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Sept. 9, 2021 - Firebrand - Matt Gaetz
28:14
Episode 6: Under Fire – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz
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The embattled Congressman Matt Gaetz.
Matt Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress who bothered to stand up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.
Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem in the Democratic Party.
He can cause a lot of hiccups in passing the laws.
So we're going to keep running the stories to keep hurting him.
If you stand for the flag and kneel in prayer, if you want to build America up and not burn her to the ground, then welcome, my fellow patriots!
You are in the right place!
This is the movement for you!
You ever watch this guy on television?
It's like a machine.
Matt Gaetz.
I'm a canceled man in some corners of the internet.
Many days I'm a marked man in Congress, a wanted man by the deep state.
They aren't really coming for me.
They're coming for you.
I'm just in the way.
There are many people out there who have not given up on seeing Hillary Clinton in the White House.
I have an objection.
I object to the certificate from the state of Alabama.
You can run the best campaign, you can even become the nominee, and you can have the election stolen from you.
Mr. President, I object to the certificate from the state of Georgia.
Mr. President, I object to the votes from the state of Wisconsin.
There is circumstantial evidence of collusion.
I object to a certificate from the state of North Carolina.
Mr. President, I object.
You're a member of the judiciary.
Do you believe the president right now has been an agent of the Russians?
Yes, I think there's more evidence than he is.
Yes, and I think all the arrows point in that direction.
I haven't seen a single piece of evidence that he's not.
I object to the 15 votes from the state of North Carolina.
Mr. President, I object on behalf of the millions of Americans.
I think there's plenty of evidence of collusion or conspiracy in plain sight.
Mr. President, I object to the votes from South Carolina.
Mr. President, I object because people are horrified.
He's working on behalf of the Russians, yeah.
I do not wish to debate.
I wish to ask, is there one United States Senator who will join me in this letter?
The hypocrisy from the left is thick, isn't it?
Welcome to Firebrand.
I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz.
Your congressional firebrands are under fire.
I'm used to it, but the target radius is expanding daily.
Some of the newer firebrands, Lauren Boebert, Madison Cawthorn, Marjorie Taylor Greene, The establishment tries to clip their wings early.
Kill them in the crib, one might say.
But we need them to save our country.
Nancy Pelosi's January 6th committee, salted with turncoat Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, has put the phone records of 11 elected lawmakers under binding preservation demand.
Collectively, we represent nearly 8 million Americans.
So, why us?
Why these members?
You know.
It's because we fight harder than most.
We were targeted in a report by California Congressperson Zoe Lofgren.
Yes, she demands to be called Congressperson.
We'll indulge that for now.
While members of Congress should spend their days communicating, legislating, advocating for their constituents...
Zoe Lofgren spent likely thousands of hours producing a nearly 2,000-page report that catalogs Congressional mean tweets and interviews and comments calling for election integrity.
That's what we should all be doing.
The report is almost 2,000 pages.
So what did Lofgren find?
What is this bedrock evidence supporting the charge of extremism or insurrection?
What is it that allows them to engage in political persecution against conservative firebrands?
Reveal to us the insurrectionist tweets.
This one is on page 627 of the Lofgren Report.
There are over 100 pages dedicated to yours truly, actually.
I hope you'll check them out.
I'm pretty proud of those tweets.
But here's this one.
President Donald Trump has built a great Republican party.
He remains the most powerful and influential Republican in America.
And we have to build on the success he's given our party.
That's what they've got?
It ain't exactly the Whiskey Rebellion.
There must be something in the video.
If there are machines that were used in a number of states that were switching votes, that would be deeply problematic.
And similarly, if you have people who are no longer residents of a state voting in that state, it's a challenge.
But look, Steve, we've got to remember Donald Trump has built a great Republican party.
It's a party that is doing better with Hispanics and African Americans than it has in a generation.
And Donald Trump now has an obligation to the party that he built To ensure that we expose and litigate every true example of fraud, because if we don't do that, we'll never win another election again.
Democrats spent four years delegitimizing this president.
