All Episodes
Previous Next
Feb. 24, 2022 - Firebrand - Matt Gaetz
24:18
Episode 28: Save OAN (feat. Dan Ball) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
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 could cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.
So we're going to keep running those 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.
Thanks so much for joining us on Firebrand.
We know that the media landscape is a changing one and it's an important one because it contributes greatly to our national discussion and the platforms that exist so that we're able to share ideas and have debate and discussion in different viewpoints.
DirecTV really changed a lot of the TV landscape.
They brought people from dozens of channels to hundreds of channels and AT&T realized that there was a limited offering For news and analysis from a conservative perspective.
While there were plenty of shows and programs that would give you an opportunity to have a liberal perspective, there needed to be more build-out.
And then we had a real news entrepreneur, Mr. Herring, step forward and build One American News.
One American News has now grown into a major voice in national politics and discussion.
And one reason is because they've got one of my very Favorite shows on air, Real America, hosted by Dan Ball, my friend who joins us now on Firebrand.
Dan, maybe just give us a sense of how you went from the work you were doing in the news industry to hosting this great national show where you get to talk to people all over the country every evening.
Well, Matt, thank you so much.
And let me just start by saying only thank you for having me on your program for once instead of the other way around.
It's odd, by the way, to be the one taking the questions.
But thank you for all you're doing.
Fighting.
You are a firebrand.
I love the name of your podcast you're doing because, let me tell you, the stuff that you have been fighting for and speaking out against, we need more congressmen and women in that house like you.
So I want to thank you first and foremost.
So my background is pretty simple.
You know, I serve in the United States Air Force.
I was a journalist.
I worked for The vets will know the acronym AFARTS. That's the Armed Forces Radio Television Service.
I did that.
Did my four-year tour of duty.
Got out.
Got my first job in broadcast news back in 1996 as a cameraman.
Within a few months, I was a reporter.
Within a few years, I was a news anchor.
I've done about every job in a newsroom.
I was even a news director.
I ran the show.
And a few years back, I got frustrated, just like you did, I'm sure.
And I ran for Congress.
And lost in Southern California.
It was for Mary and Sonny Bono's old seat, which after some gerrymandering, the Democrats had flipped that one to a highly registered Democrat seat.
And I knew what I was up against, but by golly, I felt a need to do it.
So I ran an 18. And like I said, we lost.
And so then I tried to get back into the industry that I had at one time loved.
You know, it's all I knew.
When people would see me on the street and recognize me, it was, it's the news guy!
It's the news man!
That's what you get as the local anchorman, the Ron Burgundy of the city you're working in, right?
I don't know how to put this, but I'm kind of a big deal.
It's like you went from the Adrian Cronauer to the Ron Burgundy, right?
Adrian Cronauer was at my graduation ceremony in the military as a guest speaker when I graduated my technical school in the Air Force to learn to be a journalist.
And real quick story, that's the reason I went in and chose that job.
I watched that movie, Good Morning Vietnam, loved it, watched the Gulf War on TV, wanted to serve my country, and went and signed up as a journalist wanting to do that job because of that film.
Good!
So fast forward, after we lost, I attempted for a good solid two years, 19 and 20, applying to get back into the news industry, doing what I knew how to do for 20 some years.
And I would get the initial phone call.
Your work's great.
We love what we're seeing.
We'll be in touch.
Of course, then they start backgrounding you and looking at your social media and nobody ever called back because I had come out of the closet As a conservative, as a Republican, as a, wait for it, Trump supporter, and I ran for Congress.
We can't hire that guy as a news anchor at our station ever again.
And so I was never getting any offers.
And Mr. Herring, who you intro'd so eloquently, our boss here, the boss man, He had contacted me and his son several years before when they first started the operation, and I think 13 or 14, and I had turned down some offers there.
They were just starting, they didn't have a lot of cash yet, and I was somewhere else.
So I kept his cell phone number, and I literally called him August 20th of 2020, And I was fed up.
I was up to here with everything going on politically in the world, and obviously the election and everything looming.
