don't want a House intelligence chair who won't investigate the CCP in the damn United States.
00:13:17.980They don't want a guy who buries investigations.
00:13:20.680They want a man who will be actually showing us the documents to Russiagate.
00:13:27.200And that isn't that isn't the plan as laid out by Kevin McCarthy.
00:13:32.660It is sickening to think what you guys may do to yourselves and to the country.
00:13:37.080Well, I think as it relates to China, I think because he appointed that special committee on on China and Gallagher, who in all impressions that I've had of him is pretty conservative guy.
00:13:47.240I haven't heard that Mike is not Mr. Turner is not willing to investigate some of the CCP stuff.
00:13:53.280If he's not, I would love to have a conversation with him.
00:13:55.860Maybe we need to look at new leadership.
00:13:57.300If these people aren't willing to do the things that the American people want us to do, it's I'm on judiciary and foreign affairs and you have good, strong leadership.
00:14:07.840And Jim Jordan, we're going to go through impeachment proceedings on my orcas.
00:14:11.280We're going to investigate all the travesties that are happening with the invasion on our our southern border.
00:14:16.320We're going to pass an immigration reform bill, knowing that obviously a Democratic Senate is not going to pass it, but we can use that appropriations process to accomplish policy objectives, especially as it relates to the border, because Homeland Security gets all its funding from the House.
00:14:30.120So there will be a lot of things that we'll be able to do in the Judiciary Committee.
00:14:34.140Foreign Affairs is going to go after investigating Afghanistan.
00:14:36.780We're going to create a committee to investigate Hunter Biden's foreign dealings in Ukraine, Hunter Biden's foreign dealings in China.
00:14:42.860So there will be a lot of good things that the conference is going to do as it relates to the investigative powers that we will soon have.
00:14:53.020Yeah, I think that is all to the good.
00:15:33.420But you've got a Kevin McCarthy, by the way, said he's not going to go for impeachments.
00:15:38.640And yet here we are talking about the impeachment of Mayorkas, which I think is entirely appropriate.
00:15:43.960And you and I both know that there are other names that should be on that list.
00:15:47.900How do you square that up with Kevin McCarthy saying he's against impeachments, but the conference wanting to persist?
00:15:54.980I don't think he's going to have a choice.
00:15:56.680And that's the other thing, too, of one of these rules changes that the that the Freedom Caucus wants to change is the motion to vacate the chair.
00:16:06.700So let's say I mean, I'm in a press conference this week and we're going to we're going to talk about impeaching Mayorkas.
00:16:13.080There's 25 members that are speaking at this press conference.
00:16:16.440That's a that's a large subset of the conference.
00:16:20.000That's just who's willing to speak on.
00:16:21.360And I'm sure there's more that are willing to support it.
00:16:23.720You've got the Judiciary Committee that obviously has the support to do that.
00:16:26.720And if the Judiciary Committee goes through that process and sends an impeachment article to the floor and McCarthy doesn't allow that to be heard and debated and discussed and voted on, you're going to see these rule changes as it relates to vacating the chair.
00:16:42.520He's not going to be there if he does.
00:16:43.780If he is able to get there, he isn't going to be there very long if he's not going to do what the majority of America wants us to do.
00:16:49.400And it is so flagrant, the the clear violations of our Constitution and the laws that Congress has set forth as it relates to our immigration that is being intentionally and deliberately violated every single day at the border in violation of Secretary Mayorkas's oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.
00:17:17.060The president is ultimately accountable for what's going on in Department of Homeland Security, and it should go all the way to the top.
00:17:25.060We're going to do the investigation to put that evidence before the American people so they can see and support us on that.
00:17:30.660I think that's a 75 percent, 80 percent issue that we not only do the policy side of it, knowing that the Senate is not going to remove them, knowing that the Senate is not going to pass a bill, but then use that appropriations process.
00:17:42.580When we go through the appropriations process to put riders on the Department of Homeland Security bill that says not a single dollar of this fund shall be used to allow an illegal immigrant to come into our country.
00:17:52.960And if they violate that, it's a felony.
