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June 7, 2022 - Firebrand - Matt Gaetz
41:20
Episode 49 LIVE: We Warned You – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz
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Thank you.
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 for the Democratic Party.
He could cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.
So we're going to keep running those stories to get hurt again.
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.
What you're seeing is President Biden is a serious drag on Democratic candidates nationwide, and it's driven by his approval rating on a range of issues.
He is badly underwater on all of the top issues, including the big ones, inflation, gas prices.
He has less than 30% approval rating on the issues that we're told by voters are dominating their state of mind.
Even on issues like gun violence, abortion rights, issues that he is elevating into the conversation in recent weeks, he is still significantly underwater.
Above water on, 56% approval rating on his handling of COVID-19.
The problem for Democrats and Biden is that that happens to be the issue that voters are telling us is the least likely to be animating their vote this fall.
And that's also spilling over into an enthusiasm gap that's developing.
You see this in our poll with Ipsos, 13-point edge for Republicans in terms of people that say that they are very enthusiastic, very eager to vote this fall.
You're seeing independent voters largely sitting out the midterms so far.
Now, that enthusiasm gap is a little narrower than it was last time we polled on it two months ago.
But still, those are the kind of numbers that have Democrats worried about a potential wave election.
Since 1938, Republican two-point lead on the generic congressional ballot is the best position for Republicans at this point in any midterm cycle in over 80 years.
It beats 2010 when Republicans were up a point.
It beats 14, 2002, 1998, where Democrats led by a point.
And in all of those four prior examples that make this list of the top five, look at that.
Who won a majority?
It was the Republicans who won a majority.
The very worst political environment Democrats have faced in 80 years.
When people tell you that your representatives in the minority can't do anything, can't pass any bills, just up here to be extras in the movie, look at that.
See the value of the direct action we've taken to show the American people that the Biden administration is corrupt, that they are purposefully making things worse on the border, with the economy, with crime.
And yet here we sit poised for a potential massive Republican wave.
And the question is, will we be worth it?
Will we advance the policies that make life better for the American people?
It's really interesting in that segment I just showed you from the mainstream media.
Joe Biden tries to put guns and abortion into the national political matrix for the upcoming midterm, and yet he has an approval rating on those issues that is just cataclysmically low.
And the only thing he's doing well on presumably is COVID, which I totally don't get because he's been the lockdown president, the basement president.
And yet that is declining as a voting issue.
What are people voting on?
Inflation, gas prices, and Joe Biden has become an anchor around the neck.
Of every Democrat in Congress, and he is so toxic politically, even these Democrats and Republicans who want gun control, which is a terrible idea that we should summarily reject, they don't want Biden out there talking about it.
I've talked to Republicans and Democrats who say that the worst thing that can happen for an agenda item at this point is Joe Biden endorsing it because he has had such a bad track record.
The only thing that he got past was the American Rescue Plan, which even the Obama-era economists are saying contributed greatly to this inflation.
So it's Sleepy Joe, Failed Joe, and we're here to hold him accountable.
I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz.
We're broadcasting this episode of Firebrand Live out of our Congressional Office, Room 1721 of the House Longworth Office Building here on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Make sure you're subscribed.
Make sure you've got your notifications turned on.
I was thinking about this horrific environment that Democrats find themselves in politically, and it harkened back to remarks I made at the Republican National Convention.
And keep in mind, I just thought, look, I've got an opportunity to go present the candidate of my choosing.
Democrats have presented the candidate of their choosing.
And I wanted people to understand what the world would be like if Joe Biden was president.
And I wanted real talk with folks.
See if any of my prognostications came true in your book.
I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz.
I'm speaking to you from an auditorium emptier than Joe Biden's daily schedule.
We see the choice clearly.
Strength or weakness, energy or confusion, success or failure.
President Trump is the first president since Reagan not to start a new war.
Biden has foolishly cheerlead decades of war without winning, without end.
