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April 27, 2023 - Firebrand - Matt Gaetz
39:28
Episode 101 LIVE: ATF Director Melts (feat. Rep. Tim Burchett)– Firebrand with Matt Gaetz
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Thank you.
You can battle 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 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.
Several votes tonight, but the main one, of course, was raising the debt limit.
I voted against it.
The proposal that we sent over to the Senate does not, in fact, cut the deficit.
It actually adds, over 10 years, almost 19 trillion new dollars.
It cuts the rate of growth.
So it's not cutting the hefts, it just cuts the rate of growth.
So anyway, I'm going to keep fighting for fiscal responsibility.
Although sometimes it seems it is my backs against the law on this stuff.
Anyway, we'll just keep fighting.
Thank you all for sending me here.
We are live.
That was Congressman Tim Burchett.
He'll be joining us in just a moment to talk about all of today's events here in Congress.
But Tim Burchett joined me and Andy Biggs and Ken Buck as the only Republicans voting against the $1.5 trillion increase in the debt limit.
We're going to get Congressman Berkshire's hot takes on that, but also key information regarding testimony from the director of ATF on the live stream.
They're watching from South Carolina, Pensacola, Jacksonville, Oklahoma, and we get a lot of feedback on these issues where the ATF is targeting gun owners.
I had the ATF director for five minutes going to give you that content.
Also, FISA, this foreign intelligence surveillance authority that often is not used to target foreign entities.
You're going to find out how many of these queries have occurred Where a whole lot of FBI's got a whole lot of access to data without a warrant, and they are using it to a great degree.
And I could not end the show.
I'm going to show you where the top uniformed individual for the United States Air Force tried to convince me that the words mom and dad are exclusionary.
But first, joining us, Congressman Tim Burchett.
Tim, you made some news joining us rabble-rousers in voting against this increase in the debt limit.
Why'd you do it?
$32 trillion in debt, Matt.
If you had $1.5 trillion a year over 10 years, $17 plus trillion, it's just out of control.
We've got to stop it at some point.
And this going back and forth, it's just not happening.
I committed to do it.
I didn't vote for it under Trump, and I haven't done it under Biden.
To me, it's just disingenuous to vote for it.
So, I mean, you laid out the math to me as we were meeting with negotiators and talking with some of the designers of this plan that even though there is some limitation in the growth of the federal budget, that this plan, the supposed Republican plan, the conservative plan to save the dollar, reverse inflation, unlock energy, all that...
It was going to put us at a moment 10 years from now with about $49 trillion in debt.
That's correct.
That's correct.
And it's a sucker's bet.
When I was in the state legislature, I know you were in the state legislature in Florida.
I was in Tennessee.
And they'd always talk about, oh, we're cutting the rate of growth.
We're cutting the rate of growth.
But you're still growing.
If you're growing at an exponential amount and you cut it by a little bit, it's still growing.
It's just ridiculous to me.
And I got so sick of people saying, this is the largest cut In government that we've ever had.
It's growing at such a level, the percentage is just so minuscule.
But actually in our state legislatures, we don't talk like they talk in Washington.
When we talk about a cut in the state legislature, that actually means fewer dollars than you got in the prior year.
Only in Washington is a cut still massive growth in the overall cost of the program, but just a reduction in the rate of that growth.
Correct.
And I shared that concern.
Are you also worried that the dollar itself might be in jeopardy?
I am.
That seems to be the movement afoot.
Under Trump, gasoline was cheaper.
The dollar was worth something.
I remember I was in the county mayor's office, and the girls in my office came in because they got a raise because of the economy and Trump.
They came in going, choo-choo, we're on the Trump train now, boss, because I was a Trump guy.
And they, you know, two years ago, if you made $100,000, and today it would be worth $85,000.
I mean, that to me is just crazy.
And families are struggling.
We're devaluing our dollar.
It's a trap.
If you want to wreck this economy, let's just continue doing what we're doing.
The number one question we got asked today as we were walking out of our final votes, well, where does it go from here?
What's going to happen next?
What's your assessment of how you think the Senate will react to this offer and where this ultimately resolves?
Are we headed to a shutdown?
Are we headed to Spending cuts that are acceptable?
Are we headed to just a veneer of spending cuts and a massive increase in the debt limit?
What do you think?
I just don't think the Senate's going to do anything.
I think they're going to flip it back to us, stripped, and then we'll have to see.
So you don't think they'll cut $1?
I don't.
Well, that's the news.
