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Sept. 19, 2023 - Firebrand - Matt Gaetz
30:55
Episode 117 LIVE: No Continuing Resolution – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz
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Thank you.
You're not taking Matt Gaetz off the board, okay?
Because Matt Gaetz is an American patriot and Matt Gaetz is an American hero.
We will not continue to allow the Uniparty to run this town without a fight.
I want to thank you, Matt Gaetz, for holding the line.
Matt Gaetz is a courageous man.
If we had hundreds of Matt Gaetz in D.C., the country turns around.
It's that simple.
He's so tough, he's so strong, he's smart, and he loves this country.
Matt Gaetz.
It is the honor of my life to fight alongside each and every one of you.
We will save America.
It's choose your fighter time.
Send in the firebrands.
Mr. Speaker, I'm not voting for a continuing resolution.
I'm not voting to continue the failure and the waste and the corruption and the election interference, and in some cases, the efforts that could lead this country into World War III. I oppose the CR authored by my friend and colleague from Florida, Byron Donalds.
The Donald CR continues the Ukraine policy negotiated by Speaker Pelosi and Mitch McConnell in the omnibus that conservatives were against.
The Donald CR is a permission slip for Jack Smith to continue his election interference as they are trying to gag the former president of the United States and the leading contender for the Republican nomination.
And the Donald CR abandons the principle that it is only a review of single subject spending bills that will save this country and allow us to tweeze through these programs and force these agencies to stand up and defend their budget.
My friends, we are approaching the days where we're facing $2 trillion annual deficits atop a $33 trillion debt.
This is unsustainable.
And just to continue things with some facial 8% cut over 30 days that will lead to no programmatic reform is an insult to the principles we fought for in January.
I yield back.
Welcome back to Firebrand.
Sasha made us a new intro video.
Let us know if you liked it.
That was my debate on the House floor against the continuing resolution that I think would really have put the country back and would have limited the momentum we have to cut spending.
But I am here to tell you that our efforts were successful thanks to the advocacy of people all over this country.
The votes were not there to pass this continuing resolution.
And just as I said on the floor, the only path forward, Single subject spending bills.
And by the way, The media, the establishment Republicans, they call me some crazy right-winger.
Some extremist.
Because I am demanding a vote on term limits, a vote on a balanced budget amendment, single subject spending bills, a release of the January 6th tapes.
And if we're going to do oversight, if we're going to have a robust effort against the corrupt Biden family, I don't know, maybe send Hunter Biden a subpoena.
You can check my Twitter feed.
I even drafted one.
All Speaker McCarthy has to do is date and sign it.
Many of you are fired up in the live stream.
Kim is watching on Facebook from Pensacola.
I always love it when my bosses and my constituents tune in.
Wayne on Facebook is offering a sentiment that we're seeing from a lot of folks.
You're wanting the motion to vacate the chair.
I'm going to have an update on the motion to vacate and really how some of the politics of that could play out a little bit later in this update.
But before we do that, Our efforts against this continuing resolution and really against all continuing resolutions are rooted in the theory that you shouldn't be taking these disparate votes on agencies that have nothing to do with each other all at once.
Even the greatest continuing resolution, even God's gift to continuing resolutions, still surrenders the premise that the funding of an entire agency of government is not a question worthy of its own dignity.
It's why we are in the mess we are in.
It is not a bug of the system.
It is a feature of the system.
And I am going to fight with everything I can muster to bust up the D.C. cartel and to stop the Uniparty from running roughshod over the needs of the American people.
And in that battle, I seem to have found an unlikely ally in the New York Times.
New piece coming out from Michelle Cottle.
Maybe Matt Gaetz is right.
The piece reads, Mr. McCarthy is in desperate pursuit of the speakership last winter.
He ran around making promises willy-nilly to the house's small band of right-wingers.
There's that right-wingers thing again.
I'm a right-winger because I want term limits, balanced budget, and single subject bills.
So back to the piece.
McCarthy will now rise and fall on how he handles those commitments and expectations.
But here's the thing.
Gates and company have a point.
Mr. McCarthy is out of compliance with several of his promises.
They are not to blame for the chaos consuming the House.
It is Mr. McCarthy who led them to believe he would champion their policies and priorities.
The piece went on to call McCarthy hollow and fundamentally untrustworthy.
The New York Times.
You see, the things I am fighting for I honestly hope exist well beyond my time in Congress.
And even well beyond Republican control.
Because even when Democrats control this place, which at some point they invariably will, I would hope their members too would want to consider these spending bills separately and not just do continuing resolutions.
Though I will say, my friend and colleague from Montana, Matt Rosendale, had an interesting point.
Nancy Pelosi could have gotten us to a continuing resolution.