And I said, do you have anything?
And he said, we have a talk show post-opening.
It's not news, what you've been doing, so you'd have to be opinionated.
I think you can handle that.
And I'm like, hmm, I don't know.
And so September 14th, right before the election, and this is no thanks to me.
This is credit to the American people.
Within two months, we were the number one talk show on the network.
Within six months, we were the highest rated show the network's ever had since its inception in 2013. And again, that's thanks to Americans seeking One American News out because they wanted truth in reporting.
And all they get now on CNN and the rest of these monitors up here in my office is a bunch of spewing radical activists lying to them Every single day.
And I was fed up.
And so we got this platform, and we've just been out there trying to spread truth.
Matt, that's what we're doing every day.
Real America is the show.
Dan Ball is the host.
One America News is the network.
Your viewers are committed.
And a lot of the One America News viewers that I talk to, that is really not just part of the mosaic of news they get.
That is the principal source of news they get.
Tell me why you think there are some stories that get special attention or special investigative reporting on One America News that might not on other networks.
And I think specifically about The Ukraine hoax.
You know, we've had so many scandals in the Biden administration, we forget what Adam Schiff tried to do to the presidency in the Ukraine hoax.
And the depth of the investigative reporting on One America News was far and beyond the best that we saw in the country.
What is it about the philosophy there that might highlight a different lens for the information?
I think that when our producers and the news director and the H's We're looking at stories that we want to put, say, Pearson Sharp on and do more investigating it, more in depth on.
We're looking at those ones specifically, too, that the mainstream either ignore or have skewed the narrative so far, the opposite side of the spectrum, that the story is so convoluted you can't make sense of it, or they literally change the narrative.
So if we're showing you facts and something is white, they're telling you it's black.
And that's what Ukraine.
I mean, look, Matt, you've heard in the last few weeks, of course, everybody's saying, oh, yeah, misinformation, disinformation, right?
Russian propaganda.
Trump owns us, tells us what to say.
That's all a bunch of bullshit, number one.
Number two, to your question about the stories, if you have all of the networks for the past five years saying that Donald J. Trump colluded with Russia when the facts have been proven, the dossier was fake, he didn't collude, then yeah, we're going to hit it even harder to try and offset because we're only one network and you've got half a dozen every day that are telling you the opposite and lying.
So I'd say that's kind of how we pick and make sure that some of those stories that are just being blatantly lied about in the mainstream media Have more attention so people get the facts.
We don't know what hour they're watching, what show they're watching.
So sometimes you've got to just keep repeating it so they see it.
Especially, again, when CNN, MSNBC, I've got them in my office, I'm watching their lies.
Right now, you know, we've got Navarro getting subpoenaed.
Peter Navarro that worked for the president, of course, MSNBC with the plot on January 6th.
We got Giuliani and prosecutors going after Giuliani in New York on CNN. Let's talk about the DOJ for a moment.
The Department of Justice concerned a lot of parents When they use the domestic terrorism label to try to have a basis to do what they wouldn't otherwise be able to do, and that's categorize people by their politics, to hunt them, to do everything they can to ruin their lives.
There has been a recent Justice Department pronouncement that people who spread disinformation or misinformation may be labeled as domestic extremists and domestic terrorists.
Senator Hawley unleashed his wrath at Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco after her boss, Attorney General Merrick Garland, issued this unprecedented memorandum.
It directs, quote, the Federal Bureau of Investigation to facilitate the discussion of strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers and staff, and will open dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting, assessment and response.
Parents waiting sometimes for hours to speak at a local school board meeting to express concerns about critical race theory or the masking of their students, particularly young children.
Is that, in and of itself, is that harassment and intimidation?
Is waiting to express one's view at a school board meeting harassment and intimidation?
As the Attorney General's memorandum made quite clear, spirited debate is welcome, is a hallmark of this country.
It's something we all should engage in.
No, I don't think so, Ms. Monica.
With all due respect, it didn't make it quite clear.
It doesn't define those terms.
