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March 3, 2022 - Firebrand - Matt Gaetz
30:39
Episode 29: State of Denial – 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 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 cancelled 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 for joining us back on Firebrand.
Our 29th episode, over 12 million downloads and views on the platform.
Make sure you're subscribed with notifications turned on because we got some exciting stuff coming on the platform and we want you to get the benefit of all of it.
So, lot to cover in this show.
I've got analysis and updates from Ukraine.
There's an American ally that might be misbehaving a little.
I'll have a report on that.
I gave a big speech at CPAC laying out how Republicans should seize the opportunity of a majority to ensure that we get the power back that is necessary to start winning battles again for our people.
I'll have that speech at the end of the episode.
But first, There was another speech this week, the State of the Union Address from Joe Biden.
He promised a little bit of everything.
That's why it's so important to pass the Bipartisan Innovation Act sitting in Congress that will make record investments in emerging technologies and American manufacturing.
Let's pass the Paycheck Fairness Act in paid leave.
Raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
We've provided free vaccines, treatments, tests, and masks.
Of course, continuing, this costs money.
So I'll not surprise you.
I'll be back to see you all.
We're giving more than a billion dollars of direct assistance to Ukraine.
17 Nobel laureates in economics said my plan will ease long-term inflationary pressures.
If government spending solved inflation, we would already have inflation kryptonite as a result of the Biden agenda.
The reality is when the government prints more money, that results in that money being less valuable, being less worthy, having a different impact in the global marketplace.
So these spending programs that are purported to be the free solution to all the cost challenges will really exacerbate higher gas bills, higher grocery bills, higher electric bills, and wages that don't compete in the Biden economy.
The other thing Joe Biden does in this speech is He seems to regurgitate the elements of his agenda that have already failed.
Politicians are supposed to make new promises, but instead we heard Joe Biden talk about the elements of his Build Back Better agenda that couldn't even get 50 votes in the United States Senate controlled by Democrats.
He calls it Build Back America instead of Build Back Better.
Interesting to me that he was very careful to avoid the language that was quite literally the rallying cry of his presidential campaign.
It does not bode well for this presidency going forward.
The other thing that Joe Biden does is he lays out what he describes as the unity agenda.
So let's break that down.
Four big things we can do together in my view.
First, beat the opioid epidemic.
There's so much we can do.
Increased funding for prevention, treatment, harm reduction and recovery.
Get rid of outdated rules and stop doctors from prescribing treatments.
Now, I have a critique of both Republicans and Democrats here because we seem to judge how much we care about the opioid crisis based on how much money we spend on the opioid crisis, not what the results are for people.
And not for nothing, but the main reason we have heroin problems, fentanyl problems, It's the southern border.
It's that these things are made or imported into Mexico, and then there is just a superhighway into the towns and communities and cities all over our country.
Joe Biden doesn't give a damn about the opioid crisis, and if he did, he would secure our borders.
That brings us to the second element of the Biden unity agenda, mental health.
Let's take on mental health, especially among our children whose lives and education have been turned upside down.
And let's get all Americans the mental health services they need.
More people can turn for help and full parity between physical and mental health care if we treat it that way in our insurance.
Now, it's no surprise that mental health is an issue that's concerning a lot of Americans because the policies of the left, the policies of the Biden administration, have done great damage to our collective mental health as a country.
I have specific concern about young people who've been forced to wear masks and have seen their development limited in a lot of ways.
Young people ought to be able to see another person's face to understand how their actions impact that person.
What do we do that make other people happy?
What do we do that make other people concerned or threatened or afraid?
And that's how human beings grow to be more caring, to be more understanding of our fellow humans.
Joe Biden has done damage to that.
So to hear him talk about mental health, it's quite something.
Really, we ought to have legislation that allows people who've had their mental health severely impacted by the bad decisions of government officials to be able to go and sue those governments that put them and their families and their lives in worse shape.
The third plank of Joe Biden's unity agenda, taking care of veterans.
The third piece of that agenda is support our veterans.
Veterans are the backbone and the spine of this country.