They wouldn't go to his inauguration.
Some wouldn't attend his State of the Union, and I thought that was classless.
If this election doesn't go our way, we're not going to burn anything down.
We're going to litigate before courts and only when the courts have made a decision will we have a legitimate president.
And I hope Republicans don't behave the way Democrats did these last four years if it's not precisely what we would have sought.
I think we've got to build on the great party that Donald Trump has created for us and he remains the most powerful, most influential Republican in America.
Encouraging due process.
The legal process?
A non-violent response to election integrity concerns?
Really bad stuff, I know.
Thomas Massey is one of Congress's best.
Now, he didn't vote against the certification of any electors, by the way, like Democrats did with President Trump and President Bush and many others.
But he must be an insurrectionist too, because he said this.
75% of what shows up in your mailbox is junk mail.
And some people thought this would be a good venue for holding a presidential election.
Actually, that seems like a pretty reasonable point.
The 2020 election was the first time the mailbox beat the ballot box.
Is the United States Postal Service really the portal to modern-day voting?
Ugh.
But it's not just Republicans Lofgren went after.
Firebrand populist former Democrat presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard had this to say.
It is critical to remember that the strength of our democracy lies in the integrity of our elections, that every one of us has to have faith that our vote will count.
But right now, there are still many states in our country that allow for something called ballot harvesting.
This is a system that allows for third parties to collect and deliver ballots for other people, potentially large numbers of people.
Unfortunately, ballot harvesting has allowed for fraud and abuse to occur by those who could tamper with or discard ballots to try to sway an election for or against a certain candidate or party.
Our vote is our voice.
So whether in the midst of a pandemic, as we are now, where mail-in voting is likely to drastically increase, or even in a normal election, no one, no one should get in between a voter and the ballot box.
Now, while some states have prohibited vote harvesting or ballot harvesting, many have not, which again allows for abuse from third parties collecting and mishandling ballots.
This is something that we've actually seen happen in recent elections.
It ended up on page 620 of the insurrection report, the Gates section, because I retweeted Tulsi.
I kept looking for the section in the report on the Jihad Squad, giving money to BLM or other violent actors across our nation.
Prominent Democrats, including then-Senator Kamala Harris, not only egged on rioters, but made sure their bail funds were full so they could go right back to burning down a Wendy's and torching a Nike store.
Now, the George Soros-funded district attorneys, well, they dropped criminal charges faster than I dropped 10 pounds before my wedding.
It's maddening to listen to a party that cheered on BLM and Antifa as they burnt down our cities.
I want to be clear in how I characterize this.
This is mostly a protest.
It is not, generally speaking, unruly.
Peaceful protest.
Peaceful protestors.
On behalf of myself, my children and the family of David Dorn, we'd like to thank friends, neighbors, co-workers, and the community for showing all the love and support we've suffered.
Through the tragic loss of my husband, my beloved husband, I would also like to thank Sigliss Metropolitan Police Department for their hard work and perseverance through this investigation, as well as the Circuit Attorney's Office.
Thank you.
He dedicated his life to the city of St. Louis, retiring at the rank of captain after 38 years of distinguishable service.
Then as a chief of Moline Acres for almost six years.
During those years, he's touched so many lives as a friend, mentor, co-worker, and guardian.
His life was senselessly taken from me, from us, by an opportunist who had no regards for human life or the law.
This didn't have to happen, but it must have been God's plan for David.
We need to gather as a community and do better.
We need to teach our young people that life is very precious.
We as a family are going to be taking some time to focus our attention on healing, which is very important as we move forward.
We would like David's legacy to be remembered as a loving husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, friend, colleague, and most importantly, a child of God.
I want to thank you all for coming, and God bless you all.
And now they condemn us with this rapport and moral superiority.
So why the hypocrisy?
It's because the left and the establishment Democrats and even the rhino Republicans They don't care about you and your business.
They don't care about your family members.
They don't care about the innocent people that were beaten and killed.
They don't care about the degradation of safety on our streets.
They don't care about the police that were murdered by the real domestic terrorists.