Now, since One America News has falsely had to endure the smears of these labels, do you worry that you and your colleagues at One America News may be labeled domestic terrorists by the Department of Justice?
I'll wear it as a badge of honor.
I couldn't give two shits less, Matt.
You've probably seen the videos.
I've gone to my child's school board meetings multiple times.
I've taken a cameraman with me.
You may not think that keeping these face muzzles on our kids Maybe you're thinking you're keeping them safe.
You're not.
So my question is, why are you doing this?
Well, it's probably because you're either misinformed, blinded by fear, uneducated on the matter, or you simply lack the backbone to stand up to these tyrannical mandates.
Note I said mandates, not laws, because they are not laws.
A select few in power in this state and in the federal government lack the intestinal fortitude to stand up to these mandates.
I've exposed and helped parents there get the recall going for the board members, and I would like to say that those brave parents that have been speaking out for the last year over the mask and vaccine mandates, the CRT, the over-sexual books that are on the shelves in K-8, because parents have taken action with that, just in the schools my kid goes to, I'm proud to announce that the chairman just resigned.
Now, he took another government job, but at least he's off the school board.
So if they're going to call me a domestic terrorist because I went to my 14-year-old daughter's school board meeting and said, my daughter feels faint when she has these damn masks on.
She tells me.
You can't see people's expressions.
She tells me the most damaging thing when I hear her go, it's okay, Dad.
I don't mind.
I don't mind wearing it.
Ugh, that drives me nuts.
So if parents have to go, speak up, to get these mandates pulled, to get this CRT out of the schools, and you get labeled as a domestic terrorist, so be it, parents.
Because soon enough, there'll be a reckoning.
And Matt, let's hope by the grace of God, Republicans take back control this November.
And come next year, the DOJ is going to have a lot of answering to do.
And I have a feeling we probably won't see the current AG in his role once Republicans fully take everything back.
I hope not.
So, I don't care.
They can label me whatever they want.
Probably tapping my phones and watching what you and I are doing right now.
I don't care.
Probably.
We welcome all in the federal government to watch Firebrand and to watch Real America with Dan Ball.
Dan, while the Department of Justice is not doing, or while they are doing these very strange things to target Americans, there's important work that the Department of Justice is not doing.
Particularly in the area of antitrust.
I'm very concerned that large technology companies and other large businesses in America have gained so much power that they've limited novel and unique voices, novel and unique experiences in the marketplace.
We've seen that with Google, Facebook, where the DOJ does kind of just enough, but they don't really use antitrust powers.
Now we see a tremendous amount of power being concentrated in the hands of those who distribute television content, whether that's through satellite, whether that is through coaxial cable.
Do you believe that the Department of Justice should have further investigation into the power that some companies that have satellite and cable distribution have over the content that is on their platforms?
This is a slippery slope, so I have to watch how I answer this.
So first and foremost, I believe in and love capitalism.
I hate regulations.
I don't want government overreach.
I don't want them stepping in and telling me I can't have an opinion and say what I want and infringe upon my freedom of speech and freedom of the press, because this is what I've been doing for nearly 30 years.
So with that said, because you have people in power, people of influence, And this woke cancel culture mob all ganging up on what you were just talking about, the providers, whether people that provide the servers or the platform, whether it be digital, satellite, cable, whatever it may be.
If they are simply silencing people, whether it be on Facebook, on Dish, on whatever, because of political reasons, then whatever happened to political discourse in this country?
We're supposed to have that.
That's where the government should step in.
It's kind of like this, Matt.
We don't like regulation.
You and I don't.
No conservative and no capitalist does.
But if a company's out there poisoning people, okay, it's the government's job to step in and say, you're poisoning Americans.
Here's my constituents.
Stop dumping the medical waste.
Here's some regulation.
I think any red-blooded American, no matter left, right, independent, would agree that's okay for regulation.
Okay.
How do you have a healthy discourse if you're allowing just a handful of these major owners of, again, whether it be cable, satellite, Facebook, Instagram, all the social media, that's only a handful of these overlords.
