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Dec. 21, 2022 - Firebrand - Matt Gaetz
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Episode 81 LIVE: Omni-Bust (feat. Rep. Dan Bishop) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz
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Thank you.
Matt Gates: "Embattled Congressman Matt Gates, 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 can cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.
So we're going to keep running those stories to get hurt again.
If you want to 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.
Providing assistance for the Ukrainians to defeat the Russians, that's the number one priority for the United States right now, according to most Republicans.
That's sort of how we see the challenges confronting the country at the moment.
The campaign is their number one priority.
Probably a shrinking economy here in our country, a crisis on our southern border, big tech getting exposed, and the FBI right there trying to manipulate public opinion on social media.
These things would all be on our priority list far higher than Ukraine.
But that's Mitch McConnell.
That's your Republican leadership in Washington, D.C. And they think so little of you.
They tell you that you're not even their priority.
They tell it to you right to your face.
And that is what we are fighting against each and every day.
Thank you so much for joining us.
We are simulcast streaming out of room 2021. In the Rayburn office building in the Capitol complex in Washington, D.C. And thank you for the comments.
We got the live stream going and folks telling us they're joining us from Georgia, Tucson, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
And what I can report to you is that as the 117th Congress is coming to a close now, the Democrats are doing their very best to steal Christmas by holding us all hostage while they try to pass their 4,000-page Omnibus spending bill.
Bunch of Grinches, I would say.
And I wouldn't touch this bill with a 39 and a half foot pole.
So what I'm going to do on this program is break down some of the worst features.
We've got Congressman Dan Bishop just stopped by the office, had a great conversation with him about some of the nuggets his staff found in this bill that work against the American people.
So first, we are doing a lot of spending abroad and it is not good.
We allocate $32 million for the United Nations Population Fund.
That's as scary as it sounds.
And any money not used shall be made available for abortions abroad.
$575 million is allocated for abortions in areas where population growth threatens biodiversity.
I mean, just hear that.
Abortions as a mechanism for population control.
Environmental abortion.
I could not dream up a more Malthusian dystopic anti-human policy if I tried.
An alien hell-bent on exterminating humankind could not do a better job than this bill.
So we're going to spend another $25 million on people-to-people reconciliation programs which bring together individuals of different ethnic, racial, religious, and political backgrounds from areas of civil war.
That's abroad.
What a stupid idea!
What Yale foreign policy master's graduate deemed this a critical function of our government?
Is a U.S.-funded globalist design struggle session what we're really waiting for to stop the Hutus and the Tutsis from hacking each other to pieces?
Maybe if we just gave the Sunnis and the Shiites a little more time to work out their differences under the auspices of an international program, maybe that would get them to put aside a centuries-old beef.
You know, if this really worked, we should have tried it in Afghanistan.
But no, that was the last forever war.
Now we clearly know what the next one is.
This is foolish.
This is a waste of money.
And maybe, just maybe, we should stop meddling in these affairs abroad because our involvement doesn't always make things better and it frequently makes things worse.
But wait, there's more.
$20 million to strengthen democracy in civil society in Central Europe through combating anti-Semitism and promoting minority rights.
I'm all for promoting minority rights.
I'm against anti-Semitism.
But are we really pretending that we know better than the Central Europeans what they want and need to be able to resolve their differences?
At what point is the State Department the great provider of the silver bullet for anti-Semitism and repression of minority rights in Central Europe?
We're basically funding China.
We're allowing ourselves to be vulnerable to them and they engage in abject slavery.
But we're going to go preach about minority rights in Central Europe because we know best.
We even found extra cash in this bill to establish a $200 million gender equity fund to fund gender programs in Pakistan.
So Pakistanis, confused about which bathroom to use, fear not, help is on the way from the United States.
I know that the Pakistanis, what they're really waiting for is for the United States to explain our concepts of gender to them.
That will endear them to us, of course.
We focus a lot on the rest of the world, for better or worse, but it really doesn't feel like we're doing the same for our own people.
For example, we're giving $410 million for border security in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Oman.