The Woketopians will settle for Biden because they will make him an extra in a movie written, produced, and directed by others.
It's a horror film, really.
They'll disarm you, empty the prisons, and the police aren't coming when you call.
In Democrat-run cities, they're already being defunded, disbanded.
We must fight to save America now, or we may lose her forever.
Joe Biden might not even notice.
They used to write only in fiction, but nightmares are becoming real.
I wish those things hadn't happened, but they have.
We're embroiled in more wars.
Our streets are less safe.
Our border is less secure.
And I think everybody knows what's going on in the White House.
We've got a president in decline dragging a nation into decline with him.
I want to thank everybody who's contributing on our comment sections on Facebook.
We've got a lot of folks out there saying, Trump won.
Steve Kelly says, dump all rhinos.
And you know what?
It is true that we don't just have Democrats in our way for the America First agenda.
We are very much in a battle with some of those rhinos.
And a lot of folks are concerned about the Second Amendment.
And that is important to see as well because that's going to be at issue on the floor of the House of Representatives this week.
I want to take a moment to talk about some news we've seen recently regarding Saudi Arabia.
The New York Times has reported that Joe Biden is planning a visit to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
And if he does, this will be a total 180 from Joe Biden's campaign message.
Here's Joe Biden calling Saudi Arabia a pariah and vowing to hold them accountable for the murder of Muslim Brotherhood member and opinion journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Take a listen.
Khashoggi was, in fact, murdered and dismembered, and I believe in the order of the Crown Prince.
And I would make it very clear, we were not going to, in fact, sell more weapons to them.
We were going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are.
There's very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia.
Tough talk on the campaign trail.
Different tune now.
Now the gas is on its way to $5 a gallon.
That was about as serious as anti-Saudi rhetoric comes.
And it's not unmerited.
We all know that the United States has a working relationship with the Saudis, but it's quite a stretch to call Saudi Arabia an ally.
True allies don't send their flight students to murder American sailors.
True allies aren't the one out there spreading dangerous Wahhabism, exporting fundamentalism through madrasas all over the Middle East and the world.
Joe Biden's trip comes in the midst of pending lawsuits on behalf of the victims of the 9-11 families seeking to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for their role in 9-11, which we've covered extensively on this podcast.
Those aren't the only lawsuits.
My constituents, the first responders in Pensacola, some of the victims' families of service members who were killed, they are trying to hold Saudi Arabia accountable in U.S. courts for allowing one of their flight students to be radicalized and then participate in a terrorist attack at NAS Pensacola. they are trying to hold Saudi Arabia accountable in U.S.
So if Joe Biden is going to Saudi Arabia, it shouldn't be to beg the kingdom to increase oil production.
It should be to hold them accountable for their role in 9-11 and their potential role in the NAS Pensacola attacks.
That's what a real president would do.
It's what Donald Trump would do.
It makes it all the more embarrassing right now that Joe Biden is planning his trip to Riyadh, knowing that what he's going to do there is debase himself and kowtow to the Crown Prince, hoping that oil production will go up to lower American gas prices.
The fact that the United States is in such a crisis that we are now reduced to begging the Saudis to save us, it's beyond infuriating.
It's so America lasts.
Joe Biden has been begging Americans to increase oil production while at the same time vowing to destroy the fossil fuel industry.
Now you hear the Biden administration put out these edicts that they want use it or lose it to apply to these permits.
So just think about how much sense that makes.
Out of one side of their mouth, the Biden administration is saying, we want to end oil and gas.
We want to get rid of fossil fuels.
They're probably racist and we have to get rid of them.
He has to do everything he can to virtue signal to the folks who are complete climate alarmists.
And I'm not saying the climate doesn't change.
In fact, I think it does change.
And I think that humans contribute to that change.
And there's a lot of just sensible stuff we could do to reduce the negative impact we have on the environment.