I mean, the news is your assessment is that the Senate will not respond to this package with the reduction of even one planned dollar in spending.
I don't see them doing any of it.
The President said we're not going to negotiate, so he and Schumer joined it to HIPP. I just don't see it happening because I don't think the president's capable of it, even though the president was in charge in 2011 under Biden of negotiating the debt limit.
He just said he's not going to do it, and Schumer's not going to do it.
And they've messaged this thing as such that we're cutting, you know, or, you know, Oh yeah, we're slaughtering the widows and orphans.
Yeah, exactly.
If you believe the Democrats.
And so I just don't see us getting anywhere.
That's my personal opinion.
So does that mean a shutdown?
I think we'll run right up to a shutdown and possibly have a shutdown.
But then we always blink, like we always do.
And then, you know, massive spending.
And we pat ourselves on the back and call her, oh, we've...
We've fought the good fight, and we haven't.
We haven't.
Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett did not blink when we had the vote on the plan to increase the debt limit by $1.5 trillion.
He joined fellow firebrands Andy Biggs, Ken Buck, myself.
We were the four votes against that.
You're hearing the reasons why now.
And the prognosis is not good.
We may have to get ready for some shutdown politics and some shutdown economic consequences if your assessment is that there's going to be a stalemate, a hardening of positions.
I think that the thinking among Republican leadership in the House is that this is going to dislodge some negotiating activity.
You seem to think that it might not.
But one thing that a serious country...
Would not do $32 trillion in debt is spend so much money and send so many of its bravest patriots to faraway lands for unclear gain and the lack of an end state.
And today we had a debate and a vote on legislation that I filed to withdraw U.S. troops from Somalia.
I want to give you a flavor of that debate.
We'll come back and get Congressman Birchett's reaction.
Play the clip.
There are 17 million Somalis.
I'm rooting for them.
I hope that when my life ends, Somalia isn't synonymous with famine and failed states and civil wars and coups.
I really hope that.
But we must also exercise sufficient humility in this body to understand the capabilities of persuasion for a relatively small batch of American troops given the problem set.
And I would return to the argument that I made earlier in this discussion.
There is an opportunity cost to this in people.
There are specific units that call my district home that are having to split between AFRICOM and Indo-PACOM, when the reality is whether or not our children are speaking Mandarin, our grandchildren are having to get dominated by the Chinese Communist Party, is not going to be the result of who wins the Battle of Mogadishu.
It's going to be the result of who holds the high ground against our true pacing adversaries.
And becoming the neighborhood block captain of Somalia is certainly not the behavior of a serious country engaged in very serious challenges against serious adversaries.
I thank my colleagues for their indulgence.
I certainly thank the leadership for permitting me such time, and I would yield back the balance.
We are back live with Congressman Tim Burchett.
Kathy on Facebook says she is ready for the shutdown.
Steve on Instagram says do not falter, stay together.
Kay Shaw on Rumble says they're getting half the groceries at twice the price.
So Tim, you voted with me.
We were defeated in that vote overwhelmingly.
What do you think folks in East Tennessee think about sending Americans to Somalia?
Dadgummit, Matt.
Americans are patriotic people, in Tennessee and specifically.
In Vietnam, they had a statistically higher number of volunteers went.
My daddy fought in the Second World War.
My mama flew an airplane during the Second World War.
She lost a brother fighting the Nazis.
You know, we're fighters.
We're fighters.
We believe in fighting.
We believe for standing up for what's right.
But nobody knows what the heck's going on over there.
We've had over 500 Americans there now.
Excluding our embassy personnel, the Marines that do that.
And what are they there for?
Like you said, they're block captains.
We're fighting block to block.
They're MPs or something.
We're in countries that don't appreciate what we have.
They don't want what we have.
They don't even understand what we have.
It's like going literally to a caveman and handing him a cell phone.
I mean, they don't get it.
It's...
Yeah, like trying to spread Jeffersonian democracy like it's going to spread like COVID across North Africa.
Absolutely.
Somebody in biblical times.
I mean, these folks live in a different lifestyle.
And a lot of them don't like us.
Do you think it helps the terrorists potentially recruit new members if there are U.S. Uniformed Service members patrolling the streets engaged in local law enforcement?
Yeah, dressed up like something that's come from Mars or something.
I mean, they just don't get it.
Why do you think we keep losing these votes?
Because I've done this now in Syria, Somalia, May do Niger next.
And I wonder why so many Republicans and Democrats see utility in sprinkling our service members around the globe.
I think there's key members in both parties that profit from this.
I really do.