All while prohibiting Customs and Border Patrol from using funding to improve our own border security.
So why are other countries' borders more important than our own?
I'm not against border security in those other countries, but just maybe they should pay for it.
No other country is funding our border security with their treasury.
Because that would be foolish.
So if we don't protect our borders, no one else will.
And we're concerned about everyone else's, not our own.
Now speaking of borders, we don't have any right now.
Which is why we're allocating $1.2 million in services for DACA requirements.
And $750,000 to the Trans-Latin Coalition to provide, quote, workforce development programs and supportive services for trans and gender non-conforming and intersex immigrant women in Los Angeles.
Yes, that is literally something that the federal government is funding in this omnibus spending bill.
What is a woman?
Nobody knows.
Anyway, If that's not enough, the bill provides for the creation of a, quote, Ukrainian Independence Park in DC. Just what we need.
I'll be talking about that with Congressman Dan Bishop in just a moment.
So the establishment politicians want to stand in solidarity with everyone but their own people, and that is the principal message of this legislation.
Let's pivot over to domestic policy real quick.
I want to go through some of the domestic features.
For starters, we are naming a federal building in San Francisco after Nancy Pelosi and spending $3.6 million to name a trail in Georgia after Michelle Obama.
$2 million for the Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore.
That's quite the wax experience.
It also looks like woke spending didn't stop abroad.
The critical race theory chickens have come to roost.
We're spending $524.4 million for DEI and structural racism-focused NIH work.
$26 million for the House of Representatives Diversity and Inclusion Office.
We're even dropping another $477,000 for anti-racist training provided by the Equity Institute.
And of course, New York City They need an LGBTQ plus museum.
So we'll be spending $3 million on that as well.
How fierce.
That's not all, folks.
The deep state's getting their cut in this spending bill.
The FBI, that should be subject to subpoenas, not buckets of cash, now getting $11.3 billion and $375 million for a new headquarters.
The ATF is getting $1.75 billion.
And the icing on the cake is $2.63 billion for U.S. attorneys with an emphasis on January 6th prosecutions and domestic terrorism.
That is deep state for anyone who has politics that makes us uncomfortable.
Presumably to help with this, the bill allocates $7.5 million to better understand the, quote, domestic radicalization phenomenon, plus an extra $1 million to study gun violence.
The deep state really wants to figure out why the American people just aren't so crazy about them.
And if we aren't, if we aren't willing to just sign up to have entities like the FBI control social media and engage in domestic psyops, well then, you know what?
They'll take this money and they'll engage in those activities and you just have to like it.
You have to tolerate it.
It's insane.
No Republican should be voting for this.
And if it's not enough, the bill is allocating $355 million to prepare for an influenza pandemic, including funding for additional surveillance tools.
That shouldn't scare you at all right now.
Surveillance tools in the hands of the medical industrial complex with $355 million behind them.
Oh, and the bill also creates...
A permanent pandemic czar.
A permanent Fauci.
Because I know that's what America has been asking for.
Now, the Vax Injury Trust Fund was raised in the legislation from $13.2 million to $15.2 million.
Are they expecting more vaccine injuries from the safest and most effective experimental vaccine in the world?
Interesting that that got a plus up.
As you can see, this omnibus bill is a disaster.
I am going to vote against it, and any congressman that claims to represent the best interests of the American people should, too.
Now, recently, my colleague Dan Bishop from North Carolina joined me on Firebrand to discuss that.
Take a listen to the discussion.
When you get these bills that are thousands of pages and deal with all these different programs and equities at play, Talk to people about the process that you and your team use to go in and evaluate it on their behalf, because often we don't have a lot of time.
You know, Matt, as you know, we have small staff, each member of Congress, and in your case, in my case, we've got some really fine young people that work themselves to a frenzy, and they just, you know, jumped onto this.
Members of Congress were home.
This 4,000-plus page text appears out of nowhere, and they just began digging in, going as hard as they could, and had the vision to see that it would be helpful to the American people and people would take interest in it to get some information out about just how bad it is.
And they know that no one's going to sit there and comb through every program with the particularity that they deserve.