That said, Joe Biden is so beholden, so totally beholden, that he goes out there and says, our goal is to eliminate the need for oil and gas.
And then out of the other side of his mouth, he says, use it or lose it to American energy entrepreneurs.
So what would you do if you owned an oil and gas company?
Would you go out and drill for oil, invest potentially $100 million in capital costs and rigs and personnel?
Only to then find yourself years later with Joe Biden trying to make it illegal for you to operate?
No.
The way he talked about energy as a candidate and in the opening months of his presidency informs on how the energy market reacts.
And right now, even American energy companies holding drilling permits will not go out and drill.
They want to blame everything on Vladimir Putin.
They've been trying to do that since the 2016 election.
And certainly, this war with Ukraine and Russia is not helping when it comes to gas prices.
But undeniably, Joe Biden's fear porn around U.S. energy has created a far worse situation.
And that's what brings us to Saudi Arabia.
The absurdity that somehow we're doing right by the environment by burning Saudi oil instead of U.S. oil or U.S. natural gas is crazy.
Actually, liquefied natural gas that we have in tremendous abundance in the United States is far cleaner than the crude that we would get out of Saudi Arabia.
But the radicals in the Biden administration are so out of touch with the conditions that are faced by the American people, like gas prices, that they're not equipped to meet the challenge.
They know you can't afford a trip to the pump.
And frankly, they don't care.
In fact, there's some who think it's good.
It helps them advance their boneheaded environmentalist feel-good-America-last policies.
The more it hurts you, the more it will coerce you to buy the car they want you to buy, take the route they want you to take, use the modality of transportation that they think is best for you.
But the Biden administration also sees the writing on the wall.
They know that gas prices are out of hand.
And they know the American people are pissed about it.
And they're going to vote against Democrats probably as a consequence.
They know it's self-inflicted.
That's why Joe Biden is going with hat in hand to the Saudi crown.
He'd rather pay tribute to a foreign nation that isn't always on our side than allow great Americans to become energy independent.
It's a dereliction of duty.
Speaking of odd ways to perform one's duty, we've got the January 6th committee coming up later this week, and I'm going to have a lot to say about it.
I'm going to have some key voices on to give everybody context.
The way I view it, Democrats have really two principal hurdles here.
One, they have to get the American people to care about January 6th, 2021 again.
And second, they have to show the existence of some broad conspiracy.
Now, there's problems with both.
First, The notion that Democrats are going to be able to break through by hiring TV producers and putting on this spectacle in prime time defies what I've just been talking about.
The American people can't pay for groceries, gasoline.
They're concerned that companies are starting to offshore more because of what Biden is doing at the IRS. They're concerned that there's not going to be the growth in the economy that allows all ships to rise with that rising tide.
So they're all in on this, and I think it's going to be a real hard time for them to get January 6th into the issue matrix when people are worried about paying bills at the end of the week, at the end of the month, right in the here and now.
Politicians always look detached when they're not in the present with their voters and then also casting a positive vision for the future.
Nothing about this January 6th select committee is about a positive image for the future.
So there was this, like, bizarre hire that the January 6th committee made.
And I'm going to go into it.
This is the curious case of former Congressman Denver Riggleman.
Now, Denver Riggleman was a low IQ member of Congress from Virginia who was elected to one term and was largely unremarkable, unsuccessful.
Matter of fact, he did such a bad job in Congress after only one term, his own Republicans refused to re-nominate him for the job.
Not a good look.
Typically our best.
Don't go out after one term because Republicans take him out.
But then he was so exercised, so worked up, he made this like, almost like proof of life looking selfie video from his barn about how mad he was at me and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Take a listen.
What I want to talk about today is the ridiculous and hyperbolic bullshit I saw from Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene yesterday.
And I think I'm tired and I'm frustrated.
You know, I've been outspoken about how conspiracy theories and bizarre beliefs can take over people's lives.