They're the best of us.
I've always believed that we have a sacred obligation to equip those we send to war and care for those in their family when they come home.
Now, this is, of course, a laudable goal.
I care deeply about veterans.
Florida's first congressional district has one of the highest concentrations of veterans in America.
But the answer for veterans is not to create more veterans as a result of getting kicked out of the military because of mandates.
There are over 600 marines that were forced out of service because they did not have medical or religious exemptions granted.
Is America stronger because we don't have those marines wearing the uniform, defending our country, advancing our interests?
Of course not.
The veterans I know, you know, they used to talk about health care and the degree to which the VA was providing a whole array of services to them as the number one issue.
But today when I talk to veterans, they're most concerned about how wokeism is harming our active duty military today.
Our veterans didn't wear the uniform to watch those who are currently embracing patriotic service driven out.
Being accused of white supremacy or extremism, The Department of Defense was one of the last bastions of the apparatus of the federal government, not entirely controlled by the left, and now I'm concerned that this focus on veterans is just yet another way to get vectors into the most patriotic Americans to try to change the way they view the world.
We don't need that.
We're proud of our veterans.
We're proud of our active duty military.
They shouldn't have been subjected to these mandates, and certainly they shouldn't be subjected to the continuing harassment From elements of the Pentagon that would drive out anyone who doesn't think like they do.
And fourth and last, let's end cancer as we know it.
Last month, I announced the plan to supercharge the cancer moonshot that President Obama asked me to lead six years ago.
Our goal is to cut cancer death rates by at least 50% over the next 25 years.
I think we can do better than that.
And again, this is a laudable goal.
The question is, who is best positioned to fill the need?
And while the federal government has a role and while certainly we have greater survivability in relation to the rest of the world regarding cancer as a consequence of government investment, We cannot have the policies of the Biden administration choke the private sector innovation and research that has been so consequential and so significant in helping the many, many millions of Americans who struggle with cancer and the family members who love them.
This was very barely a state of the union.
It was more like a state of denial.
Joe Biden misses the fact that American families all over the country today are struggling.
Inflation is killing them.
Inflation is making it harder to pay the bills at the end of the month, to build a family in the first place.
That's what we must tackle, and we must have the discipline of conservative fiscal policy to do it.
The whole world is focused on Russia and Ukraine, and with good reason right now.
I wrote a book on the subject in 2020. It's called Firebrand, and I observed various features about Russia that are very telling today and that show us the implications, the motivations, and I think the ultimate result on this increasing malign influence from the Russian Federation.
Here's what I said in my book Firebrand in 2020. George W. Bush thought he could see into Putin's soul.
Vladimir Putin, when you first met him, you said you got a sense of his soul.
I looked in his eyes and saw his soul.
And later you told him he was cold-blooded.
Yeah, I did.
And did you read him wrong?
Did he change?
What can you tell us about Vladimir Putin?
John McCain thought he saw the KGB in there.
I think he is what he is.
He's an old KGB apparatchik.
He wants to restore the Russian Empire.
He now uses the language, new Russia.
I mean, there's no doubt about what he is.
Mitt Romney saw the crippling former empire as our geopolitical foe.
This is, without question, our number one geopolitical foe.
They fight every cause for the world's worst actors.
Okay, boomers.
Russia has never mattered less in my lifetime.
Its two main exports are models and oil, and America has plenty of both.
When was the last time you even used a Russian product?
Russia is neither as strong or as weak as she looks, though, and she may yet prove to be more dangerous on her way down to demographic ruination than she was on her way up to communist dominion.
I believe Russia belongs not in the future, but in the past, and that her ailing economy and oligarchic politics reflect that growing realization.
Everybody who can is trying to get out of Russia with whatever cash or arms they can launder through British or French or Swiss property markets.
It isn't quite the end of history.
I don't believe that Russia or her satellites will become good neoliberals tomorrow, or maybe never.
As Russia weakens, the line between state action and criminal thuggery all but disappears.
At least they no longer even pretend to have a compelling, competing vision of the world beyond raw power and thievery.
