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Dec. 14, 2022 - Firebrand - Matt Gaetz
31:53
Episode 80 LIVE: Never Kevin (feat. Steve Cortes) – 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 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.
The New York Times saying that your bid remains imperiled on the right.
NBC News says, can the Never Kevin caucus hold the line?
And Politico warned by McCarthy critics one qualified alternative speaker.
What can you do in the next couple of weeks to try to lock this up?
Because there's a few that are basically saying they're never going to vote for you for speaker, and you don't have the margin that you need in order to get there, at least maybe today?
Look, our goal was to stop this Biden agenda, win the majority, and fire Nancy Pelosi.
We achieved all three of those.
I've been leader for four years, and all we've done is win seats when every other Republican entity has lost during that time.
We're sitting and talking to every person in the conference.
We've had our primary after the election, who to be the nominee.
I won that by 85% of the vote.
I do not think at the end of the day that five Republicans are going to hold up our opportunity to secure the border.
Or the five Republicans are going to sit back and make us not be energy independent.
Or let this runaway spending continue.
Because that's what will happen if we don't.
We've got to find a way to work together for the next two years.
Otherwise, we'll lose as individuals.
Just in a word here quickly.
Do you think you have the votes as of today?
I think on January 3rd or before then we'll have the votes.
We'll see them.
We have achieved!
That is the message from Kevin McCarthy.
Don't you feel that grand sense of achievement following the midterm cycle?
This is Firebrand Live.
We are broadcasting from Room 2021 of the Rayburn Office Building on the Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C. and It's quite something.
Today I've got big updates regarding the impact of the omnibus spending bill on our economy and inflation.
I had a great conversation moments ago with Steve Cortez, a conservative commentator that I'm going to be sharing with you.
And there is an immigration bill Democrats are pursuing.
They just had to pull it off the floor moments ago.
I'm going to get into the arguments for and against that legislation.
So what you just heard in that cold open, that clip, That was Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Fox News today, and it was obvious, wasn't it?
He could not tell John Roberts, the host of that program, that he has 218 votes.
So let me give you the latest on the negotiations.
McCarthy has drawn a red line and said no to our demands that every bill on the floor adhere to a single subject.
The reason that's important is because we don't want matters log rolled together so that each issue in legislation before the House for consideration doesn't get the scrutiny that it deserves, doesn't get the focused debate that results in better public policy.
You would think that Republicans, Democrats, everyone...
Now, that's something that would liberate committees from the control of lobbyists who seek to influence the actions of the committees in exchange for money.
If you have conservative groups within the Republican caucus able to populate seats on the Rules Committee, the Appropriations Committee, the Ways and Means Committee, well then you'll see those actions from those groups and from those committees in greater compliance with where the country is.
Now McCarthy has said he'll never accept the motion to vacate the chair in the version that governed the House of Representatives for more than a hundred years.
Because Kevin has said he will never do these things.
To fix Congress and to change Washington, we do have a group of members who are indeed never Kevin.
NBC's Scott Wong reported on the dynamic.
Here's the headline.
The small band of far-right firebrands who could derail Kevin McCarthy's speaker bid is now facing enormous pressure.
To cave and throw their support to the California Republican, that's in the story.
The story from Scott Wong continues, So far, the five anti-McCarthy conservatives, informally known on Capitol Hill as the Never Kevin Caucus, are showing no signs of backing down, even with the vote for Speaker fast approaching.
But there are powerful forces on and off Capitol Hill that have a vested interest in McCarthy ascending to the Speakership.
The story continues.
There's always a quid pro quo.
What have you done for me lately?
Tennessee Republican Tim Burchett said.
Asked what he'll get in exchange for support, Burchett replied.
I get nothing.
I like Leader McCarthy.
I hope he's going to be Speaker McCarthy.
But I don't kiss enough butt and I don't raise enough money.
So let's just pause for a moment and think about that.
Even our rank and file members, a great representative like Tim Burchett from Tennessee, realizing that the dynamic with McCarthy, well, it involves kissing butt and raising money.
And because Burchett doesn't perceive that he doesn't do either in sufficient quantity, that that limits his mobility for McCarthy.