And we saw that on 1-6.
We saw a lengthy radicalization of individuals that led to the storming of the Capitol.
I'm tired of it.
And when Matt Gaetz last night said there's an obligation to use the Second Amendment against those who disagree with you, Well, I've had enough.
Now here I am in my barrel house and I apologize.
This is my barrel house.
As you can see, it's a spontaneous with my old trusty forklift as we get ready for Memorial Day.
But I have to say this.
I am sick and tired of politicians and influencers using conspiracy theories to radicalize my fellow citizens.
We need to condemn Matt Gaetz and those like Marjorie Taylor Greene They need to be removed from the GOP conference.
Conservative cannot equal crazy, and right now it seems to with so many.
So I beg of everyone, be vigilant.
Fight back against this with calm and polite confrontation when you have individuals who tell you stupid things, but let's stop weaponizing belief systems and let's stop the type of rhetoric and stop the type of conspiracy theories that led to 1-6.
Thank you and have a great day.
So that's where we get Denver Riggleman saying that Marjorie and I need to be removed from the Republican Conference.
As I said, Denver Riggleman was removed from the Republican Conference by his own voters, by his fellow Republicans.
So in a way, there's a whole lot of loser kind of dripping over that entire statement.
But what he seems particularly aggrieved by is that I said that Americans have an obligation to use the Second Amendment, not to hurt anyone else.
But to ensure that we preserve our liberties.
Look, the way the Second Amendment works is not that you go down and gun anybody down or harm anyone or commit an insurrection.
The founders believed that with a well-armed citizenry in the United States of America, our nation would curate a balance of power and would reserve within the power of the individual the ultimate might to be able to protect liberty if that ever were infringed upon by a tyrannical government.
We hope it never comes to that.
It never should come to that.
I work every day to make our government better, more responsive to the people.
What does Denver Riggleman do?
Sit around in his barrel house?
Might have been getting into a little of that.
But he wasn't done.
He wasn't done.
Apparently the barrel video did not go viral enough for my man.
So he signs up to work on the January 6th committee.
That's right.
After seeing that video, the Democrats hired Denver Riggleman as a staffer on the committee.
And does he stick it out?
Does he stay in there?
Does he get the job done?
Does he rid the Republican Party in the Congress of me and Marjorie Taylor Greene?
No.
He quits.
Take a look at this tweet from Denver Riggleman.
He puts out there, it's been the honor of a lifetime to assist the January 6th committee, Benny Thompson and Liz Cheney, and now...
On to the next mission to help Ukraine.
More news soon.
So Denver Riggleman gives up the fight for American democracy that he was so convicted to because he's going to go fight in Ukraine.
Save the Ukrainians.
It'll be Vladimir Putin against Denver Riggleman.
Except it actually doesn't turn out that way at all.
I don't believe the video I'm about to show you is live on location in Ukraine.
I think it's in a comfortable CNN studio.
Take a listen to this recent interview with Denver Riggleman, not in Ukraine, not working on the January 6th committee, but auditioning for CNN. Your former Republican colleague, Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who is the vice chair of this committee, she said this about the Republican Party airing this weekend.
Take a listen.
We have too many people now in the Republican Party who are not taking their responsibility seriously and who have pledged their allegiance and loyalty to Donald Trump.
It is contrary to everything conservatives believe to embrace a personality cult, and yet that is what so many in my party are doing today.
A personality cult, do you agree with that characterization?
I do.
Too many Republicans, it's a personality cult, not a party.
It is.
And, you know, I got to see that firsthand, as you know, with our team and the text messages.
I got to see that firsthand.
Can I just ask you, I'm sorry to interrupt, but we're running out of time, and I want to ask you, you were a Republican congressman.
Do you still consider yourself a Republican?
I think the party left me some time ago.
I don't.
And I think that's something that I've had to grapple with even behind the scenes.