But yet your folks were diving in.
You've really exposed some of the worst elements.
Put up the Bishop tweet, and you talk about the element of the bill that expressly prohibits CBP funding from being used to improve border security.
And I know you've been to the border.
I've been to the border.
They are so frustrated when they say we have tech and we're not allowed to plug it in.
Matt, I'm sure your viewers know this on Firebrand, but CBP is the Customs and Border Patrol, right?
And there's literally language.
It's quoted and highlighted in that tweet that none of the funds provided in this particular subsection shall be used to acquire, maintain, or extend border security technology and capabilities, except for technology and capabilities to improve border patrol mobility.
Processing.
Processing.
And we know what that's a code for.
That means they're processing more people into the country to turn them loose faster.
Yeah, that processing is unidirectional.
They're not processing them out like they should be.
They're only processing them in, and it affects the morale of Border Patrol to see that they're not able to actually do their jobs.
I don't know how any Republican could vote for that.
With all the focus on the border, how could any Republican vote for something that literally ties the hand of Customs and Border Patrol?
And yet, what we understand and know is this bill would not advance but for Republican votes in the Senate.
It's going to get a lot of Republican votes in the Senate.
This is the status quo, Matt, that for the sake of the country, the country cannot wait for this to be fixed anymore.
That status quo must change.
Well, any Republican who dares to vote for this better not say a word about the border because they obviously don't give a damn about the border, unless it's the border of another country because your staff also found...
That at the same time, the legislation is allocating $410 million toward border security for Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Oman.
So I guess it's not border security that the authors are opposed to.
It's just American border security.
And they certainly are going to try to take care of Ukraine border security.
But you're right.
And again, lest anyone think we're exaggerating, these amounts are appropriated for those countries, quote, for enhanced border security.
You will not find that phrase about the American border in this bill anywhere.
I'm not against border security in Tunisia.
I'm for it.
I just think that it might be like a principal obligation of the Tunisians.
Imagine that.
Well, Ukraine is certainly on a lot of people's mind.
And Ukraine got...
Great treatment in this legislation.
Another $47 billion for Ukraine and also the Ukraine Independence Park right in D.C. Don't you think that'll deter Vladimir Putin when he finds that we have built a Ukrainian Independence Park?
Surely what we've been waiting for.
He'll throw those tanks in reverse, won't he?
The world's been waiting for that park so that we could stop Vladimir Putin.
You know, that $47 billion more...
In this bill for Ukraine, we'll take the United States total spend for that, Matt.
We've seen it in bill after bill come past us with Democrats ramming it through and Senate Republicans helping them.
There were over $100 billion.
Russia's entire defense budget is $84 billion.
And it seems as though it's not just defense where some of this money is headed.
$12.9 billion in economic assistance to stabilize the economy and spur economic recovery in Ukraine.
So if you were looking for An economic nationalist agenda, I guess you've got one, it's just for Ukraine, not for the United States of America.
And, you know, I think there are a lot of viewers who sympathize with the plight of the Ukrainians, but, I mean, in an $80 billion war, is it the last $47 billion that kicks the door in?
We'll see.
Thank you for pointing this stuff out.
It's likely to pass, right?
Clearly.
Republicans in the Senate will make this bill pass.
And then, I don't know, maybe a Republican or two in the House will support it.
But, you know, I really don't think the country can take much more of this, Matt.
And I worry about the leverage that we need with the power of the purse, not to bring chaos to our government, but you and I want to work real hard to try to constrain the very spending that's been impacting inflation.
It kind of feels like this ties our hands, too.
Another half billion dollars for the FBI. You and I want to get after the FBI. Another half billion dollars and several hundred million dollars for a new FBI headquarters.
We need to be asking them questions, holding them to account.
This takes our leverage away right here.
Well, Mitch McConnell should be ashamed for supporting this.
He should be ashamed for saying that the number one priority is to fund our ambitions in Ukraine, and any Republican should absolutely be ashamed that votes for it.
Dan, thanks for breaking it down.