Leadership and high-profile opportunities in the Congress.
It's really something that a member would think that.
So let's get back to the NBC story.
It says, quote, So think about that.
The media saying that the principal qualification for the speakership is who's raised the most lobbyist money?
And just brazenly to have it reported that one of the power centers that Kevin McCarthy uses is K Street.
Do you think that sits well with the American people?
Do you think that grandmothers made phone calls to turn out the vote and people went door to door so that we could have somebody that is beholden to K Street as our speaker?
I think not.
The story tells the truth on that particular point that it's sometimes hard to tell where K Street and the lobby corps ends and Kevin McCarthy begins.
There's more about this in this next story.
So we had the New York Times actually pick up the discussion we had this week with Representative Andy Biggs on Firebrand.
Here's the headline.
Quote, And the article reads in part, quote, Mr. Trump, according to people close to him, is not entirely sold on the notion of McCarthy as a strong speaker, but he considers McCarthy better than the alternative.
So the buried lead here is that President Trump's lobbying effort, if it still exists, isn't inspired by any sense that Kevin McCarthy is strong.
And that's probably why President Trump's lobbying effort has not moved a single vote in favor of Kevin McCarthy.
We know that his heart's not in it.
It is a fact that Kevin McCarthy is too weak for this job.
So back to the article.
It reports, quote, There's little evidence that the former president has swayed any skeptics.
If Mr. McCarthy does have a plan, he has not shared it with members of his leadership team, whom he has cut out of his deliberations about the speakership race in what some regard as a display of paranoia.
Instead, he has been spotted in recent days around the Capitol and the Republican National Committee headquarters with Jeff Miller, a Republican lobbyist who is among his closest confidants.
Close quote.
I prefer leaders who are not beholden to the lobbyists and pollsters that they rely upon for power and political donations and even living arrangements.
Paranoid?
Imperiled?
Huddling with lobbyists that prop him up financially?
This is the conflict posture of Kevin McCarthy, and it is not the effective behavior of a leader.
CNN's Melanie Zanona is reporting that the governance group is sporting a new pin that says, OK, standing for only Kevin.
Put it up on the screen right now.
Adorable.
So, I haven't seen anyone actually wear the okay pin, and I just returned from the floor, but it's quite something, right?
Like, are the only Kevin people saying that out of 222 members of Congress, literally the only one who should be considered as Kevin McCarthy?
Paranoid and huddled up with lobbyists?
What's more reasonable?
Me saying that I'll consider 220 members, minus Kevin and myself.
Or this governance group saying that they refuse to consider anyone other than Kevin McCarthy.
Anyone at all.
One might note that OK backwards is KO. Moreover, OK seems...
Quite on brand, actually, for the lackluster, uninspiring movement supporting Kevin McCarthy.
Like, do you want to vote for Kevin McCarthy?
Okay.
How's the fight going against the omnibus spending bill that will allow Nancy Pelosi to rule with a dead hand for a year?
Okay.
How'd we do in the midterm election?
Okay.
I think we need better than okay.
We need a real fighter, a real inspiration, a real energy.
Something that maybe someone like Jim Jordan could provide.
Because okay just isn't going to do it for the moment we are in.
Okay.
For Kevin McCarthy, it's kind of like the 2022 version of when the squad was saying, settle for Biden in the last election.
We see how well that's gone for the country.
I won't settle for Biden, and I won't have a shruggish, okay attitude toward the speakership.
As these leadership struggles continue, Nancy Pelosi is sucking every moment out of her final days as speaker.
And that brings us to a segment we like to call Today in Congress.
Today in Congress.
Moments ago, House Democrats had to pull from consideration a massive immigration bill that was set to help China and big tech at the expense of American workers.
I don't know if they didn't have the votes.
I don't know if we'll be voting on it later today.
But it was pulled, which does not happen frequently.
This means that Even departing Democrats might not want their legacy to include harming the American economy with this immigration bill.
Here are the details.
The bill is called the EGLE Act, but our nation's national bird is indeed defamed by that comparison.
This is the Equal Access to Green Cards for Legal Employment Act, and it would be more appropriately named the Chain Migration Act.