So the fact that Kevin McCarthy is getting us there is hardly a deliverable on all the work that Americans did to ensure that the majority changed hands.
On this very point, on the criticality of single-subject spending bills and on the utility of Of my strategy to root out the woke and weaponized government, we heard President Trump's former acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vogt, recently on Bannon's War Room with just really crystal clear analysis.
I want you to have the benefit of it.
I'll talk about it on the other side.
Take a listen.
Did McCarthy not push any of these appropriations bills to get done because he lied to people to get the debt ceiling?
Because they said, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Well, let's do the debt ceiling.
We'll take care of the real cuts in the appropriations bill.
He would have been exposed as a liar.
That's why he wants to kick the whole thing into some big morass so nobody can actually single out the fact that there have been no cuts.
I think there's, people say there's $12 billion of real cuts in here.
Russ Vogt.
That's what the cartel does.
The cartel always delays, delays, delays.
They do things like Lucy and the football, where they take out the football while Charlie's trying to kick it.
That's what it is over and over.
And that is what we have seen since the debt limit deal.
And he's using this CR as part of that effort to be able to just push this on and hope that the crisis In their minds of a government shutdown will compel House conservatives to go away.
And I just think they need to have a fundamental reset and go back to what they agreed to in January with the speaker and that the entirety of the conference got on board with to get Kevin McCarthy, who I didn't want as a speaker and many others in America didn't want as a speaker, And go back to that debate.
That would have led to a huge cut to woke and weaponized government bureaucracy.
And if you don't feel like you can do all the bills in one week, okay, let's start with the one that funds the Department of Justice, the one that funds the FBI. Let's start there.
Let's have that debate.
How about that for one week?
And then we'll go to the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services and make sure...
That CDC and the NIH are not continuing to fund COVID bureaucracy, so we're not funding the Wuhan Institute.
We don't have the ability to fund gay pride events in Prague and our foreign aid.
How about we do that one week after another instead of this charade where we push things on into holidays and later in the year and nothing ever occurs?
That's exactly the play they are running.
And the defense to that play is to not surrender the frame by supporting or endorsing or lending our name to any continuing resolution.
We have to roll up our sleeves, get to work.
We should cancel weekends.
We should work 12-hour days if necessary on this appropriations process.
And don't forget, Congress just came back from like a six, seven-week break.
Why weren't we doing the work?
It's exactly what Russ Vogt just said there.
The Uniparty.
And I'd like to talk about one of the members of the unit party now, Ohio Republican Congressman Dave Joyce.
And he had some choice words for me.
Now, to set the stage, Kevin McCarthy has tried to subjugate my legitimate concerns that no less than the New York Times says are valid, valid, So
let's put up his comments.
Dave Joyce says...
Well, he's a special person.
I mean, in the how many years he's been here, what has he ever accomplished other than running his mouth?
Well, here's what I can tell you Congress has accomplished.
We've put ourselves on a path to a $2 trillion annual deficit.
We've built up a $33 trillion debt.
So yeah, pardon me for not taking my time to go rename post offices and parts of highways.
I'm working on saving the country and the dollar and the government and sometimes from itself when it becomes weaponized against people like President Trump.
I think speaking on the big issues matters, but it's also not just the work, but who you're doing the work for.
Undeniably, I work directly for the American people.
I'm the only Republican in Congress who doesn't take any money from lobbyists or PACs or special interests.
This is a policy that would cost Dave Joyce dearly because Dave Joyce has taken $6.8 million in lobbyist and special interest money.
And in this little video I'm about to play you, he actually has the nerve To attack me and my donors who might give $10 or $25 to a political campaign.
And he tries to say that my substantive work here in the Congress is somehow lashed to my desire to get people to give small dollar donations.
When people give $10 or $25 to a candidate, they just want you to be at your best.
When a lobbyist gives you money...
They want to turn you into their puppet.
And Dave Joyce, Republican of Ohio, has been plenty willing.
Play the video.
The shiny object tending to get the most noise and then all of a sudden you see that that amounts to somebody like Gates, all these personal contributions in small ways and it's like you think that's crazy, hold my beer.
The next one will get in line and say even crazier things and I think we need to stay focused on those people who are getting the job done.
I just think that there's sometimes you get personalities in here who just don't like Kevin and want to create issues for him and you know you have to get beyond that.
I mean your constituents all hate Kevin too?
You've got to do what's best for our country or best for your district in our country.
This isn't about whether or not we love or hate Kevin.
Frankly, I don't have either of those emotions directed at Kevin McCarthy.
I do hate where we are from a fiscal posture.
I do hate the debt that we've built up.
I do blame Kevin McCarthy for where we currently stand on those matters, but it's not a personal hatred.
