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Feb. 28, 2023 - The Charlie Kirk Show
17:24
The Vindication of Matt Gaetz
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Time Text
FBI Concerns and Project Veritas 00:09:14
Hey, everybody.
Today in the Charlie Kirk Show, super important episode.
Stop what you're doing and listen to every word of this.
You are going to love it.
Buckle up, everybody.
Here we go.
Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
I want to thank Charlie.
He's an incredible guy.
His spirit, his love of this country.
He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created.
Turning point USA.
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.
That's why we are here.
Brought to you by the Loan Experts I Trust, Andrew and Todd at Sierra Pacific Mortgage at andrewandTodd.com.
Joining us now is a vindicated man, someone who was targeted by the Department of Justice.
They were trying to take him out and they failed.
Matt Gates from Florida's first congressional district, host of the Firebrand podcast.
Congratulations, Matt.
You are vindicated.
Celebrate with us and tell us your side of the story.
I guess the rumors of my political death were greatly exaggerated.
The last two years have been challenging.
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.
And people were trying to extort my family for money.
There was a media campaign to endlessly repeat false allegations about me in order to try to take me off the chessboard.
And I didn't do those things.
I didn't go check in like as John Fetterman's roommate at Walter Reed.
I went on tour.
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.
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.
So I got through it, got the good news.
It was kind of odd, Charlie.
I was in a whistleblower transcribed interview.
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.
So I have a couple of thoughts on this, Matt.
Again, you handled this uniquely.
Can you just tell us how maybe not your lawyers, but lawyers in general thought what you did was a mistake?
You went public.
You did interviews.
You spoke at turning point events.
You know, we had you throughout the entire deal and we were proud of that because we stood by you.
Can you just add some context of why you made that decision?
Because the traditional legal advice is keep your head down, don't say anything, and then wait the five to seven years.
Why did you choose not to do that?
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.
And I just remember thinking to myself, I am not going to let them do this to me.
I have seen too often people retreat from the fight.
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.
And he was willing to punch back when there were people lying about him.
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.
And the FBI agent had all these crazy allegations that they thought had occurred at my congressional office.
And this disabled veteran who worked for me said, that was nuts.
That couldn't be farther from the truth.
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.
And so you had this like feedback loop with the FBI, the Department of Justice, and media outlets who were trying to destroy me.
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.
And I remember actually Charlie talking to you one time.
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.
I wish you the best, but they never really stopped coming for you.
And I absolutely believe that you see the full field here.
I don't view this as a conclusory moment on anything.
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.
But we always end up being proven right in the end, right?
They said we were Putin's lawyers because Trump wasn't a Russian agent.
And they said we were tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists when we said that COVID originated from the Wuhan lab.
And now just this past weekend, you see major reporting from the Wall Street Journal saying we were in fact right about that too.
So there's like a, there's a life cycle of kind of the lies and the nonsense we hear.
Like first, it's a conspiracy theory.
Then it's Russian disinformation.
Then it's true, but the other side was justified.
And finally, you should be thanking them for the experience all along.
And, you know, time and again, we just have to debunk it.
So, Matt, you mentioned something that I said at an event that you were at.
We both spoke in the same evening with a lot of the Freedom Caucus people, taking off the chessboard, people off the chessboard.
And I know this resonated with you.
I believe that sinister forces are trying to take James O'Keefe off the chessboard.
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?
How should we think about the Project Veritas circus?
Well, here's how I think of James O'Keefe.
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.
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.
This guerrilla journalism that finds truth in the most uncomfortable of places and works then to expose it.
If there's no James O'Keefe, that entire vertical goes away.
And I think it would be a very bad thing for our democracy or for our republic if that were to occur.
Now, what I think is happening at Project Veritas is that there is a veneer, a construct that somehow James has done something wrong.
And they're using that to try to seize control.
And it just looks like a power grab to me.
And I am entirely on the side of James O'Keefe, as are countless whistleblowers who trusted him with their story.
You think about the trust that that has to annure.