What I've seen behind the scenes has even pushed me further away that the party has moved away from conservative principles to this cult of personality that Liz Cheney is talking about.
She's absolutely correct.
And when you see it behind the door, when you see the data, when you see the investigation, when you see those smart people and what they come up with, Jake, it's absolutely stunning, that cult of personality, but also the belief systems that I don't think any real conservative could follow at any point.
It's absolutely insane.
There you have it, Liz Cheney and Denver Riggleman denouncing the cult of personality.
Yeah, it'd really be a cult of personality for someone to put their narcissism and their egomania above a group that they really cared about that they wanted to serve and advance the interests of.
Oh, wait.
That's exactly what Denver Riggleman did.
Exactly what he did.
And the January 6th committee is pissed.
Take a look at this headline from Politico.
January 6th panel fumes over unauthorized interview by former advisor.
There's just something so delicious about this, right?
So the J6 committee goes out and like fishes up Denver Riggleman out of the obscurity of his barn.
They give him a title and a job.
He quits to go fight in Ukraine, except not really.
He goes on CNN to preempt them.
And now they're mad that he's out there running his mouth about stuff that he doesn't know anything about.
You know what?
Denver Riggleman, January 6th committee, you deserve each other.
We've got a lot of comments coming in on Facebook.
Amy says Liz Cheney is not a Republican.
She's a rhino.
Actually, that's the perspective of the Wyoming Republican Party.
They've essentially banished and shunned her.
I guess she's only considered a Republican here in Washington, D.C., where she's still a member of the Republican Conference.
Shouldn't be the case.
I think a sign of weak leadership.
But we got some haters on here too.
Dallas Bailey says, screw you, Matt.
Well, you know what, Dallas?
Thank you so much for listening nonetheless.
I don't mind the criticism.
Keep it coming.
One area where I've been critical of some of my fellow Republicans and certainly a whole lot of Democrats on the issue of marijuana reform.
As I've said before, the war on drugs is like so many of the other forever wars that this Congress confronts.
Deeply unpopular in all parts of the country, except in the halls of Congress in Washington, D.C. Even as the states start legalizing cannabis, murders, robberies, terrible acts of violence are piling up because dispensaries have nowhere to store their cash and everyone knows it.
I saw this report that caught my eye in Benzinga.
Dispensaries are sitting ducks.
Workers are concerned as robberies increase and politicians dither over banking details.
We've got this massive crime surge ravaging our country because we've got a lot of DAs that just let people out.
We've got a lot of police being defunded because of Democrat policies.
And then in some of these places, you have legal cannabis stores that are sitting on cash that have And oftentimes in these blue states where they've legalized cannabis, they've also taken away Second Amendment rights, so you have no protection against yourself.
And we are seeing what happens when you do this.
You know, I mean, in Washington state even, right, the evergreen state of progressive politics and prosperous poets and the beloved Chaz, they've had 80 armed robberies in cannabis stores this year alone.
80 in 2022. I mean, that's a pattern.
Currently banks are unable to incorporate cannabis businesses into their services because of marijuana's federal prohibition.
And it's having deadly consequences.
And no one's even really for it.
There's not some large swath of the country that believes that Washington has done things right on the issue of cannabis policy.
Even in Florida, where we had two-thirds Republicans in the House and the Senate, Rick Scott was our governor, and I got meaningful cannabis reform passed.
I think Republicans are open-minded if it's something that actually helps patients, helps people live better lives, reduces crime, reduces the negative effects of the war on drugs.
Democrats, they don't want to solve the problem.
They just want the issue.
So while the federal government is like mulling over a much bigger decision to lift federal restrictions on marijuana, it should not delay in making cannabis companies able to operate with banks and to access the U.S. financial system.
This is a $25 billion a year business in the aggregate.
So there's already a legislative solution that has passed several Congresses.
It's called the Safe Banking Act.