Put simply, a powerful movement, our movement, is being targeted by the full force of our own government over political disagreement.
It starts with the leaders who go against the grain, but this should never happen.
It was wrong when J. Edgar Hoover targeted leftists and civil rights groups.
First show me the movement and I'll show you the crime.
It's no way to run federal law enforcement in a just nation.
It should be equally shocking to our core values to observe the current left-wing government target the political right.
Whether that's from Nancy Pelosi's rostrum, Or the left-wing building that still carries J. Edgar Hoover's name.
Freedom of association was such an organizing principle in the United States that we embedded it in the First Amendment of our Bill of Rights.
But today, freedom of association is quickly becoming guilt by association.
This is true in the eyes of the big tech oligarchs who cancel us online if we share the wrong MAGA video.
It's true in the eyes of the FBI who investigate people based on who they talk to, who they organize with, who they vote for.
Never forget, Peter Strzok, he wasn't some low-level guy in the FBI. He was the FBI's top counterintelligence official.
This is what he thought of you.
Let's discuss a text that hits home for me.
On August 26, 2016, you texted Ms. Page, quote, just went...
To a Southern Virginia Walmart, I could smell the Trump support.
And smell is in capital letters, all capital letters.
What does Trump support smell like, Mr. Strzok?
Sir, that's an expression of speech.
I clearly wasn't smelling one thing or the other.
What I was commenting on is living in Northern Virginia.
What does that mean?
What I meant by that was living in Northern Virginia, having traveled 100 and 150 miles south within the same state, I was struck by the extraordinary difference in the expression of political opinion and belief amongst the community there from where I live.
And you described that as smell in capital letters.
Sir, that was a quick choice of words in a text.
I love Walmart.
Sometimes the smelly Walmart shoppers get elected to Congress.
Some of us are both representatives and representative of those we serve.
So let's break down what the Pelosi committee has done.
They haven't sent subpoenas yet.
If your telecom provider gets a subpoena for your records, you get notice, the opportunity to ask a court to quash or block that request.
Litigation requires parties to put up or shut up.
It can expose a witch hunt.
So instead of a subpoena, they sent a preservation demand, initially in secret.
Then they leaked the names of the targeted Republicans to smear us with a cloud of criminality.
Smearing political leaders you don't like with leaks and lies.
Sound familiar?
It's exactly the playbook Adam Schiff used against Donald Trump during the phony Ukraine impeachment.
Remember Adam Schiff's bunker?
He'd go down there for interviews and then release leaks embroidered onto lies to make people think Trump was running some sort of illegal Ukrainian arms deal.
How fake it all turned out to be.
A perfect call, some might say.
But now, with Trump out of D.C., they are turning to the congressional firebrands.
Well, what's good for the goose should be good for the gander.
Usually, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy doesn't have strong reactions to things.
It's not his style.
Following the targeting of our members, he surprised and said this.
Adam Schiff, Benny Thompson, and Nancy Pelosi's attempts to strong-arm private companies to turn over individuals' private data would put every American with a phone or computer in the crosshairs of a surveillance state run by Democrat politicians.
If these companies comply with the Democrat order to turn over private information, they are in violation of federal law and subject to losing their ability to operate in the United States.
If these companies still choose to violate federal law, a Republican majority will not forget and will stand with Americans to hold them fully accountable under the law.
Whew, that's some huffing and puffing indeed.
No low tea today.
But how can we trust Kevin McCarthy to go beyond talking tough to Nancy Pelosi?
When he won't even stand up to Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger.
You see, Cheney and Kinzinger sit as Nancy Pelosi appointees on the January 6th committee.
They've crossed the Rubicon, joined the other side.
So how in the world do Cheney and Kinzinger justify a critique of Trump for destroying our institutions and violating norms?
When they're participating in these Stalinist tactics of the tyrannical left?
These phone record demands?
I mean, Kevin McCarthy must remove Cheney and Kinzinger from the committees that they serve on pursuant to their membership in the Republican conference.
Anything less is weakness inviting attack.