Thanks to your great team members for doing the work for a lot of us and finding some of the ugliest bumps on this terrible bill.
They did a great job.
Thank you, Matt.
Thanks.
Speaker 1: Speaker 1: says that MSNBC makes me look nuts, but I seem a lot more logical on the live stream.
So thank you for joining us on Twitch.
And Friday Girl on Rumble says we are mad about the omnibus, so what do we do?
Contact your members of Congress, Republican or Democrat.
Lay out some of the spending that we've talked about on this program.
Show them that this does not advance the interests of American people.
Regardless of your ideology, regardless of whether you're a Democrat or Republican, we need that advocacy.
It's not done yet, but unfortunately, the uniparty forces in the swamp, they're really at a zenith of power right now, with Democrats holding unified control of the government.
So we talked a lot about how that's going to change and Republicans are going to take over, albeit through a disappointing midterm election.
I was at the Turning Point America Fest in Phoenix, Arizona.
The rest of the show, we're going to show you some clips from my speech.
I want you to know what I thought, breaking down the midterms, the Democrats, the Republicans, and the lessons we should learn.
Here's some of my remarks from Turning Point.
These midterms did disappoint many of us, but in a lot of ways, I don't blame the Democrats.
They did everything they could possibly do to hand us this election.
They crashed the economy, attacked American energy.
They were doing this weird, woke stuff that is unmentionable in polite company.
We have no border at all.
Indeed, the Democrats did their part, but I believe we deserved far better from Republicans, and I am here tonight to talk about how to fix it.
Some say we should moderate, paint in those pastel colors, put the bold away, embrace the meek, less America first, more Liz Cheney, Maybe shake the Bush family tree and see what falls out?
My friends, the problem with slow surrender as a political strategy is that even when you win with these establishment shills, America still loses.
Was it really worth standing with Republican governors in Maryland, Ohio, and Arizona who got elected preaching freedom and then pushed lockdowns and mandates on their people?
How foolish were they?
How foolish were we to tolerate it?
In Florida, if you're still wearing a mask, we just assume you're hideous.
But on the big stuff, the major challenges that we now face, a Republican party with no sharp edges will be manipulated, co-opted, and worthless.
Controlled opposition just isn't going to cut it anymore.
And that's where I come in.
Just look.
Just look at what we learned this week.
The FBI has entire teams of people dedicated to try to shape public opinion on social media.
And we know about it at Twitter because Elon bought Twitter.
But this same stuff is going on at Meta, at Google, at Amazon.
They want to control what you see so that they can ultimately control how you behave.
This is not the proper role of government and any official who gave the orders to try to manipulate the political perspectives of American citizens will be called to heel before the House Judiciary Committee in the coming weeks and months.
I don't plan on a whole lot of softball questions and patty-cake games with the corrupt deep-state Relentless interrogation is what they deserve and we should stand for no less.
We are back live.
Christine on Facebook says we need new leadership.
Maggie on Getter says defund the FBI. That might be where this ultimately ends up.
And John on Rumble wants to know why even AOC would vote for this bill when the populist left claims they are against all of these foreign entanglements.
You think they might actually show some opposition, show some backbone.
But they have totally folded and they intend to vote for this monstrosity.
So I think it's right to call out the hypocrisy of AOC and the rest of the squad for backing this legislation that does so much that we're just blatantly against their stated goals.
I also had an opportunity at Turning Point to talk about changes in election laws.
And this is really important because in a lot of places, people are getting blackpilled on politics because they just say, you know what, we feel like our vote doesn't count.
It doesn't matter.
It's not going to be respected.
I believe that the sunshine state can really shine a path forward.
And I talked to officials in Arizona about that.
Take a listen to those remarks on changes to election law.
America first means actually putting the American voters first.
And our evolving tactics must draw us into central focus on necessary changes to election laws.
To those of you from Maricopa County, you don't have to live this way!
I mean, Arizona is a great state full of wonderful people, but the election administration here, woof!
It is embarrassing.
Brazil is a country with 214 million people.
Many of them live in the jungles of the Amazon in Brazil, and they know who wins an election the next day.