This act is a recipe for disaster.
Our country's borders are porous right now if they exist at all.
Millions of illegal immigrants are walking Really unrestrained across the Rio Grande every year.
We're now at a point where about 18,000 illegals are coming across every single day.
Meanwhile, for Americans, wages are stagnant.
Rampant inflation is swallowing up any expendable income, if you even have any at all.
So what is the Democrat solution to our broken immigration system and struggling economy?
More immigrants, of course.
The EGLE Act raises the per-country caps on family-sponsored immigrant visas, aka chain migration visas, from 7% to 15%.
That is a huge increase.
The act also completely eliminates per-country caps on Lastly, it goes so far as to temporarily allow the beneficiaries of certain employment-based immigration petitions file for an adjustment of status, even if an immigrant visa is not immediately available to them with the implementing reforms for this particular non-immigrant visa program.
Worst of all, this bill allows certain aliens to obtain lawful permanent resident status if the alien, one, is in the United States as a non-immigrant, and two, has an approved immigrant visa petition, and three, has waited at least two years for a visa.
From the perspective of others, you might hear that this bill pushes back against arbitrary country caps, facilitating freedom of movement for people around the world, a better life, more talent, But talent is not equally distributed, right?
I mean, despite what the Cato Institute would have you think, this bill doesn't really enhance our economy.
It's just a white flag of surrender benefiting the economies of India and China at our expense.
So first, we don't believe in freedom of movement or open borders.
And talent isn't equally distributed.
The impact of this bill will show that.
This is a Trojan horse to allow big tech to flood our country with Chinese and Indian workers that they can pay cents on the dollar to.
Americans are just not worth the money to some of these corporations.
So what does all of that mean?
It means that Democrats and RINOs continue to push the boundaries on expanding foreign presence to benefit large corporations to reduce labor costs.
It's just such a classic establishment move.
Right now, in our country, we are in the midst of what they're calling the hoodie recession.
And instead of trying to employ our abandoned workers, we are bringing in immigrant laborers to absorb the jobs that could otherwise go to our fellow Americans.
We tell youth in our country to learn a trade, get a skill, code, major in STEM, and then we go importing foreign workers to do those jobs?
This is not America first.
It's not even America second.
This is America last, and certainly behind India and China, who stand the most to gain from these cap raises.
Democrats and RINOs claim that labor shortage predicates the need for the EGLE Act.
What cost?
National security?
Under an arbitrary reduction in percentage point requirements of eligible immigrants, China and India, the largest countries with the most people, they're the ones that have the longest lines and the longest wait lists for employment-based green cards, and they would benefit extraordinarily from this measure.
We're likely to get more Go John Hayes and Zhang Wangs.
Those are two Chinese spies recently charged with trying to obstruct a federal investigation into Huawei.
Is now really the best time to open the floodgates for Chinese nationals to take jobs at U.S. tech companies?
The CCP is already setting up police stations in Chinese neighborhoods in New York.
I can bet that flooding our country with more Chinese nationals will aid their goal of infiltrating every major industry in the United States and then stealing our IT. And replicating our products, depriving our Americans the value of the innovation that is created in this country.
China is working to close the gap, and this is the strategy to do it.
We should not allow for a Trojan horse from China.
We should not allow for harm to U.S. tech workers.
And we should not back any America Last immigration giveaways.
And as of the time of this broadcast, maybe my arguments are winning.
The Democrats pulled the bill from consideration moments ago.
So I would say, let's keep up the pressure.
Keeping up the pressure is the theme of the discussion I had with my friend Steve Cortez.
He stopped by the office moments ago.
Take a listen to that chat.
His chalk talks are legendary.
You can find him on The War Room, a conservative commentator who has been leading the fight on immigration, on entitlement reform, work requirements.
And he's here, stopped by the office, Steve Cortez.
Thanks for joining us on Capitol Hill.
Right now, we are in the middle of this fight on the omnibus spending package.
That would let Nancy Pelosi basically rule with a dead hand for a year.
What should people expect regarding the impacts on inflation and otherwise on the economy?
