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Feb. 6, 2023 - Firebrand - Matt Gaetz
30:52
Episode 88 LIVE: Balloon Mania – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz
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Thank you.
The President: Embattled Congressman Matt Gaetz.
Matt Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress who bothered to stand up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.
Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem in the Democratic Party.
He could cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.
So we're gonna 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.
Welcome back to Firebrand.
We are broadcasting live out of room 20-21 of the Rayburn House Office Building on the Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C. Thanks for watching us on the livestream on Getter.
We see you from Texas.
We see you from Missouri.
Thanks for joining in on YouTube from Pensacola, Florida.
And it seems that all eyes have been on a Chinese surveillance balloon.
Some called to capture the balloon.
Some called to shoot down the balloon.
You had General Milley wanting to know the balloon's pronouns.
I think Eric Swalwell wanted to date the balloon.
AOC thought that the balloon wanted to date her.
And the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, thought the balloon was a symbol of white supremacy.
So we're going to zoom out a little bit and assess what the balloon says about China and about us.
And what are the real threats we're facing going forward?
On Meet the Press yesterday, Chuck Todd had a clarion moment while interviewing Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Take a listen.
You know, it's interesting about how the Biden administration has conducted its manufacturing policy and foreign policy with China, how the Trump administration did.
And in that sense, there hasn't been a lot of disconnect between the two administrations.
Is this an admission that the 30 or 40 year Western consensus that said, hey, if we bring China into the economic system, it's going to defang them?
It had the exact opposite effect in it.
Well, you know, whether it's Western engagement with China or whether it's Europe's engagement with Russia, there have clearly been a lot of lessons in recent years that engagement alone does not yield comfortable partnership and easy acceptance of a rules-based international order.
And each of those struggles, obviously, is different, but I think some of those patterns do overlap.
So amazingly, Chuck Todd is right about this.
The bipartisan consensus in Washington for generations has argued that if we bring China closer to America through trade and economic engagement and diplomacy and global legitimacy, that they would be more like us.
But China has not been defanged, as Chuck Todd would put it.
We saw that last week.
Instead of China becoming more like the United States, We have become more like China.
We have fused business and government, ignoring the innovation dividends of a truly free market.
Look no further than big tech, but also big pharma, and even the healthcare industrial complex.
They all prove this point.
We have created a de facto social credit score in this country where everyone in government from the White House to the Department of Homeland Security, even the FBI, they're trying to shape political viewpoint online.
Sounds a lot like China.
And if you don't comply, it's the digital gulag for you.
Now, it's easy to get the American people riled up over a giant balloon.
It was observable to the naked eye at some of the places even around 60,000 feet.
But I couldn't help but feel a bit frustrated.
Politicians and pundits rage at the balloon.
But one in four Americans uses TikTok.
We know TikTok is a Chinese Communist Party surveillance tool.
Take a listen to our discussion about TikTok with technology executive Gavin Wax from a prior episode.
Take a listen.
TikTok is the new big dog on campus, and it just so happens to be a company completely beholden to the Chinese Communist Party out of Beijing.
And this obviously poses a major, major national security risk.
I mean, TikTok is unique.
In how addictive it is, in how personalized it is, how it caters to you based on, you know, all the data that it collects from your interests to what you're searching, to how you're liking, to how long you're watching.
I mean, the data that they are gathering from American citizens is massive.
And in the wrong hands, like in the hands of the CCP, it could be used for extremely effective intelligence gathering and other types of intelligence operations.
I mean, they can see what's pasted, what's saved in your clipboard.
They can gather your biometric data.
They could gather your location data, your facial recognition.
I mean, all this data is now in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party out of Beijing, and they can potentially have that data on elected officials, their staff, military personnel, you name it.
That should terrify all of us.
And if TikTok isn't scary enough because it's in our pocket instead of in our skies, how about the surveillance devices that our neighbors, our family members, and even our local law enforcement fly over our skies on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party?
The story starts with DJI drones.
DJI drones constitute more than half of the drone market in the United States.
Our own Department of Homeland Security tells us that the CCP uses these drones and our desire to use them in law enforcement to gather key information regarding how to attack and harm us.
So they give these low cost drones To our local police forces, sometimes our state law enforcement, and then as those drones are performing the functions directed by American law enforcement, they're actually sending data back to the Chinese Communist Party.
That's not a conspiracy theory.
That's in our own Department of Homeland Security's reporting.