I think they profit from it financially, and I believe key people in their areas do.
You know, we vote for a missile defense system we're going to send to Ukraine, things like that, and thinking, wow, that's a great idea.
We'll just give them our missiles, but the rules are that we have to, every time we do that, we have to supplant ours or supply ours to bring ours back up to a certain level by rule or law or whatever is in the In the deal.
And they know that.
And they've got stock in that.
And it's blatant to me.
It is just pathetic.
So you don't believe that they accept the underlying argument of globalism?
You believe it is just raw, craven self-interest?
Well, I think some of the key people, that's what they believe.
But they put it in these idealistic folks that maybe have never had a father that That had to kill people for his country.
That wake up and you couldn't wake him up over himself.
I had to wake my dad up by his toe.
My dad fought in the Second World War and I'm talking just to the day he died.
He was in his 80s.
I would still have to wake him up that way because he might wake up thinking where he was as an 18 or 19 year old young man.
It's still, you know, they don't get that.
And then you whisper in their ear some idealistic garbage.
A few liberals or idealistic conservatives that Rah, rah, we're America.
We're going to wrap ourselves in the flag.
And dadgummit, it doesn't work.
It doesn't work.
And they know it.
And they're playing us.
And they're playing us for fools.
And then the United States ends up being the world's piggy bank and the world's police force.
And it never happens.
And we end up pulling out.
And dadgummit, they're not...
Like Afghanistan, we've got nothing.
We've got nothing except a bunch of...
A bunch of body bags with American names on them.
Yeah, and families that'll never be the same, and minds, and body parts, and communities.
Staff Sergeant Ryan Knauss, the last person to die in Afghanistan, my constituent.
And that's just wrong.
He died.
He should have been...
He should have been home on Easter Sunday with his family and that's just wrong.
And these bad decisions repeat over and over again and certainly we hope that we're able to persuade more of our colleagues but I think the American people also have to wake up to the driving factors of these decisions and you've been quite clear on that point.
I also want to get to the very freedoms That people like our veterans fight for.
And that includes the Second Amendment.
And increasingly in this country, we're seeing the Second Amendment under attack.
We're seeing law-abiding gun owners totally villainized unfairly.
And the ATF... It's the arm pistol braces.
Right.
No, it's the zero tolerance policy.
Yeah.
The zero tolerance policy.
So if you mess up anything in your paperwork, they come for you, but yet they can't live up to that same standard.
I got a chance to point that out with the ATF director this week.
Take a listen.
How many guns has the ATF lost?
I'm not sure I understand the question.
Is it a difficult question to understand?
Well...
I don't know if you're referring to any particular incident or time period.
How many instances should we be looking at where you've lost guns?
So if what you're referring to is what happened at the National Destruction Branch, no guns were lost.
They were stolen by an individual who's now in prison who was not an ATF employee.
But there were recommendations made on what you should do so that you don't become the victim of the theft.
And the Inspector General is saying you're not following them.
I'm quoting directly from the Inspector General's report.
Thousands of firearms, firearms, parts, and ammunition had been stolen from the ATF. So you gave testimony that the brave ATF agents are the ones showing up at 2 in the morning after a burglary, but it seems as though in this case you were the one burglarized.
Why have you not followed the recommendations of the Office of Inspector General so that you aren't the mark?
Again, I want to say that it is brave men and women of ATF who do this.
I know what they're doing.
You're getting robbed on one hand, so you can't keep a hold of the guns you're supposed to have, but then you do keep a hold of a bunch of stuff you're not supposed to have a hold of.
The GAO report, firearms data, ATF did not always comply with the Appropriations Act restriction and should better adhere to its policies.
As a result of breaking the law, didn't you guys have to go and delete Like a quarter of a million records that you illegally kept?
Again, with respect to both the Inspector General reports that you're talking about...
Nope, one's Inspector General, one's GAO. The Inspector General report, ATF, that happened several years ago, more than that.
2022!
The report came out, but the theft, and ATF has implemented...
Numerous different safety measures with respect to the National Destructive Branch.
I'm reading to you from the report from last year, Mr. Director, we found that the NDB staff does not currently, currently in 2022, adhere to established operating procedures in place to mitigate risk of firearms being lost and stolen.
So I guess that shows an ATF that is not functioning correctly and is not responding to the problems you create.
You keep records you're not supposed to.
It was a quarter million of them you had to delete, right?
I don't believe that that is...
Was it over 200,000 that you had to delete?
So what was happening was...
I just want to know the number of records you had to delete that were not being lawfully maintained.