Sometimes a single county in Arizona can take weeks, This is the United States of America.
We are not a third world country.
It is time we start acting like the vibrant republic that we are, and that means securing the integrity of our elections.
This can be done.
I know that it does not have to be this way because it has never been this way.
We used to get election results on time.
We didn't have these problems.
Some of you may be old enough to remember back in 2000 when Florida was in the spotlight over the Bush v.
Gore matter.
We had the hanging chads and the dimpled chads.
What is astonishing to me, reflecting back on that, is that it was actually embarrassing and an oddity to not be able to quickly and precisely resolve your elections within approximate time of the people voting.
And now you look at these elections and you see like Jake Tapper on CNN saying, well, we won't know Pennsylvania for weeks.
And I'm thinking, why is this?
Well, In Florida, we changed the laws.
And so if you are a state lawmaker, if you have influence with our several states, let's talk about some of the specific changes that I think will help us combat this challenge going forward.
Florida, indeed, can be the nation's guidepost on this.
In Florida, we passed legislation that allows counties to start counting mail-in ballots 22 days before the election.
Now think about how significant that is.
That means in smaller batches, we can actually look at the votes, we can compare the signatures, and you don't end up with some crazy circumstance in Wayne County, Michigan, Where somehow only in the urban areas they have laws and chain of custody that only applies to them and not anyone else.
And it's the same story in Fulton County and in the just absolute pitholes of election failure that we should not have to tolerate in America.
In Florida, state law also requires that early voting ballots be completed and counted before election day.
And then the results are immediately posted within 30 minutes of the election.
So there's not this crazy guessing game about finding out whose Aunt Irma works at the elections office and where they might have another bucket of 200 ballots.
Mail-in ballots have to be received by 7 p.m.
on Election Day.
I can't even believe that's controversial.
We don't just mail them out either to every dead guy on the voter rolls.
In Florida, you have to actually have a real human being that really requests one of these ballots.
We use paper ballots in Florida.
Imagine that.
And we do so because it was one of the demands of Florida Democrats.
Our machines are rigorously tested so we don't end up like Maricopa County where voting machines are breaking down more than the ice cream machine at the McDonald's.
The other benefit of having like sane, real people election laws is that if things go crazy and lawsuits start filing, we might actually win some of them.
I know of what I speak.
In 2018, There was a serious effort to steal the election in Florida from Senator Rick Scott and Governor Ron DeSantis.
It was tens of thousands of ballots in a universe of more than eight and a half million.
And when the local supervisors of elections did not follow the law, we were able to go immediately to court against two supervisors, have the judges issue injunctions, and then there were no mystery ballots that could be willed into existence at some later time.
We treat ballots and voting like public records and our citizens have a constitutional right to know what the hell is going on.
That should be the standard for America.
We are back live and some folks are suggesting in the comments section that I pursue a bid for Speaker of the House.
I assure you that would not be successful.
I would not have the requisite support.
I would not have anywhere close to the requisite support.
But I am making a critique not just of one person.
But a corrupt institution in Washington, D.C. And unfortunately, that means we have to take a stand and maybe have some turbulent days at the beginning of January, but it will be worth it if we do not have Kevin McCarthy unaccountable as Speaker of the House.
And I made that argument at Turning Point.
Take a listen.
So our laws and our tactics must change.
But some of our leaders must be changed too.
Our ancestors, out of love of country, pledged their lives and their fortunes and their sacred honor.
Is the best Congress can really do today pledging a vote for Mitch McConnell or Kevin McCarthy?
I've had enough McFailure in football!
When the team doesn't win the games it's supposed to win, they fire the coach.
In business, when the company does not match its projected earnings, then the board gets rid of the CEO.
And so in Republican politics, maybe I'm not the crazy one if I say that the people who vastly underperformed expectations shouldn't be promoted to third in line to the presidency.
My friends, I take no joy in sharing this with you, but I'm going to tell you now what every single Republican member of Congress knows in their heart, whether they'll admit it or not.
Kevin McCarthy believes in nothing.