Seen another way, the KGB might be the only thing that's holding Russia together and preventing its oblivion.
To be sure, gangsters can still imperil our security.
Just look at the chaos south of our own border.
But the cartels have something Americans want to buy.
Drugs.
We don't need Russia quite as desperately.
Asia's largest consumer of energy, China, is right next to Asia's largest producer, Russia.
They are building bridges to one another that could well imperil the free world.
We can beat Russia and other fossil fuels just by keeping the price of oil perpetually low.
But don't take my word for it, Ronald Reagan did just that, as Stephen Hayward recounts in The Age of Reagan, The Conservative Counter-Revolution 1980-1989.
It was the deliberate policy of the Reagan administration to bankrupt petrostates, even if it ended up hurting Oklahoma and Texas.
Never again would Americans wait in line to fuel their cars or go to work.
We should finish the job.
The Stone Age didn't run out because we ran out of stones.
The Coal Age didn't end because we ran out of coal.
Nor will the Oil Age end because we have run out of oil.
Peak oil is a fantasy.
China is rising while Russia sinks.
Even when China mimics Western-style capitalism, it does so with an authoritarian tinge.
That was my perspective in 2020. And think about the world today.
The greatest negative consequence of this conflict in Ukraine would be driving Russia into the arms of China.
That way China's energy would be dirtier, it would be less expensive, they would become even more belligerent with their neighbors.
All the while, Russia knows it's fighting a losing battle.
In the coming days and coming weeks, they may prevail.
They may even overrun Ukraine.
But they have no capability to win the peace, to offer that compelling vision.
And for America to engage in a pacing exercise with another country, it would be foolish to compare ourselves to Russia.
We must pace against China.
Let us never be distracted from that critical objective for our country.
One thing that makes America unique is that we can make things happen almost anywhere in the world.
This capability is a consequence of our alliances.
President Trump reminds us that America first is not America alone.
Our alliances shouldn't be welfare cases, though.
They should be mutually beneficial to be enduring and valuable.
Otherwise, it's just aid by a different name.
The most critical time to leverage alliances is during crisis.
We know that in our own lives.
What's the value of a friend who's only there in the good times?
Our of need friends.
Those are the real friends.
This week in the House Armed Services Committee, we held a hearing on America's alliances, particularly given the war in Ukraine.
We were briefed by senior officials from the Department of Defense and Department of State.
And one so-called ally of the United States got particular attention.
The United Arab Emirates, the UAE. Now, the UAE sits on the powerful UN Security Council in a rotating position.
They lobbied hard to get this valued opportunity to be center stage on the world stage.
It is the Security Council that speaks on these important matters as they are evolving and their voice is critically relevant to countries all over the world and to operational capability of a variety of coalitions and alliances that can be built.
But on the critical matter of condemning Russia for invading Ukraine, The UAE abstained.
They didn't veto.
They didn't approve.
So, surprising to me, our committee hearing began with the Democrat chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Adam Smith, asking why we weren't doing enough to approve the sale of F-39s and MQ-9 Predator drones to the UAE even faster.
I'm just wondering, how do we strike that balance?
And I'm particularly focused on the UAE. The situation in Yemen is very, very complex.
but at a minimum at this point, we have slow walked some of our weapon sales that were supposed to go to UAE because of those concerns.
We saw that they were one of the countries that abstained in the vote against Russia.
They're hedging their bets, and if it doesn't come from us, they're going to go to Russia and China.
How do we avoid losing those folks while we're concerned about what else they might be doing?
When countries say that they're our allies and then they don't stand with us in times of need, it's just odd to think that we would use that as the opportunity to push the most sensitive military equipment in the world to them.
Thank you.
Especially given how much we've already sent to the UAE. The conventional thinking is that if we sell other countries our military equipment, they will act more like us.
They will work more closely with us and deepen partnerships.
As for the UAE, you be the judge.
We've helped them repel attacks from Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen.
We have nearly $30 billion in military equipment transfers with them.
$30 billion.
Military electronics, communication systems, mine-resistant ground vehicles, helicopters, offensive and defensive missile systems.