The Bible says that we judge a tree by its fruit.
You can judge McCarthy's speakership by what it has produced, very nominally.
And you can certainly judge it for what it has failed to produce, especially when you're able to lash that to the promises that were made on the January 6th tapes, on term limits, on balanced budget amendments, on single-subject spending bills.
The guy fundamentally hasn't done the job.
And so that brings us to the number one subject that all of you are talking about on the live stream right now, the motion to vacate.
So the motion to vacate is not a complicated matter to introduce, but the vote itself could take some very interesting contours.
I could tell you right now that the opposition to Kevin McCarthy in the Republican conference has certainly grown since January when 20 stood against him.
But we could count on the Democrats in January to act like Democrats and vote against McCarthy.
What have I told you?
It's the Uniparty that actually runs this town.
And it's my concern and even my expectation that upon a motion to vacate, Hakeem Jeffries and House Democrats would bail out their guy, Kevin McCarthy.
And I base that view in part on what I heard from Hakeem Jeffries on Sunday, ABC's This Week.
Take a listen.
You and McCarthy both talked about working together when he became Speaker.
If it comes to this motion to vacate, and you hear Matt Gaetz and other McCarthy critics saying that they are moving in that direction, they're going to try to remove him as Speaker.
Will you, will Democrats help bail McCarthy out?
Are you going to be there to help him, or are you going to go along with the effort to oust him?
Well, we haven't given it any thought one way or the other because, John, as I've indicated, we're going to continue to focus on solving problems for the American people.
Now, if that moment presents itself, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
But what we should be focused on right now is avoiding an unnecessary government shutdown that will hurt the ability of our economy to continue to recover, which President Biden has led a tremendous recovery to date, And that shouldn't be interrupted because of partisan political gamesmanship.
You heard it.
We'll cross that bridge when we get there.
In that answer, Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries gives himself the maximum amount of operational flexibility to bail Kevin out or not bail Kevin out.
Now, whether or not McCarthy faces a motion to vacate is still entirely within his own hands.
If Tonight, he scheduled term limits, balanced budgets for votes.
If he committed that there wouldn't be a lumping of all these matters together, but indeed individual review of single-subject bills, even through a shutdown, if he did those things, I think he might, could save his speakership.
Unfortunately, what we've seen is a very rattled person who has been recalcitrant Naive and certainly in denial about the political circumstances that we face.
Now, I don't want to join Kevin McCarthy in that sense of denial and naivety.
And so when many of you are clamoring for the motion to vacate as you are, just think about that answer you just heard from Jeffries.
And if indeed I had to file a motion to vacate and the Democrats showed up to bail out Kevin McCarthy, I can assure you this.
I will let the country know every day that it is the Biden-McCarthy-Hakim Jeffries coalition that governs them.
And I will stand as the opposition to that uniparty and to that really, I think, dirty deal.
But I think we know that Kevin McCarthy is willing to make any deal to keep power.
And that's one of the things that's become deeply frustrating.
I want to cover another matter.
There's been this issue of the missile explosion in Ukraine.
Now, the war in Ukraine can best be characterized as a tragic yet totally avoidable mess.
And currently there's no end in sight.
The United States and NATO in their typically unserious fashion are now slow stumbling headfirst into one of the most serious geopolitical disasters of the 21st century.
It would make for a bad novel.
Forever wars and no foresight.
President Biden's guide to navigating foreign relations.
We've discussed at length the cost of this war, the burden it places on the backs of the American taxpayer, but there is a human cost.
This human cost is never discussed in DC circles, certainly not by the military-industrial complex or the journalists that play cover for the Washington regime.
But as President Trump recently stated on CNN, A foreseeable consequence to America's involvement in prolonged and failing endeavors here would certainly try to drive us to prevent this war, but At a minimum, we should try to get out of it.
This is not a view held by Samantha Power, the current director of USAID, who famously said when referring to all of the foreign policy blunders she's been involved in throughout her career, quote, What a fool.
What's their excuse?
Of course it's hard to To predict and dictate outcomes in places that are not our own land or our own neighborhood or our own hemisphere.
That's why some of us encourage foreign policy realism and restraint as opposed to costly misadventurism.
And you don't need a crystal ball to see where this all ends.
So let's take a look right now.
The New York Times reported yesterday that 15 civilians were killed and 30 others were injured when a missile struck a Ukrainian marketplace in eastern Ukraine, rendering some of the victims beyond recognition.
President Zelensky and his propaganda arm quickly labeled this as a Russian terror attack.
And you know the media took the bait.
But it turns out, as the New York Times reports, this was a Ukrainian air defense missile.
Certainly unintentional and maybe just the type of inadvertent collateral damage that we have come to too easily accept in modern wars.