And our leadership shouldn't invite attack on our people.
So, as the January 6th committee continues their group therapy sessions and mean tweet inquisitions, those of us being targeted in this political game show have been left with the realization that the truth may never come to light unless we bring it to light ourselves.
So here we are.
Our election integrity concerns are valid and patriotic and necessary.
Republicans who abandon election integrity as an issue are no use to us.
They are worthless in the fight we are in now, today.
This past election?
It was total chaos.
If I didn't know any better, I'd say it must have been run by the post office.
And by the way, it was.
Before the election, the left and their operatives infiltrated state by state, changing voting laws oftentimes through unilateral action.
Mail-in ballots came in from all over the country, particularly in swing states.
And unlike absentee ballots, they didn't have to be requested.
They were just sent out often to voter rolls that aren't reconciled, outdated.
Voter ID wasn't mandated in many states.
We are one of the only countries in the entire world that allows people to vote without identification.
It's almost like the states that don't require ID are inviting fraud on purpose.
But no one is coming to save us.
Washington isn't coming for sure.
Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are trying to institutionalize and scale the frauds of yesteryear so that they can hold on to power forever.
And so going forward, it's up to us and us alone to stand up and fight for election integrity and ensure that we have free, fair, secure elections.
And because we're doing this, they're coming for the firebrands.
And they know we're coming for them, too.
The National Defense Authorization Act passes every year.
It usually gives pay raises to our troops, authorizes weapons, and sets forth a national defense strategy.
This year, the Armed Services Committee had a debate we have never had before on vaccine mandates.
It was a necessary debate.
I don't support vaccine mandates for our military, really for anyone.
But especially when we're dealing with experimental vaccines and vaccines absent sufficient longitudinal data, these mandates are not warranted.
They aren't justified.
The pro-vax mandate crowd, they point to George Washington's own military vax mandate.
Do you think this is something the founding fathers would support?
The founding fathers would support vaccine mandates.
Yeah.
No, I don't believe so.
George Washington had a vaccine mandate.
Well, that's okay.
Oh.
That's okay.
Oh, he's a lower founding father.
I mean, I... I love the lore, but at the end of the day, we are the ones who have to deal with what is going on in America today.
George Washington was a great general, even better as a president, but I probably wouldn't call him to be my doctor.
George Washington believed in a medical procedure called bleeding the infection.
They sliced people's skin open, believing that the infection would bleed out of the body.
Ew.
Dr. Mark Green is a Tennessee congressman.
He served our military as a major.
Here's his amendment to stop vaccine mandates from destroying our military service members.
As a physician, you know, I looked at the data on the coronavirus and I chose to take the vaccine.
I also understand that the law allows the Department of Defense to mandate vaccines once they've been FDA approved.
And as a former commander, I also understand that commanders want to arrive at a location knowing that a large portion of their force isn't going to go down with an infection.
However, in the past, the vaccines mandated had decades of longitudinal data to understand how the vaccine affected tissue over time.
Keep in mind that this vaccine has been available less than a year and approved by the FDA less than a few months.
Some Americans obviously have reservations about taking such a recently developed vaccine and based on this lack of longitudinal data, I believe that punishing military service members who refuse to take the vaccine is unfair and could undermine the strength of our all-volunteer force.
That's why this amendment prohibits the Department of Defense From discharging service members without an honorable discharge solely because they chose not to get the vaccine, any discharge other than honorable denotes a failure to serve the United States to the best of one's ability, and it significantly impacts an individual for the rest of their lives, future employment, things of that nature.
Our men and women in uniform put their lives on the line to serve, and we should not destroy their lives with a dishonorable discharge just for making a personal medical decision.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield.
How did the Democrat Chairman Adam Smith reply?
Take a listen.
Part of what I hope we will consider here is what we are asking our service members to do is to do something to protect the country.
And frankly, I find this astonishing.
We ask service members to put their lives on the line.
I mean, forget about before they go to Afghanistan or Iraq and actually fight.
I mean, you all, many of you have been through it.