There were records that had not actually been searched, but my understanding is were searchable.
Hundreds of thousands of them.
And so that's what you guys do.
You keep what you shouldn't keep.
You lose what you're not supposed to lose.
But how do you treat regular Americans?
I got this letter from someone in my district, a firearms dealer.
I have been a firearms dealer for 46 years.
For 46 years, I've had a good relationship with law enforcement.
Then came the ATF's zero tolerance policy.
Two years ago, while in the process of selling a firearm to a customer, I completed their background check using Florida's FDLE firearm purchasing program.
The background check was uneventful, and FDLE rendered an approval number.
Some months later, during an ATF audit, I was told the background check was now a non-approval.
Even though FDLE made the error, it was on my paperwork, so ATF deemed it a willful error.
After completing close to 50,000 background checks over 46 years, why would I willfully ignore this background check?
The answer is simple.
I did not.
But the ATF has revoked my license, ended my career, and my livelihood.
So I guess the question is, why should you be able to destroy the life of one of my constituents over a technicality where they weren't even at fault, when you all lose thousands of guns and illegally keep hundreds of thousands of records?
Respectfully, Congress has given us the authority to inspect.
And make sure that firearms dealers, the vast majority by the which are compliant, they are our first line of defense in dealing with straw purchases.
This guy isn't your first line of defense anymore.
He's fired.
A very small minority, those dealers, after due process, A small minority, ATF, enforcer of gun laws, lost thousands of firearm parts to thieves.
New data shows ATF, gun store restrictions, at the highest rate in 16 years.
Mr. Director, the definition of hypocrisy is when you can't live up to your own standard.
So you have imposed a zero-tolerance policy that is resulting in the highest rate of revocations in 16 years and you wouldn't be able to meet your own zero tolerance policy because you lose stuff you're supposed to keep and then you keep stuff that it's illegal to keep.
And by the way, I am one of those MAGA Republicans that would defund your salary, your agency, and I think all these good things that you say exist could happen with those folks at the local and state level and this is a terrible abuse of power.
We are back live.
A lot of feedback from the live chat.
Blackbeard on Getter saying the ATF shouldn't make the laws.
That's the responsibility of Congress.
Kendra on Facebook saying she's a vet.
She had her CCW stripped.
John on Facebook calling the ATF modern-day KGB. That's a very hot take.
And a raging patriot on Instagram saying abolish the ATF. Tim Burchett, Congressman from Tennessee.
What do folks in East Tennessee think about the ATF? The director, I don't think he could spell ATF. You had him pretty wrapped up.
I'm a gun owner.
I've used a gun to protect my constitutional rights.
Some folks have broken in my warehouse.
We're stealing some of my motorcycles.
I caught them and I held them.
They're not fans of the ATF. This stock thing is going to put dealers out of business.
It's ridiculous because there's no clear definition of You've got to hire an attorney to figure it out, and it's just like the IRS. Is the ATF savable, or do you just have to devolve these powers to the state and local level?
No, state and local.
I have no problem with our state and local authorities.
And by the way, if they want to create interstate compacts to be able to share and track data, they don't need the federal government overseeing that to even make that an effective thing if there's actual criminal activity.
But the reality is the ATF, really, they're like on a snipe hunt.
More like a witch hunt.
And then you have to start believing in witches if you're in the business of witch hunting.
Or they drown you, and then if you drown, they go, oh, you weren't a witch.
Yeah.
Well, that's happening to far too many dealers, mom and pops, small businesses, and we have to keep fighting for them and going after guys like that who are abusing the power of this government.
Now, speaking of witch hunts, we all know that the Russia hoax began with the FBI and the Department of Justice misusing the FISA process.
This is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
And what they do is they act as though they're targeting a foreigner, but through incidental collection, they get information on Americans that then they save that then can be used in queries.
Now, over every executive agency, there's an inspector general who has an obligation to review their conduct and to judge its adherence with what the law requires.
The inspector general over the Department of Justice is Obama-appointed.
He is an Obama-era inspector general.
And that is what I think makes this line of questioning from earlier today so interesting.
Take a listen.
I want to get into the 3.4 million backdoor searches that the ranking member pointed out in his opening statement.
How should the public think about those?
Well, I think what we've seen in the various public reports, and I'm limited in what I can say about what's public, which I think is one of the issues, by the way, that's worth talking about is transparency here.
It's obviously very concerning that there's that volume of searches, and particularly concerning the error rate that was reported on in the last two years in the public reporting.