The evidence is clear, and the reports on the ground confirm the direction of the missile, the blast radius, the shrapnel size, the eyewitness accounts from the site, as well as where the missile was launched from, mean only one thing.
The tragedy belongs to Ukraine.
And if this country doesn't get serious, and we don't work to put an end to this disastrous war, then the future tragedies will belong to us.
And maybe the next accident isn't a market in Ukraine, but a nuclear escalation involving the United States.
Never has the world needed strong, rational leadership like it does now.
And until President Trump is back in office, it looks like we aren't going to get it.
I want everyone to have the full benefit and context of where things stand in the disputes we're currently having with Speaker McCarthy.
Recently I took to the House floor and I gave remarks that have certainly gotten a great deal of reach, but I wanted the podcast episode to have the benefit of those remarks and arguments as well.
So we will send you out with five good minutes of my remarks.
And how to save the country, reverse the failed course of the House of Representatives, and put Speaker McCarthy on notice.
Thanks so much.
Take a listen.
On this very floor in January, the whole world witnessed a historic contest for House Speaker.
I rise today to serve notice.
Mr. Speaker, you are out of compliance with the agreement that allowed you to assume this role.
The path forward for the House of Representatives is to either bring you into immediate total compliance or remove you pursuant to a motion to vacate the chair.
We have had no vote on term limits or on balanced budgets as the agreement demanded and required.
There's been no full release of the January 6th tapes.
As you promised, there has been insufficient accountability for the Biden crime family.
And instead of cutting spending to raise the debt limit, you relied on budgetary gimmicks and rescissions.
So that you ultimately ended up serving as the valet to underwrite Biden's debt and advance his spending agenda.
Mr. Speaker, you boasted in January that we would use the power of the subpoena and the power of the purse.
But here we are, eight months later, and we haven't even sent the first subpoena to Hunter Biden.
That's how you know that the rushed and, you know, somewhat rattled performance you just saw from the speaker isn't real.
At this point, during Democrat control over the House of Representatives, they had already brought in Don Jr. three times.
And we haven't even sent the first subpoena to Hunter Biden.
Power of the subpoena.
And power of the purse, only thing the 118th Congress is known for at this point is electing Kevin McCarthy speaker and underwriting Biden's debt.
And unfortunately, there's only one of those things we can remediate at this time.
Power of the purse.
Our leadership right now is asking us to vote for a continuing resolution.
A vote for a continuing resolution is a vote to continue the Green New Deal, a vote to continue inflationary spending, and in the most troubling of fashions, a vote for a continuing resolution is a vote to continue the election interference of Jack Smith.
Mr. Speaker, we told you how to use the power of the purse.
Individual, single-subject spending bills that would allow us to have specific review, programmatic analysis, and that would allow us to zero out the salaries of the bureaucrats who have broken bad, targeted President Trump, or cut sweetheart deals for Hunter Biden.
September 30th is rapidly approaching and you have not put us in a position to succeed.
There is no way to pass all the individual appropriations bills now.
And it's not like we didn't know when September 30th was going to show up on the calendar.
I must be better, you must be better, and this House must be better, for it is the last best hope for tens of millions of Republicans.
We demand real oversight against this weaponized government.
Just look at the bribery.
If tens of millions of dollars flowing from foreign corrupt people into the bank accounts of the Biden family wasn't enough for actual impeachment, why were we even looking?
Joe Biden deserves impeachment for converting the Vice Presidency into an ATM machine for virtually his entire family.
We all see it.
We all know it.
Now moments ago, Speaker McCarthy endorsed an impeachment inquiry.
This is a baby step following weeks of pressure from House Conservatives to do more.
We must move faster.
Now, I will concede that the votes I have called for will likely fail.
Term limits, balanced budgets, maybe even impeachment.
I am prepared for that eventuality because at least if we take votes, the American people get to see who's fighting for them and who's willing to tolerate more corruption and business as usual.
Mr. Speaker, dust off our written January agreement.
You have a copy.
Reflect on the spirit of that agreement and build on the start that we had moments ago.
Begin to comply.
No continuing resolutions.
Individual spending bills are bust.
Votes on balanced budgets and term limits.
Subpoenas for Hunter Biden and the members of the Biden family who've been grifting off of this country and the impeachment for Joe Biden that he so richly deserves.
Do these things or face a motion to vacate the chair.
And let me alert the country.
A motion to vacate might not pass at first, but it might before the 15th vote.
And if Democrats bail out McCarthy, as they may do, then I will lead the resistance to this Uniparty and the Biden-McCarthy-Jeffreys government that they are attempting to build.
I know that Washington isn't a town where people are known for keeping their word.
Well, Speaker McCarthy, I'm here to hold you to yours.
I yield back.
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