Now according to an additional report last year in The Intercept, The New York City Police Department, the largest police department in the country, is continuing to use surveillance drones made by a Chinese company that the U.S. government has made moves to ban, labeling it a national security threat.
That may provide U.S. critical infrastructure and law enforcement data to the Chinese government.
Albert Fox Khan, the executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, or STOP, a group that advocates against mass surveillance, said the warnings about DJI are just one of many concerns around the NYPD's handling of data that the department gathers directly or in conjunction with private technology companies.
Quote, There's a lot of uncertainty about the ability to protect the data they're collecting on New Yorkers, and no clear reporting if that data is compromised.
Close quote.
Now that was Kahn pointing to a recent hack of the city's law department.
The possibility that some data might end up in the hands of foreign governments is alarming, he added.
That can be a real risk to New Yorkers.
And there are plenty of New Yorkers, including a lot of democracy activists, who have a reason to be particularly fearful of the Chinese government.
That is the report from The Intercept.
So tomorrow Joe Biden will give the State of the Union address and I'll be in attendance because whether I agree or disagree with President Biden, and I most often disagree with him, I respect the State of the Union and the office of the presidency far more than the Democrats who disgrace themselves and our country with multiple illegitimate impeachments of President Trump.
So let's start with what we are going to hear from Biden on the domestic front.
He'll tout better than expected job numbers, but that misses the mark.
Keep this in mind.
When you keep the economy shut down unnecessarily over COVID, it creates pent-up demand in the job market.
Everyone knows this.
The swings weren't as rough in my beloved Florida because we opened up and got people back to work.
We actually relied on people to get the economy moving again in their jobs rather than endless government checks.
Now, Biden's message on jobs is basically the message you would get from a braggadocious firefighter who is a part-time arsonist.
While more jobs are being filled, we aren't seeing wages rise to keep up with Biden inflation.
In Trump's economy, wages rose, increasing purchasing power for regular Americans to live their biggest and most ambitious dreams.
Now, we are a diminished country.
With a president in decline.
And our economy should not have to join Joe Biden in that decline.
The labor participation rate is far lower than during the Trump era.
According to the latest jobs opening and labor turnover summary, there are now two job openings for every unemployed person.
Labor participation is at 62.3%.
Very, very interesting.
Now, Biden will scold Congress on the debt limit.
You should prepare for that.
And it's especially going to be a scolding for those who hold my view.
And here's my view.
It's very simple.
When you max out your credit card, it is a good time to reflect on your spending habits.
This argument will sound something like that.
Well, the argument that Biden is going to make, I should say, is going to sound something like the argument that Larry Summers made.
And now he appeared on Fareed Zakaria's CNN show yesterday.
So take a listen.
This is going to be the essence of the Biden argument.
If you were advising President Biden, what would you tell him to do?
I would advise him that it's not a viable strategy for the country to default on obligations, whether it's interest obligations or obligations to pay contractors or obligations to pay federal workers or obligations to pay Social Security benefits, that that's the stuff of banana.
Republics and that he's not going to engage in any of that stuff.
I advise him to basically insist that Congress do its job and approve the borrowing to finance the spending it has already both authorized and appropriated.
I think he should be staying very strong.
Will there be any cosmetic Things affecting looking at future spending at some point, maybe there will be.
But fundamentally, this is not something where there should be bargaining.
You can debate who will win the game of chicken.
What you can't debate is that the American people will lose.
But you do have this problem where there's a bunch of people in the Republican Party who do seem like they're willing to blow the whole thing up.
And it's a larger percentage than I think you dealt with during the Tea Party days when they also threatened to default.
Are you worried that even if it's a 15%, 10% chance that these Republicans can hold up the process and we do have a real crisis?
I am worried, but I'm more worried about the consequences of kowtowing to terrorists.
Kowtowing to terrorists.
Britt on YouTube says the State of the Union is going to be the highest rated sitcom.
So I guess it would be funny if it weren't so disastrous, the policies that Joe Biden has pursued and the harm he's done to our country.
And now we see...
They called us traitors when we said Trump wasn't a Russian agent.
Turns out one of the FBI guys involved in the intelligence intake on that case became a Russian agent.
We were labeled insurrectionists when we sought parliamentary objection on January 6th.
They called us the Taliban 20 when we demanded the rules of the House be changed to stop omnibus legislating and allow open amendments and arguments with actual time to read the bills.
And now, you heard it just there, former Obama-era economist Larry Summers now saying we are terrorists for even having the nerve to negotiate spending policy as America accrues $32 trillion in debt.