And they want the cherished F-35 aircraft and the MQ-9 Predator drone.
But they abstained when we needed them for a diplomatic show of force against Russia.
This week I asked senior Biden administration officials how they view the relationship with the UAE. Here's that exchange.
We've helped them with the Houthis.
We've sold them a bunch of stuff.
The chairman wants to accelerate the delivery of F-35s to them.
And I'm just wondering, are we disappointed that they abstained?
I think we have concerns about that, and we are working with them and talking to them about that moving forward.
Are you confident in a change in position in the UAE, given that we're now seeing reports that Putin is targeting civilians in Kyiv?
I'm not comfortable speaking for another country and what they may or may not do, but I think you're raising legitimate questions about moving forward.
I know that while we've been here, I think there are votes potentially or discussions happening right now in the United Nations.
And I will continue.
What's the time frame, the window of time that the State Department evaluates as, like, the essential window to get the UAE off the sidelines given their position on the Security Council?
Do you think that this has to happen in the next week for it to be effective?
Or do you think we can have sort of a long, drawn-out dance of the veils with the Emiratis?
I think that as we look at this relationship with the Emiratis, as we do with all of our relationships with our partners, our allies, and our friends, we have to both be able to work together on the critical security issues that we share and also raise concerns when we do have them.
Final point.
Do you think a reason they abstained is because they haven't gotten the MQ-9s and the F-35s yet?
In my view, we have worked very closely with them and are continuing those conversations on the MQ-9.
But do you think that's a factor in the abstention?
I'm not able to speak for another country on their thinking, but I do know we continue to be committed on both the MQ-9s and the F-35s.
Maybe we shouldn't be.
I'll yield back.
Earlier, I spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
My remarks got quite a bit of attention.
I hope you enjoy.
Thank you all so much for coming to hear me.
My colleagues Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are having a conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC to talk about how real Republicans should behave.
I'm glad to be here with all of you in the free state of Florida, because this is Donald Trump's party, and I'm a Donald Trump Republican.
The rent is too damn high.
Wow.
Leftist politicians told us that, then they were elected to office.
Now, the gas bill is too damn high.
The grocery bill is too damn high.
The electric bill is too damn high.
And yes, the rent is too damn high.
Some may write in this country when the Tinder swindler is treating people better than our own government is treating us.
When I ran for Congress, I thought that the DOJ, the FBI, the CDC, those were supposed to be the good guys.
Simpler days.
I was extorted by a former DOJ official.
The FBI saw one of their own lawyers change evidence to frame President Trump before a secret court.
They're cheating worse than the Russian figure skating team over there at the Hoover Building.
And the CDC, they wanted the powers of the CIA and ended up with the credibility of CNN. Now, Joe Biden and even some who have taken this stage tell us that defending freedom in Ukraine has costs for Americans.
First of all, costs are going up.
So that should be a red flag right there.
Also, what about freedom here in this country?
What about our leaders actually standing up for freedom and liberty in America?
Why should Americans have to pay the cost of freedom elsewhere when our own leaders stand up for our freedom here?
And by the way, Washington spent your money and took your freedom away anyway.
That's why we have higher costs and fewer choices today.
But now you've got to foot the bill for Ukraine?
Endure more pain?
We still got pain from Afghanistan misadventures that we still have to deal with.
I'm not for sending Americans to Ukraine.
Except maybe one.
If Russia wanted to destabilize Ukraine, Putin didn't need to send tanks.
We could have just sent Dr. Fauci.
My constituents fear Dr. Fauci more than some modern incarnation of Dr. Strangelove, and it's easy to see why.
My parents did nuclear fallout drills in school over missiles that fortunately never arrived.
Today, students are drilled to wear masks over a virus that threatens their overall health less than the mask itself.
We are retarding social-emotional learning, empathy, and caring.
We are raising a generation of little sociopaths who will act more like the Menendez brothers.
That's a lot easier than post-Omicron COVID. Indeed, we should fire Fauci.
But the oversight shouldn't stop there.
My vision for Republican control of Congress is every committee gets an investigation to run.