I'm serious about that.
Nothing except money and power.
But he failed to deliver the power, as promised.
And he got plenty of money, some of it from Sam Bankman Freed.
But he believes in nothing, and if we vote for him, neither do we.
Peter Thiel called these midterm elections depressingly disastrous.
But they are revealing.
Because we saw failure up close, and as Tucker Carlson reminded us at the beginning of this conference, we must learn from this experience and grow and be better.
Kevin McCarthy calls his lobbyist-written platform the commitment to America.
But Kevin doesn't keep his commitments.
Not to the Republican conference, not to anyone but the lobbyists that fund campaigns.
Kevin isn't committed.
He is compromised by the corrupt swamp.
And he's incoherent.
When you believe in nothing, my friends, you will settle on everything.
You'll farm out the work, enrich your pals, and maybe they'll even let you crash their pad.
But I think Joe Biden might actually be right about one thing.
We are in a battle for the soul of our country.
And Kevin is going into that battle with soulless influence peddlers by his side.
He isn't on this stage today because I am pretty confident he would get booed off of it.
I would be a great leader.
I just have no followers.
So...
You say what you will about Trump, but he actually believed in stuff, making our country better.
His beliefs were so bold that the media could not stop obsessing about them or him or all of us who supported him.
Trump's policies were so good, Joe Biden's even trying to copy him right now.
Banning TikTok was initially a Trump initiative.
Domesticating manufacturing was an issue set that Trump talked about way before anyone else in American politics had any type of vision for it.
And the Joe Biden streamlining permitting bill is essentially an extension of the regulatory reform instituted by President Trump.
These are indeed Trump's initiatives and now I fear, my friends, we are in need of true vision.
Our politics cannot just be money running through lobbyist luncheons and sloganeering with focus groups.
Biden is 80 and totally senile.
So you tell me, why is he kicking our ass on this omnibus spending bill right now?
It's because Kevin McCarthy believes in nothing.
Here's what I believe.
I believe we should put budgets on the floor of the House that balance and then we should vote for them.
I believe we should have immigration laws that we're serious about and actually enforce.
And when people break those laws, they should actually be deported where they came from, not be allowed to stick around our country by the millions, starting the new wave of chain migration.
I believe we ought to have a full court press against this weaponized government that has been turned against our people.
And if that means abolishing every one of these three-letter agencies, from the FBI to the ATF, I'm ready to get going, and I've got my pencil.
I believe that we actually ought to make voting easy and cheating hard.
And I believe we should not sell out to powerful corporations that pollute our water, our skies, or the digital marketplace of ideas.
I'm grateful for your response, but I will admit, I am the most imperfect of vessels to be carrying this message.
Many of you prayed for me and hoped for me, and I want you to know how much that means to me.
Your faith in me I truly hope to justify each and every day with service to you and you alone.
President Trump proved that even those of us who have flaws can fight back against a corrupt system without fear.
And so I will work with anyone and everyone to change this system and to deliver results for our brave patriots.
To stop the invasion on our southern border.
To end wars that drain our nation of its treasure and its bravest patriots.
To stop sending money to Ukraine.
Somehow that's a bigger priority than what's happening to our people, and certainly to restrict unfair trade.
But we should not move forward beholden to the legislative policy written by Frank Luntz on a bar napkin.
We should not be beholden to the free speech policy that was passed to Kevin McCarthy in exchange for money from his best friend Pfizer lobbyist.
And we should not be beholden to the political philosophy of Kevin McCarthy at all, because Kevin McCarthy believes in nothing.
I believe in things, and I know you do too.
We've got a country to save.
You can fight with me any day of the week, Turning Point.
Let's go get them.
Man, that was fun.
Special thanks to Charlie Kirk and the entire team at Turning Point for putting on just a terrific opportunity for collaboration and discussion of ideas.
And thank you so much for joining me.
We're going to be fighting against this omnibus spending legislation and the corrupt system that allows that to continue to happen to our people.
Thanks for joining me.
Make sure you're subscribed with notifications turned on.
We'll be back.
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