That error rate was what?
I believe it was around 30%.
I think, tell the numbers, I think it's around 30%.
I'm a lawyer, not a mathematician, but 3.4 million, about 30%.
You're talking about seven figures of error in terms of these searches.
I'm wondering, how many people can perform these backdoor queries?
I'm going to defer to board members because the review I'm going.
I'm afraid I don't have those figures at my fingertips in terms of the number of people that can conduct those types of searches, but I share the concern of expressing the question that we need to We have greater safeguards, and I urge Congress to incorporate a requirement for vice court review of these kinds of searches to protect our against North Amendment rights.
Yes, four million backdoor searches, more than a million of them in error.
If I represent to you that we believe there may be north of 10,000 people in the federal government that can perform those queries, would anyone here on the basis to disagree with that assessment?
No.
We are back live.
I've got Congressman Burchett, my good friend from Tennessee, here.
And make sure that you follow his podcast, Tennessee Talks with Tim Burchett.
I listen to it on Apple, but you also have a video version available on YouTube, right?
Correct.
Great.
What's your YouTube channel so folks can find it?
Holler at me.
Rep Tim Burchett.
At Rep Tim Burchett.
Give him a follow.
Tennessee Talks, one of my regular listens.
And a lot of folks from Congress come on and share their perspective as well.
But I want to get your perspective on this FBI, DOJ, coloring outside the lines on how they're collecting intelligence.
Well, none of us are safe.
It was created for foreign folks.
And so all they do is backdoor you.
They just cast the net deep enough.
And that's where they went after Trump illegally.
And...
Basically just falsified everything.
If they can go after a man running for president of the United States, they can go after anybody.
And I believe that that is what they're doing.
It's a police state operation.
To me, it's not constitutional, and I don't see how the evidence can be entered.
But they're allowed to do it, and it's just a way to backdoor all of us.
It's a secret court.
For folks who don't know about FISA, it is a secret court that exists without a defense attorney.
So it is the government in secret alone with a judge with decisions that never get published or reviewed to see how jurisprudence develops.
And so we've had...
These reports after reports come out showcasing how the FBI is not complying with the law, they're not complying with their own procedures, and there's no one there to hold them accountable at all.
These authorities are coming up for renewal this year, and I... I'm not voting to reauthorize FISA, these 702 authorities that have been most abused.
I'm not voting to do it.
I know a lot of my colleagues are going to hear arguments from the Intelligence Committee.
We're going to make arguments on the Judiciary Committee from the standpoint of people's civil rights and constitutional rights, because if they need to get this information for national security reasons, they can get a warrant.
They can get a warrant, and then we've got a system that is tried and true.
Where is the media on all this?
You'd think, just the transparency aspect, because if they can go after conservatives, they sure as hell go after a liberal as well.
You would think that they would be, this would be, because transparency is where it's at in my book.
Just let the sun shine in and let everybody see what's going on.
Yeah, and we have not had that for far too long.
And then when we get these searing moments today where you've got the Inspector General saying there were 3.4 million queries of incidentally collected information, all collected without a warrant, And meanwhile, a third of them are in error.
More than a million.
It's just a fishing license is all it is.
It is a fishing license.
That's a great way to put it.
Well, I also have to get to one final moment we had today that I really wasn't expecting.
We're in the Armed Services Committee, and the Air Force is presenting their budget.
And when they do, it's reasonable to ask questions about everything from the Air Force's deployments to their strategies to their munitions and hypersonics and platforms and planes and pilots.
But also their training.
And particularly training the next generation of Air Force leaders that we get the proud honor to be able to nominate to our service academies.
So my colleague from Michigan, Lisa McClain, is asking this guy who is the top general in the entire United States Air Force, General Brown, the Chief of the Air Force.
She's asking questions about curriculum at the Air Force Academy that seems to say that we shouldn't use words like mom or dad.
And after hearing his response, or really his non-response, I couldn't help myself.
Take a listen.
I have in front of me, you know, the slides on the diversity training and the equity and the inclusion training.
How much money and time do we really spend on that?
Can we get a better sense to help educate everyone?
I can provide you, you know, exact information for the record, but I will tell you, most of our training, most of our focus is on the readiness of the force.
And part of that readiness of the force is to ensure that they were building cohesive teams, and part of those cohesive teams is to get to know our mental left and our right.
And I appreciate that.
And one of the things it talks about in one of your slides is not to recognize people as moms and dads.
I mean, as a mother, I take a little bit of offense to that.
It also talks about not using the word terrorist.