Well, you know, first on the politics, you're exactly right.
And it's so shameful that Senate Republicans, particularly some who are on their way out the door, literally retiring, want their sort of their their magnum opus on the way out there exit interview, as it were, to be allowing the political carcass of Nancy Pelosi to effectively remain speaker in very many ways.
If they, in fact, do pass this full omnibus, because what it will do is fiscally handcuff the incoming GOP House majority, this majority which people like you earned, which millions and millions of deplorables out there voted for.
Right.
Handed that gavel, took that gavel away from Nancy Pelosi to be handed to the Republicans with a mandate to start pushing back against and fighting against this terrible Biden mess, particularly regarding the economy.
So you talk about the mandate, right?
Yeah.
Is there any mandate in this last midterm election more than the mandate for House Republicans to constrain federal government spending that's driving inflation?
No, absolutely.
Listen, inflation is absolutely crushing Americans, crushing their spirits, crushing their pocketbooks.
on the spirits.
University of Michigan does a consumer sentiment survey.
Congressman goes all the way back to almost World War II.
So we have tons of data, 70 years of data.
It just a couple of months ago hit the lowest level it has ever hit.
I mean, think about that.
Worse than the financial crisis of 08, 09, worse than 9-11, worse than the 70s oil embargo.
Literally, consumer sentiment has never been lower than it reached just in recent months because of inflation.
The Federal Reserve met today, raised interest rates yet again, trying to fight I actually commend the Fed for finally getting in this fight, but of course it's also fighting an inflation that had a key role itself in producing, so I don't absolve it of the blame and its complicity as an institution for helping to create this inflation and ignoring it for as long as they did, I think largely for political reasons, because the Fed is...
Unfortunately, incredibly politicized.
But interest rates are rising.
Consumer sentiment is plunging.
And inflation remains systemic and deeply embedded in the economy.
Now, it's slightly less bad, and the White House and the corporate media want us to believe that 7.1% CPI is something to celebrate.
By historical standards, it's an absolute crisis.
And to be specific, before this year, we hadn't had 7% headline inflation since the early 1980s in 40 years.
What are the consequences of that?
The consequences for regular folks, for working class people, middle and lower income folks who work hard, who don't have the luxury of significant savings, their lives are being made unbelievably difficult right now.
I often talk about the have to basket, the three items that you really just need to live.
gasoline, groceries, and utilities.
All three of those in this most recent CPI report are still going up double digits.
The three of them put together are up 12.5% year over year.
That is totally unsustainable.
Totally unsustainable.
It's why real wages, meaning your income adjusted for inflation, real wages have now gone down 20 months in a row.
Americans are working harder to get poorer every single day.
That's the reality.
And that's why the incoming House GOP, and I know you have the guts and the smarts and the conviction to do this, the incoming House GOP must tackle this inflationary madness.
But that job's going to be made very difficult if this omnibus tyranny is passed in the coming weeks.
Well, they're taking the fight away from us.
I mean, what we had hoped was that we would be able to make certain demands of the Chuck Schumer Senate, of the Biden administration, and specifically on work requirements.
I mean, one of the things that we really see is a labor shortage right now, and that labor shortage is exacerbated when the federal government is willing to pay people not to work, who are able-bodied, childless adults through Medicaid expansion and all these other social safety nets.
When we get this majority, is there a better tool if we ever were to get into a spending standoff other than work requirements where you think Republicans ought to really stand in place?
Yes.
The other place where, and again, this is, you know, I think there's only a few items where Republicans should come in and be willing to engage in sort of ultimate brinkmanship.
In other words, be willing to risk Biden shutting the government down over an impasse.
I think the first is controlling the border.
And the second one, in my view, regarding inflation, We're good to go.
You had, unfortunately, the perfect storm for inflationary madness.
I think the quickest way, we need to work on the budget, absolutely, but that does take time.
The quickest way to inject the most powerful weapon against inflation into our economy would be fully unleashing American energy, drilling pipelines, all of it.
So I think that that is an important enough issue, along with the border.
To make it a hill to die on, a legislative hill to die on.