00:17:54.980And we start being very strong where the American people want us to be on these issues, especially relates to the border.
00:18:11.920Why would the conference not shut down the entire operation?
00:18:15.400What part of the operation is it that you think the conference would not have the guts to shut down that is so valuable to the American people?
00:18:24.160Because I can't think of a single department.
00:19:12.560I've said publicly, especially back in the district, that I actually think we should shut down the entire immigration process to this country until we get the current crisis under control.
00:19:22.600Why would we allow, I think it's a million a year that legally are allowed to come into our country.
00:19:27.220Why would we do that when 5 million have come in illegally in the southern border and we have, you know, and DHS is playing defense on who these people are.
00:19:35.920We've let in, this is just a staggering number, being a military veteran.
00:19:39.260We've let in 98 known terrorists into our country.
00:19:42.880And when Mayorkas was before the Judiciary Committee, it's been a year ago now.
00:19:46.040We asked him under oath of, at the time, I think it was like 34 or 40 known terrorists, of these known terrorists that have been apprehended at the border, did you release them back into our country?
00:19:56.520And he refused to answer the question.
00:19:57.900So that tells you everything you need to know about where they feel the safety and security of the American people are, that they would let in 98 known terrorists and not deport them back to their host country.
00:20:09.860Can I tell you, I really think, and that's, you're exactly right.
00:20:14.680But I think the whole country wants you to start at where we are instead of where we've been.
00:20:19.840For the past two years, we've watched everything happen.
00:20:22.880We've got 6 million illegal immigrants in this country who have crossed that border and includes visa overstays as well.
00:20:31.080We don't know how much money has been spent to house them, domicile them, feed them, get them into shelter and provide for their daily sustenance.
00:20:45.580You guys aren't even asking for the budget as far as I know.
00:20:48.620I don't know of a single congressman who's asked for the budget for bringing in all of these illegal immigrants.
00:20:56.380And I don't understand how anybody can complain about 6 million illegal immigrants walking in here and being distributed across the country in the dead of night and not say we're going to shut down the entire DHS until this idiot administration run by an impaired president comes to heel.
00:21:16.240Well, because you guys are the people's voice.
00:21:19.540No one is more representative of the American people in point of fact than you.
00:21:24.140Well, it's interesting you bring that point up.
00:21:26.440I talked to staff yesterday about the moment that the new Congress starts on January 3rd, we have the ability to file bills once we're sworn in.
00:21:35.780And one of the very first things that I intend to file is a bill that would do away with all taxpayer benefits to illegal immigrants.
00:21:43.060It's Medicaid, Social Security, disability, going through all TANF, SNAP, welfare, all these different things that over the years they've taken out the words that allow this to go to in person.
00:21:54.600And so obviously these funding mechanisms are going to illegal immigrants that are illegally allowed to come into our country.
00:22:00.880You start closing that down and we have the power to do that because the purse strings reside in the House.
00:22:07.360The founders of our Constitution were brilliant in dividing that power and knowing that if you had the power of the purse in the executive branch, it would corrupt.
00:22:16.020So allowing us the ability to do that, those are absolutely the things that we're going to have to do.
00:22:20.120And we're going to have to take a stand and dare President Biden to shut down the government over the fact that we don't want to give taxpayer benefits to people that have already broken our laws or are present in our country illegally.
00:23:17.180And given the crises all across the board from the wokeism in the military and vaccine mandates and what's happening on our border, that is 100 percent away.
00:23:26.680And I certainly support doing it to get the country's attention and this administration's attention if they don't have the money to push wokeism on our military, to allow legal immigrants to come into our country and all of the horrible things that this administration has done to basically destroy our country and our republic in the last two years.
00:23:46.240And that's the stand that we're going to have to take.
00:23:48.180And I think the American people want us to do that.
00:23:50.120And you're right, if we don't, we're probably not going to be in the majority for very long because it's going to be like, what's the difference between you guys and the Democrats?
00:23:58.500But, no, there are members like myself that agree with you on those issues and will file those type of amendments when we go through the appropriations process.