The Armed Services Committee should be looking into the botched Afghanistan withdrawal.
The Energy and Commerce Committee should break up big tech.
The Agriculture Committee should stop big food from being consolidated under the power of the Chinese Communist Party.
The Intelligence Committee should blow up FISA.
The Judiciary Committee should stop the DOJ from targeting political opponents, whether they are parents, whether they are falsely labeled as extremists, or whether they are lawmakers engaged in the oversight of the Department of Justice.
The Transportation Committee should not be debating whether or not roads and bridges are racist.
I'm not a ghost.
They should solve supply chain issues.
They oversee the ports, don't they?
Why is it that Americans can get their heroin delivered faster than a futon from Ikea?
The Foreign Affairs Committee should stop us from having so many foreign affairs.
They cost our nation too much in treasure and in the blood of our bravest patriots.
We don't have to give other countries money to hate us.
They will probably do it for free.
Wouldn't it be nice if the Natural Resources Committee actually cared about the development of American natural resources?
I wish our media reported as much about the Keystone XL as they do Nord Stream 2. Homeland Security.
It is not enough to finish the wall.
Biden has let millions of people into our country illegally.
We need internal enforcement of our immigration laws and deportations for people who did not come here with permission.
We've got to find every one of those Biden flights that dropped off illegal immigrants at our military bases and in our communities, and we ought to track those people down like they were at the Capitol on January 6th.
Maybe treat them the same, too.
No bail, no taxpayer-funded lawyer, just a one-way ticket home.
The healthcare committee should investigate suppressed information about vaccines, and we should vindicate brave whistleblowers.
Now, I know people who would get the jab every year.
They'd get it every month, they'd get it every day.
I know people who would get the coronavirus vaccine while they were being tested for coronavirus at the same time if they could.
And some of these people are in our families and our friend groups.
And all of them are our fellow Americans.
And we would never discriminate against them.
We would never see them trampled by horse-mounted police.
We would never see them arrested for trying to order Thai food in New York City.
We would never see their bank account seized as they were labeled terrorists or extremists or threats to truth and information.
We would not do to the Vax worshipers what they have done to far too many Americans.
You see, I love America as one nation, one people, one culture, one economy, one group of people who rise or fall together.
And I know in my generation that millennials saw their families destroyed by no-fault divorce.
And so let us never tolerate an era of national divorce or medical apartheid.
When Obama snookered millennials into believing that his candidacy was somehow an engine to improve the lives of other people, he famously and piously said, we are the ones we have been waiting for.
In 2022, we lack the luxury of battling for Obama's purported utopia for others.
We are increasingly embattled.
Not for lofty ideals or distant lands, but for ourselves, our schools, our freedoms, our faith, our jobs, our health, and our America.
Today, we are not the ones we have been waiting for.
We are the ones we are fighting for.
CPAC is the place where we decide what conservative movements are about and what they mean.
And conservatism in the 80s meant do less, be more modest, slow the pace of change.
Well, President Trump threw modesty out the window and he taught us that doing less was no way to conserve anything.
Action, action, action.
Imagine a Republican Party that actually went out and won your battles again.
So fight for your family, fight for your country, fight for your freedom.
This is no time for bystanders.
It's pick your fighter time.
I'm your Florida man.
I'm the only Republican in Congress who doesn't take any donations from lobbyists or special interests or political action committees.
I fight for you.
I work for you, not them.
With our team, the fight rages on, and I hope you'll join me.
Go to MattGates.com, download the app, vote for Donald Trump at today's straw poll, and let's go get him!
Thanks so much for joining us on Firebrand.
Make sure you're subscribed, hit that bell, turn those notifications on.
And a special program announcement this week.
Vish Burra is the director of Firebrand.
He works alongside our executive producer Joel Valdez, came from Bannon's War Room, and is the co-creator of this very show.
It'll be his last show.
He'll be heading on to other professional and creative ventures, and we wanted to send our thanks, our appreciation for Mr. Burroughs' service, and we hope you all have enjoyed the show during his time here.
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