Now, I know the left says that Everything is terrorism now.
But is it really terrorism to suggest that we have the same welfare-to-work negotiations that brought Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton together on a spending deal?
Should able-bodied, working-age people reasonably expect that you pay for their health care, even if they can work but choose not to?
How about illegal aliens?
Should illegal aliens get tax credits?
They do.
$47 billion worth.
Is this unreasonable to question as we have a compounding debt crisis and a border crisis?
Like why would we give tax credits to illegal aliens?
It's crazy to me.
Is our only true defense against terrorism the U.S. taxpayer-funded gay pride parades that you're paying for today in Prague?
Or how about the gender ideology activists that you all fund in Senegal?
Do you want to pay for that?
Maybe when we aren't meeting our own financial needs, we should reflect on the cost of exporting wokeness to other countries.
Biden will boast about the weapons we've sent to Ukraine.
If Biden would let the spy balloon into our country without attention, imagine how little attention is being paid to all the weapons we are sending out of the country.
I shared my perspective on the Ukraine war on the floor of the House just moments ago.
Take a listen.
How much more for Ukraine?
Is there any limit?
Which billionth dollar really kicks in the door?
Which red line we set will we not later cross?
China reminds us that we have real issues.
China began its offensive against our homeland, infiltrating our universities, stealing our innovations, buying off our politicians, surveilling our citizens, all the while capturing the loyalty of America's most powerful corporations.
China's influence is overtaking ours, even in our own hemisphere.
Our conflict with China may turn very hot very soon.
Many believe we are currently in the window of a possible invasion of Taiwan.
If not deterred, such an invasion would immediately make life worse for virtually every American.
But tomorrow, President Biden will tell us how much more we must do For Ukraine.
Look around your house.
How much stuff is made in Ukraine, or even Russia, for that matter?
Next to China, if you're watching this speech on a smartphone, you're likely using Taiwanese technology.
So why Ukraine?
A country that just rounded up dozens of senior leaders in its government over overt corruption.
Perhaps the answer is as simple as the Hunter Biden life motto.
A grifter's got a grift.
But the amount of money we now pour into Ukraine makes Burisma's wildest dreams of wealth through Biden family influence seem meek by comparison.
Defense contractors need there to be a war going on somewhere, whether the arms end up in the hands of ISIS, the Taliban, the Azov Battalion, or on the black market.
They get rich in the business of weapons supply, but only when there is weapons demand.
A serious nation would never let foreign interests abroad or special interests here at home dictate its foreign policy.
The interests of our countrymen must morally compel our greater attention.
And as the war slogs on in Ukraine, the benefits to Americans are unclear.
Bandits in the Sinaloa Mountains hurt more Americans than the men in Crimea.
But foreigners come to Washington to lecture us about spending our constituents' money on a conflict thousands of miles away.
And my colleagues are eager to oblige.
On this floor, Zelensky's demands got bipartisan standing ovations from most.
Stingers, HIMARS, tanks.
At first, we said no to all of these things.
President Biden even said that some of these things might lead to World War III. And then yet we sent all of them.
F-16s are likely still.
Lockheed Martin sure is confident that Ukraine will get F-16s.
They told the Financial Times recently that they are already ramping up production.
Create demand.
Provide the supply.
This is escalating, and we are placing trust in leaders who do not deserve trust.
John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, who assured us that the Afghan military would withstand the Taliban offensive, now says that there is no risk that Putin will go nuclear.
The risk of miscalculation in Ukraine is much, much higher than getting it wrong in Afghanistan.
A nuclear war between Russia and the United States would end human life as we know it.
And yet Biden is doing everything possible to provoke such a disaster.
And for what?
The actions we are taking are not going to end the war in Ukraine.
In fact, we are probably prolonging the killing.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians will die this year because Congress feels good when it sends instruments of death and billions in cash.
Many dollars sent for the war in Afghanistan ended up in bank accounts in Switzerland and Dubai.
To where will we trace the bounty of Ukrainian grift?
This war could end tomorrow if we pursued negotiation, but Biden refuses.
Not only do we arm the Ukrainian military, we pay their politicians' salaries.
The $113 billion in aid included funding the Ukrainian government.
We can and must push for peace.
You don't really hear that from many people these days with the exception of President Trump.
Trump is right to recognize that we are on the brink of World War III and that immediate action for peace is necessary to stop disaster.
Unfortunately, there is a bipartisan coalition working to continue the war.