Can you explain why we wouldn't use the word terrorist in mom and dad?
I think you've got to get that message out because I think a lot of people are really frustrated and they feel like we're polarizing as opposed to coming together.
What I would tell you is that what I perceive is we're risk reading some of the aspects of the things we're trying to do as we move the Air Force forward and we look at how we build cohesive teams.
General Brown, I do have to ask you a question that sort of stems from what Ms. McClain was asking about.
She showed you this curriculum from the Air Force Academy, and she asked you why the terms mom and dad were disfavored.
And you said that you're working to build cohesive teams.
So just wondering, how do the terms mom and dad impair cohesive team building?
Part of leadership is understanding the people you're privileged to lead.
And as you have that opportunity, you get to know them.
And every one of us grows up differently and has different experiences, different backgrounds, and we can't assume when we engage with them.
And so from that perspective, you've got to build that team and to build that trust with our airmen, in part because that trust is part of the cohesion that gives you the strong team to be able to go execute what the nation asked us to do.
I understand better than most that families at times aren't defined by blood or even paperwork, and I know you have to recruit folks from different family environments into the Air Force, but do you think maybe it puts downward pressure on recruiting some of the people who Do you have moms and dads and do you use the term mom and dad if in the curriculum of the academy it seems to disfavor those terms?
No, I don't.
And what's your basis for that belief?
Because I think part of leadership is dignity and respect of those you're privileged to lead.
You don't think it disrespects people?
I do not.
You don't think it disrespects moms and dads when they send their young children, I guess becoming adults, into the academy and then they see that mom and dad are disfavored terms?
Do you agree that mom and dad should be disfavored terms?
I think we need to respect the fact that they have either parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles that sometimes raise young people.
Sure, but I mean, I know folks who've been raised by aunts and uncles, and none of them have ever told me that when they hear someone else call their parent mom or dad that that upsets them.
Do you know of people who feel excluded when others refer to their parents as mom or dad?
I don't.
Either way.
Whether it's aunts, uncles, moms, and dads, I have not come across anyone.
If I could, the point of that slide, I'm familiar with it, came out of the Air Force Academy.
It was actually created by cadets for training.
It's not very artful, but the point was that you should...
All right, we're back with Congressman Tim Burchett.
Your reaction?
It's perverted.
I mean, it's just beyond the pale.
This bunch is ridiculous.
When you see an American fighting man in a dress, And these people are promoting them.
What do you think our enemies are thinking when they see this kind of stuff?
You know what?
What I think is that there are moms and dads who see this kind of nonsense and say, I don't want my kid to go into the military.
And these are patriotic American families who love our country.
And we need, especially families from the South, to put people into the military.
You know what my dad was thinking when he was on Okinawa and he was on Peleliu?
And going in there, he was thinking about his mom and dad.
Yes.
I guarantee you he was.
He was thinking, and he told me one time, they are sitting around Okinawa, because at night it got a little cold, and the fighting had subsided for a while, and they ran off a little campfire, and they were all talking, and they were talking about what they had back in the U.S., and how good it was, and how they didn't want those Japanese to get to their moms and dads back home.
Yeah.
That's what it's about.
These guys have lost their minds.
I don't know how someone could sit there and say, the reason I have to disfavor the words mom and dad and curriculum is because I have to do cohesive team building.
And this isn't just some random person in the bureaucracy.
The top guy who's defending this thing.
And it's just beyond the pale.
I mean, you have a mom saying, you know, I find it offensive.
Sure.
It's ridiculous.
It's totally ridiculous.
The only thing I can think of is, I hate being a conspiracy theorist, but, you know, they want to break the whole system down, and they want to create some homogenous kind of deal, sort of a Marxist state where the...
The overlords are in charge, and your moms and dads have no place in that, other than bringing you into this world.
If you were trying to bring the system down, you would destroy the family, you would destroy the dollar, you would destroy people's Second Amendment rights, You would spread our military too thin around the world, and you would collapse our budget.
Absolutely.
And I mean, as we've walked through the things that we've observed in Washington...
Today.
We are fighting against a lot of those very forces, and I'm honored to have you by my side in that fight.
Tim, where can folks follow you?
At Rep Tim Burchett...
Well, at Tim Burchett is my cool Twitter one.
All right, that's where they get the hot reports right off the steps of the Capitol.
Correct.
At Tim Burchett.
Make sure to give him a follow.
Make sure to listen to Tennessee Talks with Tim Burchett.
Thank you so much for joining me today.
We'll be back soon.
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