00:24:07.160That's the kind of stuff that we absolutely have to shut down the moment we get the gavels.
00:24:11.720And what you're proposing, and I say you, what your conference is proposing is a man in Kevin McCarthy, who is a deadhead.
00:24:20.500There's no fire in his belly except for a meeting with another lobbyist from K Street.
00:24:26.320He is, I find him a very likable fellow.
00:24:30.540He's also a very dangerous fellow, just as has every rhino in your conference.
00:24:35.480And if you guys don't find the energy and the motivation to take care of this country right now, with this majority, you've maneuvered yourself into a very, very difficult situation.
00:24:48.760You're actually going to be accountable and there are no excuses for not getting it done.
00:24:55.000I want to talk about what some of the other things that you want to do, which I think are terrific as well.
00:25:00.040Ending the censorship and going after big tech and dismissing their immunity from accountability on the part of the American people and allowing us to protect our First Amendment rights.
00:25:17.500Yeah, and this is a bill I've worked on for the last couple of years once we realized that big tech is obviously using their power to censor conservatives, to change thought and the way that people are allowed to express their First Amendment rights.
00:25:32.320And now that we get in the majority, this is going to be a bill.
00:25:35.800It touches several different committees.
00:25:37.440Judiciary is one of them, but also goes through energy and commerce that there's a broad support in our conference for.
00:25:44.040And what my bill would do, so these big tech companies like Facebook and Twitter, and thankfully we have Elon Musk dumping all this information, facts that we knew were going on, but now we have the actual evidence to support the contention that it was going on and it's not a conspiracy theory.
00:26:00.140They have liability protection under Section 230.
00:26:02.420Years ago, Congress, long before I was here, gave them immunity because these big tech companies were afraid they'd be sued out of an existence if they didn't have some type of protection for what people were putting on their platforms.
00:26:14.780Well, fast forward to now, the liberal elitists and the progressives that run these companies have been censoring conservatives and changing speech.
00:26:25.640And, like, you know, the best example is the New York Post story on the Hunter Biden laptop.
00:26:31.940And my bill would allow a market-dominant test so the big guys, you know, the Facebooks, the Twitters, the Googles, would not have liability protection if they violate your First Amendment rights.
00:26:44.380So, if the New York Post got banned, a Hunter Biden story, they could sue Twitter for that.
00:26:51.260And I would submit to you and see very quickly the behavior of these companies change when they're going to be held financially responsible for the decisions that they make when violation of your First Amendment rights.
00:27:02.320But it still protects Section 230 for your small startups like Parler and some of your conservative groups that would get sued out of existence.
00:27:09.260So, but the big guys wouldn't have liability protection if they violate your First Amendment rights.
00:27:14.500I think that's the least that we need to do to start attacking this problem that we're seeing that's now very evident because of the Twitter drops that Elon Musk have done.
00:27:25.060And going back to the issue here, Democrats and Republicans, it's no longer, that is no longer the paradigm.
00:27:33.720It is a Marxist, dim, driven Democrat party that is trying to fundamentally transform, as Obama promised in his administration that he would do.
00:27:47.040And here he is in the third term of his administration doing just that.
00:27:51.220The American people understand that these are not just the neighborhood Democrat who also goes to the Rotary Club with their Republican buddies.
00:27:59.700These, these, these are a total committed force at work to take down this country, to destroy the family, to destroy every American value, because that stands in the way of the new world order, the new world global order.
00:28:22.540I mean, these are far left progressive activists that have infiltrated at every level these big tech companies.
00:28:29.160I mean, look at James Baker and the things that he's done.
00:28:32.060I mean, this guy was at the center of the Russia collusion hoax, somehow gets a job at Twitter as a general counsel and was doing exactly that for progressive, protecting the Democratic elitists like the Biden family, all while, you know, thwarting conservative speech in this country and freedom of speech.
00:28:52.920I mean, it's interesting, just since Elon's taken over, and obviously this kind of stuff hasn't been going on.
00:28:58.540I mean, just in one week, my followers on Twitter went up like 500 people, because now I'm not getting shadow banned on the platform.