And the reason I think that makes sense is you've got Democrats in the Senate from energy states that see the impact of some of these federal regulations on what their own states want to do to obtain resources from their areas.
So you could actually draw a few over if you increase the pressure enough on the energy question.
You know, you talked about these outgoing Republican senators who are building the yellow brick road for this Biden-Pelosi spending bill.
And I think it's that a lot of them want to go be lobbyists.
Yeah.
Oh, 100%.
And so, like, this is a K Street bill.
Yeah.
No, listen, it's to ensure their future careers and their future lucrative riches as lobbyists, and also as a payback to any of the donors, right, who have supported them over the decades.
It's incredibly shameful.
Some of them, you know, look, I'll name names.
People like Shelby does not remotely represent the interests of a very conservative, patriotic state like Alabama.
And the fact that he's doing this on the way out is just...
Burr in North Carolina, another one.
It's shameful.
To me in Pennsylvania.
I mean, you know, these folks just want their trout or their snout in the trough one more time, it seems.
How does it end?
Do we get deprived of this fight?
Well, maybe partially.
Let's keep the pressure up, right, in the coming weeks.
Look, nothing is certain in these lame duck sessions, right?
For example, again, not that this is certain either, but it seems as though on the issue of amnesty, it seems as though we're pushing back effectively, and amnesty is not going to happen in these coming weeks.
Again, we can't rest.
No complacency out there.
But it seems that we are winning that battle.
So that tells me that we can win other battles that at this very moment might seem really hard.
I mean, look, I'll be honest.
If I had to wager money right now, I'd wager yes, they're going to pass it, unfortunately.
That Senate Republicans are going to team up with Schumer and Pelosi to deprive us of the ability to have a meaningful fight, whether it's about energy, whether it's about the border.
Look, the leverage we have is the leverage to fund the government.
They call it the power of the purse for a reason.
But this is an unequivocal surrender of that power that the voters gave to us.
And it strikes me that the senators willing to do this are the real election deniers because they're willing to deny the fact...
That there was an election that resulted in Republicans being able to have a voice on this, and it's members of our own party who are selling us out.
I think it demands a lot stronger leadership, and I can't believe these people voted for Mitch McConnell again.
Because he's going to be for it, right?
Right?
Oh, yes.
Yeah, absolutely.
So, you know, look, again, just because I said that I think it will happen doesn't mean that it's unstoppable, right?
I mean, obviously.
So I do want to also encourage all the patriots out there, all the deplorables out there, all the American citizens who are frustrated and trying to, in their lives, you know, full of anxiety because of this inflation madness, to, in these coming days and weeks, to call, to email people.
You know, to keep the pressure on.
So it is not impossible for us to defeat this and get a short-term funding measure.
I mean, look, something does need to be passed, right?
We need to fund the government until the Republicans come in.
But it should be very short-term in nature.
And, you know, again, these folks are acting shamefully on their way out the door.
Keep the pressure on.
Steve Cortez is in the Capitol, in the Rayburn building, keeping the pressure on.
You want to watch the Chalk Talks.
This is the best way to have a condensed presentation of information regarding immigration, regarding the economic conditions that businesses are facing, a lot of consumer information there.
How do folks stay in touch with all the great analysis you're providing?
So please follow me on social media on Getter.
I'm at Steve.
Very simple, just Steve.
I love to tease Steve Bannon that I got that before him.
And then on Twitter, I'm at CortezSteveCortez with an S. All right.
Thanks so much for joining us on Firebrand, Steve.
Thanks, Congressman.
We are back live.
Thanks again to Steve Cortez for stopping by and really illuminating the danger presented by the Nancy Pelosi-Chuck Schumer spending bill.
I'm going to be against it.
Every single Republican should be against it.
Those who work with the Democrats to do this, they really are harming our country and I would hope that they would reconsider.
A lot of work to do.
A lot of fights ahead.
Thanks for joining us on Firebrand.
Make sure that you're subscribed with notifications turned on and give us a five-star rating.
And you know, this leadership race, you get a voice in this.
So I would love to see your comments, your thoughts reflected in the comments section, however you're viewing our content or listening.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Roll the credits.
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