You know, the training that you're put through, you're asked to jump out of airplanes, you're asked to go through survival school, all manner of different incredibly risky things, and you are asked to do that so that you can protect your fellow Americans.
So what we're asking service members to do now is to take a shot to protect their fellow Americans.
Is there absolutely zero risk from that shot?
No.
But I'll say this.
There is a hell of a lot less risk from that shot than there is jumping out of an airplane, than there is going through survival school, than there is all manner of different other things that we ask them to do without batting an eye.
I was on the other side of this debate.
I strongly supported this amendment and other amendments that banned vaccine mandates.
Surprisingly, the number one issue that I've heard from service members about in recent weeks, vaccine mandates.
There is increasing concern that based on the Secretary of Defense's demand for 100% compliance with vaccine mandates, with unfortunate support from The leadership of this committee for vaccine mandates.
People who already have natural infection COVID immunity could be forced to take a vaccine.
And I am increasingly persuaded that those who have natural infection immunity have a greater likelihood of side effects As a consequence of the vaccine.
And that's not to say that I'm anti-vaccine.
I'll tell you, my parents took the vaccine.
It was the right decision for them.
I know plenty of people who've taken the vaccine, but to suggest that our military members, who are largely very healthy individuals, this is, you know, they are comparative to the general population in better shape, have fewer comorbidities,
and any On the strongest versions of our amendments that stop these vaccine mandates, We lost the Democrats.
This shouldn't even be a partisan issue.
And in a way, it wasn't.
Because we lost the top-ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, too.
This is Alabama's Mike Rogers.
I have been very open that I believe that the military should be able to require these vaccines.
I don't see how you can stay in the military if you're not willing to be People who don't get vaccinated should be able to stay in the military.
They should be able to express their patriotism at this elite level.
On August 24th, remember that date, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin mandated COVID vaccinations from all DOD service members, including those with natural infection immunity.
I got a lot of very smart constituents.
One of my constituents is a Lieutenant Colonel Medical Doctor.
He's been in the Air Force for 21 years.
I'm protecting his identity, but this is what he wrote me.
As you know, many active duty military service members have natural immunity but are now facing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
On August 25th, remember this is a day after the Lloyd Austin decision, a new study based on nearly 700,000 individuals was published and compared natural immunity to vaccine-induced immunity.
The vaccinated had 13 times the risk for breakthrough infection with the Delta variant as compared to those with natural immunity through previous infection.
New data has emerged since the Secretary of Defense issued the COVID-19 mandate.
Based on this new data, those with natural immunity are now known to have superior immunity as compared to those with vaccine-induced immunity.
It is important to revise policy as needed based on new scientific data.
I couldn't agree more.
I can't imagine anyone disagreeing with that, as a matter of fact.
With our weapon systems, we follow the scientific method.
If we get new information, we update our thinking as well.
Natural immunity is the best defense against the Delta variant, as breakthrough cases are inflicting vaccinated people across the world.
Now that the Pfizer COVID vaccine has garnered FDA approval, vaccine mandates are at a zenith.
And vaccines remain a feasible solution for many Americans.
I'm not against vaccines.
My parents took the vaccine.
Folks that are a little bit older or have comorbidities, they should talk to their doctor about it.
I'm not a doctor.
I'm not giving medical advice.
But the left...
They have abandoned the scientific method entirely in favor of a new pseudo-religion that caters to their hysteria and helps them advance their true interest in controlling your life.
Joe Biden's presidency is collapsing.
According to a new Rasmussen poll on September 1st, 52% of voters, more than half, think that Joe Biden must resign from office.
This compares to only 47% of Americans who supported impeachment for President Trump.
That's according to a CNN poll.
I don't think they were doing him any favors.
This was when Nancy Pelosi announced the impeachment proceedings in the Ukraine hoax.
An NBC Wall Street Journal poll had support for Trump impeachment at that time at 42%, a full 10 points lower than the 52% who support Biden's departure from the office now.
Joe Biden isn't up to the job of president.
We all see it.
We all know what's happening.
He's bad for the country.
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