This bill would grant access to the banking system to cannabis businesses and would, quote, ensure that financial institutions can serve state legal marijuana businesses without fear of federal reprisal, close quote.
Here's the problem.
Like the Moore Act, which I've covered previously, this bill has been unable to pass a wary United States Senate.
And while the boomer Senate Republicans are definitely to blame in part, the real obstacle for marijuana reform?
It's Democrats.
Specifically, the Congressional Black Caucus.
The Democrat Congressional Black Caucus is insisting on all these equity provisions and cannabis reform that totally jam up the opportunity to actually get something done.
Apparently the bipartisan agreement over loosening the regulated mumbo-jumbo around cannabis banking is just not enough if it doesn't include racially charged wokeness.
And when I say racially charged, that's what I mean.
The Congressional Black Caucus is saying they're not going to approve almost any change to marijuana policy if there aren't guaranteed licenses for black farmers, if there's not preferences given to American blacks in a lot of cases.
And look, I mean, I voted for the MORE Act, okay?
Because I do think that the war on drugs was probably a lot more damaging in black communities than white communities, but that should not stand in the way of the reforms that could have stopped the 80 armed robberies in the state of Washington.
It's just crazy to watch our people subjected to this violence when there's something we could do to fix it.
Just let people put their cash in banks.
So the Senate has a version of this law that would fix the problem.
It has 42 Senate co-sponsors, including 9 Republicans.
And it would give us the tools necessary to ensure an integration of this massive industry.
Unfortunately, even the Senate version includes these totally non-germane requirements for minority-owned businesses and women-owned businesses.
It's not the right approach.
Our policies should be race and gender neutral.
They should allow any American innovator to thrive who can meet the need.
This is what's jamming things up.
So Democrats, you have the ability to To move past the issue.
To get something done.
And on behalf of Floridians who benefit from the state system, I would certainly implore you to do so.
Democrats have used cannabis legalization as a backbone issue for multiple election cycles, and this is the critical moment.
Dual chamber majorities in Congress, the White House, they're only standing in their own way.
During last month's Judiciary Committee markup, I introduced the States Act, once a Democrat-sponsored bill that would really just get the United States government out of the cannabis business altogether and devolve these authorities to the states where they belong under our federalist system.
Watch as I outline my pitch for cannabis as an effective medical alternative to some of the crazy barbiturate drugs that oftentimes are used to treat the TBI, which is the basis of the underlying bill in this committee, and watch the snarky opposition I get from Democrat boomer Zoe Lofgren.
Mr. Chairman, years ago when we brought up the MORE Act and I joined the majority in supporting it, I posited that it would never become law because it did not enjoy sufficient support in the Senate, despite Mr. McClintock's support and my support here.
We are now in a circumstance where one of the easiest, fastest, most capable ways to advance healthcare outcomes for people with traumatic brain injuries would be to unlock the great research potential that exists throughout our country.
And the States Act Would pass the United States Senate.
It should pass the House of Representatives under Democratic control.
Unfortunately, I think we heard some witnesses before this committee that said that the States Act would be a whitewashing of cannabis law.
And that leaves people with traumatic brain injury, some of the very people who are advocates of the underlying bill, left without the full suite of medical services that might otherwise be available.
I noticed that just yesterday President Biden put out a Twitter video that identified me and he talked about his plan to lower prescription drug prices and then he showed a picture of me And indicated that I had no plan on health care.
Well, at least my plan on health care involves modernizing the country's cannabis laws.
And I'm wondering where President Biden is on that.
If President Biden is the true great woketopian that you've all been waiting for, why doesn't he remove cannabis from the list of Schedule I drugs?
And if we really care about the people with traumatic brain injury, with a number of other ailments that could be helped with the application of medical cannabis, Why wouldn't we pass the States Act as a recognition that those people deserve better out of their government, and the MORE Act is not going to become law despite the best efforts of the members of this committee over multiple years?
I mean, we've done the MORE Act thing year after year, and it's not going anymore.