When Elon Musk proposed a peace plan, Nikki Haley attacked him, saying we, quote, shouldn't push our weight on them.
That is, of course, nonsense.
We've pushed billions of dollars on them.
We can simultaneously pressure North Korea and China from supplying Russia.
The gentleman's time has expired.
I ought to do so.
Thank you.
I yield back.
We are back live and the live stream is fired up.
Aliens and Space Girl on Instagram agrees we have to go after TikTok.
Another Facebook user said that they weren't really looking forward to Biden's speech, but they were going to use a margarita to get through it to get to the Sarah Huckabee Sanders response.
That should be pretty epic.
And Gabrielle says that Joe Biden is a good man and that I am a POS on Facebook.
Everyone's entitled to their opinion.
We're glad that you're watching.
And it does seem that I am the extreme MAGA Republican that Joe Biden is warning you about.
But whether it's less spending at home or more adherence to America's interests abroad, I don't think my arguments seem so extreme.
To me, it's extreme to fund a war against a nuclear power oceans away.
That seems legitimately extreme.
Tend to your own garden, your own country first.
And we have challenges here in our country.
To me, it's extreme to know that our debt financing costs will soon exceed the budget of the Pentagon.
We should do something to stop that.
Seems like a common sense approach to spending.
So the perspective of new lawmakers in Congress is always one that we follow.
You'll recall prior Firebrand episodes where we've had Eli Crane and Ana Paulina Luna, two of the best.
CBS's Face the Nation yesterday hosted freshman Democrat members of Congress Robert Garcia from California and Summer Lee from Pennsylvania.
There were also Republicans that were there.
Crime and immigration were discussed, and they were discussed obviously because these issues drove the shape of many of the midterm campaigns this last cycle.
So I picked up on something in the Face the Nation discussion that really concerned me.
It seems the Democrat strategy is to leave the rest of us unprotected, undefended, and afraid.
So listen to newly elected Congressman Robert Garcia talk about the justification for people coming across our border being in a state of desperation.
Take a listen.
There's this myth that Democrats somehow aren't concerned about a secure border, that we don't want an orderly process.
But we also want to ensure that we want secure, everybody wants a secure border, but we also want to ensure that we're talking about the humanity of people.
These are people that are coming to this country that are desperate, that are suffering.
And so this idea that we can't give these people justice, we can't support and help them, I think is anti-American.
Congressman Garcia speaks of desperate people as if it's some new phenomenon in illegal immigration, as if people used to come for a different reason.
Throughout most of my life, the principal reason people have come illegally across the U.S.-Mexico border has been desperation.
The problem is if the U.S. taxpayer has to pay for all of them when they get here, We will be desperate too.
And we'd prefer ambitious and comfortable to desperate and afraid.
Who wouldn't?
So the Democrat argument goes, desperate people should be allowed into the country because they are desperate.
But that's not all.
Desperate people should also be allowed to commit crimes against you, and we should think differently about crimes of desperation.
We should think about them as less acute, less deserving of punishment.
Listen to Democrat Congresswoman Summer Lee on that point.
The vast majority of people in poor and working class neighborhoods are good people, and they are victims of crime that we don't say anything about.
For instance, there is no police presence when they're a victim of waste theft.
We're not seeing anybody in fair laundry.
I passed legislation to prosecute.
And I would like to see it happening here.
Because what we don't see when we're talking about crime, we're really talking about white collar crime.
We're really talking about ways in which we're going to hold corporate criminals accountable.
We're really taking any strides in any level of government to do anything about that.
But we continue to talk about the crimes of desperation, and particularly the crimes in marginalized communities.
Oh, they're marginalized and desperate.
How about the victims of those crimes?
If crimes of desperation are to be punished less, then maybe we shouldn't let more desperate people into the country.
Just saying.
Don't really think that argument makes a whole lot of sense.
While we've been broadcasting the show, The Ukraine caucus has sent around the Ukraine ribbon for folks to wear during the State of the Union.
I will not be wearing the Ukraine ribbon.
It was quite something when we had the Ukraine flag displayed by Zelensky on the floor of the Congress.
It was like Democrats finally found a flag they were willing to stand up for.
I stand for the American flag for the American people.
That's why we need sensible border policy.
That's why we need a criminal justice system that holds people accountable.
It's why we need fiscal responsibility.
And it's why we need to end the U.S. contribution to this war in Ukraine.
Thanks so much for joining us on Firebrand.
Thank you for all of your thoughts and feedback on the live stream.
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Thanks for joining us.
Roll the credits.
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