If they're allowed to pick and choose what's misinformation, what's correct, what's not, where the hell did free speech go?
Where the hell did Freedom of Press go?
You know, I love Dennis Prager.
He comes on the show a lot.
And Dennis always says, especially being a member of the Jewish community, he's like, you can't have free speech without hate speech.
You can't have free speech without the other political side.
It's no such thing.
We have to have it all.
Whether you like it or you don't like it.
Whether it hurts your feelings or doesn't hurt your feelings, it doesn't matter.
We should be able to express it.
And when they want to try and say that OAN is misinformation because, and let's be real, the two main things people have hit us on is our coverage of the 2020 election and then also our coverage of the COVID pandemic.
Pandemic hysteria nonsense.
We talk about the fact that the vaccine isn't working, and we back it up with the data to show it.
You know, the science that masks don't work.
What do you think the other...
This is why they say we're misinformation, Matt, for showing the facts.
Why do you think that so many other news organizations were unwilling to cover instances of fraud or illegal voting or irregularity or whatever synonym they want to use for it?
Why do you think that OAN seemed to have almost a laser-like focus into those things and they were ignored by other news outlets?
The other ones ignored it because the corporate tyrant CEOs, like the guy who just got pushed out at CNN, Jeff Zucker, who deserved it, told them to.
I mean, I know your audience on Firebrand probably follows James O'Keefe and the great work Project Veritas guys.
Yes.
Let's talk about those two months of phone calls because a whistleblower was kind enough to give James the phone number and he got to call in and listen to two months of their 9am meeting where it's supposed to be, and you might have been in a newsroom before, an editorial meeting, folks.
It's supposed to be everybody coming together, the news director, the reporters, photographers, producers, and here's your ideas for stories of the day.
Then you go out and cover them.
And you're, oops, sorry about that.
You're supposed to be out covering them neutrally, showing both sides.
But if you listen to those phone calls, Jeff Zucker was blatantly telling them, this is the way we're going to skew stories.
And this was right before the election, I believe.
Trump continuing to undermine election integrity with graceless claims of fraud.
Okay?
And he's continuing to do it.
And that leads to the question of whether or not Trump He himself is a national security threat.
I just want to re-emphasize that, you know, I think we cannot normalize what has happened here in the last week with Trump and his behavior.
And I go back to what David said, David Challion said, that this is a president who knows he's losing, who knows he's in trouble, is sick, Maybe is on the aftereffects of steroids or not.
Like, they're literally, again, spewing the narrative and controlling it.
We don't do that here.
Literally, Mr. H., the 80-year-old owner, when he hired me, said, you'll go after them all, right?
I said, what do you mean?
Left, right, independent, Republican, Democrats.
If they deserve it, if they're screwing over the American people, you'll talk about it on the show and nail them.
He said, you're damn right.
He goes, you're hired.
That's how we do things.
Nobody's in my office going, you will have this guest on.
You will not say this.
You won't say that.
You won't ask these questions.
Nobody ever does that.
Ever.
That's why people watch, because it's real.
And CNN is hemorrhaging ratings because it all is so contrived in so many circumstances.
Now, there was a circumstance a while ago where the head football coach of Oklahoma State University wore a One America News t-shirt while fishing.
And no offense, Dan, but everybody knows you don't wear your favorite shirt fishing.
You wear the shirt that you don't mind getting some blood and guts and bait on.
And he later had to apologize for wearing your network shirt, which I've met a number of the great people who work in your organization from the Herrings all the way to the fine greeters who ensure that everybody has a great experience when they come to your studios there in San Diego.
And everyone is kind and welcoming and just American.
And so I'm wondering how it makes the people at OAN feel when the woke mob literally says that someone is a racist for wearing a t-shirt with your logo on it.
Most of us around here laugh it off.
And I don't know if you know because he came out and apologized after and then said, I didn't realize OAN... We stirred up so emotion and hurt feelings and that we provided misinformation and we're racist.