MORE gives us less.
States would give us better law.
This bill would provide an opportunity to do it, and it's with that spirit that I offer my amendment and await a Germanity ruling.
Mr. Chairman.
Does the gentlelady insist on her point of order?
I do.
Recognizing the gentleman from Florida's enthusiasm for marijuana, the amendment is still beyond the scope of the underlying bill.
It deals with controlled substances, which is not within the underlying bill, and I do.
It's not your name.
I am prepared to...
What?
Does the gentleman wish to be heard on the point of order?
I do.
It's enthusiasm lashed to a sincere connection to the millions of people who benefit from the medical application of cannabis.
I yield back.
They mock my enthusiasm while they do nothing.
And the robberies persist and the murders persist.
The innovation that could help people unlock cures is stymied, and they laugh because we're enthusiastic about making change.
Well, you know what?
We will be.
Thanks so much for everybody joining us.
I've got some great comments.
Tom Baer says, gas prices are higher than Jerry Nadler's Beltline.
Might be my all-time favorite Facebook comment we've gotten.
And also, let's see, we've got Veronica saying that we've got to get more information on Hunter Biden.
And trust me, there's going to be a lot more Hunter Biden news coming later this week.
I've got some breaking news out of Pennsylvania I want to go to.
This is from WTRF in Wheeling, ex-Pennsylvania congressman guilty for stuffing ballots in favor of Democrats.
A former congressman from Pennsylvania has pleaded guilty to charges related to fraudulently stuffing ballot boxes for Democratic candidates between 2014 and 2018.
Federal prosecutors said former Democrat U.S. Rep. Ozzie Myers pleaded guilty Monday to violations of election law, conspiracy, bribery, and obstruction.
Wow.
You think they only did it 2014, 2016, and 2018?
Or do you just think maybe in Pennsylvania there's a system for ballot stuffing, and it changes form, and it is a little different tailored to each election, but that might just be what they do.
Former member of Congress, guilty, I should say, just guilty of this act that I really hope isn't part of how we always think about Pennsylvania.
There's a lot of work there to clean things up.
To end the show on some good news, we've got a segment regarding a really exciting diabetes drug that's come out.
And amidst all the controversies in the news about the economy and The Democrats' assault on gun rights.
It's big pharma coming out of left field with a potential game changer.
I know we give big pharma a lot of flack on this show when they deserve it, but hey, sometimes you get a solution that's worth a thoughtful review.
So we've spoken before about diabetes and insulin and my opposition to government price controls, but a new study has recently come out showing that a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes has amazing side effects Look at this headline from The Guardian.
Quote, Gosh, how am I going to get this?
Tire...
How do you say it, guys?
Trisepatide.
That's what the team says.
Trisepatide.
Potentially game-changing.
So it's been reported that this new drug works on two naturally occurring hormones and they help control blood sugar and are involved in sending fullness signals to the brain.
Imagine that.
Imagine taking a drug that tells your brain you are full even when you are not.
I would be very intrigued by this.
USA Today is reporting that some patients lost up to 21% of their body weight, 50 to 60 pounds.
Up until this point, nothing but surgery has produced this amount of weight loss.
What's more, side effects are said to be limited to mild at this point.
I know that's something they'll continue to watch.
Diabetes is way too common.
It's particularly rising in the United States as just a chronic problem.
And it leads to so many other health problems.
While there's no substitute for diet and exercise, this new drug...
It may be a lifesaver for some at severe risk from the health complications that come from morbid obesity, including type 2 diabetes.
There's also a chance the FDA may end up approving this drug for general weight loss.
Could be good news all around.
Anything that saves lives and helps more Americans be healthy in their living, certainly something to celebrate.
Healthy body, healthy mind, and hopefully a healthy and prosperous country.
Can't wait to see this medical breakthrough.
Hope it changes lives and we'll continue to cover the issue.
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