And let me tell you something.
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.
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.
And now the Project Veritas board wants to act like that was this extravagant expense that was unworthy.
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.
And they got to be thanked and they got to be celebrated.
And that is something that was so worthy of the contributions that donors had made to Project Veritas.
And I saw that that was what they were criticizing him for.
It just struck me as a total construct.
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.
That's right.
Billions with a B dollars of value of ROI for what he has done over the last decade, period.
Ukraine War and Unconditional Support 00:08:09
There is no debating it.
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.
And so here we are, all of a sudden the board is like, well, yeah, James O'Keefe took $150,000 in black cars.
By the way, not as for his own personal wine tours in Napa Valley.
This was for business use, multiple meetings a day, security death threats at him.
He needed it to be able to do his job.
There's no other way to do it.
If you don't like that.
Do people want James O'Keefe rolling up in a Chevy Malibu Uber?
Is that what they're expecting?
But also, that's a great point.
Confrontations?
Well, how about this?
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.
The whole thing is so silly, right?
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.
I mean, that's what the board decides to attack him with.
It's reprehensible.
Some of the most powerful companies in the entire world want James O'Keefe dead.
And worse goes to balk at the fact that he had $150,000 and over 18 months of 300 days of travel a year.
It's so transparently ridiculous.
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Janet Yellen made a surprise visit to Ukraine, not East Palestine, not actually our own country.
Ukraine might as well be part of America now.
We're spending more money on Ukraine, and it sure seems we're spending on our own citizens.
Play cut three, please.
Let me make clear, the United States and the allies.
Our support for Ukraine will be lasting and is unconditional.
We stand with Ukraine and want to support Ukraine.
Of course, there's the immediate need for military equipment.
In addition to that, they need ongoing economic support.
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.
Unbelievable.
Matt Gates, unconditional, Matt, no matter what they do, unconditional.
Your thoughts.
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.
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.
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.
And we will hear a lot of that information.
One of the witnesses will be the DOD Inspector General.
And this is the question I will ask.
Have we followed U.S. law with the monitoring end-to-end of U.S. materiel and munitions and military equipment into Ukraine?
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.
And then you look at these sums of money.
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.
And now when it comes to Ukraine's border, unconditional.
It's more like unconditional surrender, frankly.
How many of your Republican colleagues are willing to actually take a stand against this?
It's a growing number, but it's certainly not a majority of the majority.
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.
He's right.
We are in the minority, but Congress right now is a lagging indicator.
If you look at public sentiment on this, Joe Biden is not going to be running on Ukraine in 2024.
He needs this war to end probably.
And gosh, I hope it does, not for political reasons, but for the human reasons.
But Joe Biden needs this thing to end because this is going to be around his neck.
And he is going to have to constantly explain to Americans why their problems get subjugated and the priorities of Ukraine are enhanced.
And like what?
We're sending more now to Yemen.
We're still in Obama's Syria war.
We just saw an American injured in Syria.
Like, what are we doing in the Syrian civil war?
Someone explained to me what we're trying to win there.
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.
And let's force these Democrats and Republicans.
By the way, the previously anti-war Democrats, now totally part of the war machine.
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.
And how many days, Charlie, until the F-16s are going?
I mean, it seems like there's a constant pattern here.
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.
Then they say, oh, we're not going to do the M1 Abrams.
Oh, then we do it.
Now we're saying we're not going to do the F-16s.
What are we going to send?
Nuclear weapons to Ukraine next to deter Russia?
Yeah, well, we're going to send troops soon.
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.
And so can you just come over here and kind of show it to us and maybe that's happening now.
Yeah, shoot a couple bullets.
Do you know for certain that American troops are on the ground in Ukraine, Matt?
American personnel are actively involved in supply chain and logistic kits for all these folks, right?
And there's no way we do not have employees of the U.S. federal government on the ground in Ukraine right now.
Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
Email me your thoughts as alwaysfreedom at charliekirk.com.
Thank you so much for listening and God bless.
For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk dot com.
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