I mean, he jumped on the bandwagon.
Oh yeah, no, he caved.
He caved to the woke mob.
Our players expressed their feelings as individuals and as team members.
They helped me see through their eyes how the t-shirt affected their hearts.
Once I learned how that network felt about Black Lives Matter, I was disgusted and knew it was completely unacceptable to me.
I want to apologize to all members of our team, former players, and their families for the pain and discomfort that has been caused over the last two days.
Black Lives Matter to me.
Our players matter to me.
So when they played for their Bowl game or championship game, right, a month or so back, and lost, right, to Baylor, I think.
I sent him a gift right before the game on Friday, and we know he received it because we got confirmation.
I sent him a set of balls and a brand new golf t-shirt with a collar and a nice embroidered away, and not that t-shirt he got.
So I don't know if he's going to wear it.
I don't know if he's going to play with those golf balls I sent him, but I figured he needed a pair.
So, yeah.
That's how I feel about the Blue Cave.
Grow some balls.
There is just too much that we saw with Joe Rogan apologizing for some past comments.
I mean, we're supposed to all grow and be better humans, and it would just be nice if everyone was a little more forgiving and that we weren't trying to rip each other off the air or not engage in discussion and discourse with each other.
Let's talk about that.
Everybody's saying, so what happened to Whoopi?
I don't want Whoopi gone.
She sticks her big foot in her big fat mouth all the time.
And she's, to me, a racist idiot.
Kind of like Joy Reid.
She's one of the worst racists on television.
Towards white people.
Yes, you can be racist towards white people.
I don't want them kicked off.
That's civil discourse.
They can spew their nonsense opinion too.
But don't try to kick me off and this network off.
You know what you can do if you don't like it?
Click, change the channel.
Change the channel.
Or Hate Watch, which is what so many people do with The View.
I mean, I still believe Whoopi Goldberg's best days were his sister Mary Clarence and sister act.
It's sort of been downhill from there.
There are three vows every nun must accept.
The vow of poverty, the vow of obedience, and the vow of chastity.
I am out of here with that.
DirecTV has announced that they are not going to renew the contract for One America News.
That is very concerning to so many of your viewers, but also those of us who rely on an honest platform.
And by the way, a platform where, you know, I know when I go on your show, I'm going to get pushed.
You're going to ask tough questions.
But a platform to be able to get truth before people.
What message would you share with your viewers who are concerned that come May, you might be off the air?
Anyone that watches the show knows I don't censor myself, or at least I try not to ever censor myself.
But because there are a couple hundred hard-working employees at the OAM Network, and because of the man and his two sons that are here every single day, eight, nine, ten hours a day running this place, I don't want to see anyone get in trouble or lose anything, okay?
And so with that said, I have to watch how I comment.
And a lot of folks have been asking me, hey, Dan, you sent out this all-call.
You told us that OAN's in trouble.
Are they going to stay on the carrier?
I'm not allowed now to mention anything about this situation because I have been threatened by an army of lawyers by a certain large company.
But here's what I can tell you.
OAN's not going anywhere after April, no matter what happens with whomever is carrying us on whatever provider.
We are not going away.
We just might be in less households, and it'll be a massive hit to the budget here, to the hearings, and to the hard workers.
So expansion, raises, everything else out the window.
But guess what?
I'm not going anywhere.
I'm staying right here.
You sound like Churchill during the tough days of World War II where he said, even if we lose England, even if they cross the channel, we'll go to the British Empire's faraway lands and we'll fight from there as long as we can.
I know that your voice is an important one, the voice that One American News offers.
is absolutely critical to our national discourse.
I'm rooting for you.
I'm rooting against the woke mob that tries to cancel everyone that seems to raise a ruckus or raise their voice or raise tough questions like OAN has done about the 2020 election and about the efficacy of these vaccines.
We should be able to question these things.
Thanks for doing it on Real America.
Thanks for being my buddy, Dan.
Thanks for joining us on Firebrand.
Thank you, brother.
You take care.
▲
Export Selection