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June 13, 2024 - Firebrand - Matt Gaetz
51:44
Episode 167 LIVE: Disorder at the Border – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz
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Thank you.
Matt Gaetz, the biggest firebrand inside the House of Representatives.
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 Gates, for holding the line.
Matt Gates is a courageous man.
If we had hundreds of Matt Gates 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 Gates.
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.
Transcending the Firebrand. - Welcome back to Firebrand.
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So much has been going on today.
We had a big hearing regarding the conduct of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
We've been taking DEI and ESG to task and politics may be ruining dating.
But first we are going to have a deep dive into the border.
We've talked a lot about the border on this platform.
And it is amazing the journey we have been on.
Because as we are having this discussion, Joe Biden is now taking unilateral action that he says will close the border.
Executive action that he himself...
Refused to take as a candidate.
Totally disclaimed.
Said it was a terrible idea.
Then said it was impossible without this plan to let in 5,000 people every day.
But now Joe Biden is taking action saying he's going to seal the border.
Do you believe it?
I don't know.
The Joe Biden I remember who blew The total doors off the border was the guy in the Democratic presidential primary debates when he was running for this position in 2016. This was the defining moment for Joe Biden's border policies.
It was said in this debate.
Take a listen.
I would in fact make sure that there is, we immediately surge to the border.
All those people are seeking asylum.
They deserve to be heard.
That's who we are.
We're a nation that says if you want to flee and you're fleeing oppression, you should come.
We should not be locking people up.
We should be making sure we change the circumstance as we did, why they would leave in the first place.
And those who come seeking asylum, we should immediately have the capacity to absorb them Keep them safe until they can be heard.
A 15 second, if you could, if you wish to answer.
Should someone who is here without documents, and that is his only offense, should that person be deported?
That person should not be the focus of deportation.
We should fundamentally change the way we deal with them.
A lot of you have been talking tonight about these government health care plans that you've proposed in one form or another.
This is a show of hands question, and hold them up for a moment so people can see.
Raise your hand if your government plan would provide coverage for undocumented immigrants.
Okay.
There it is.
There's your Democratic Party, all raising their hand to give free health care to illegal immigrants.
When you see that, do you even blame the illegal immigrants for coming?
But you have to know what they ruined and what they destroyed.
They destroyed a system that was working, instituted by President Trump.
Take a listen.
How do their records on the border compare?
Well, under President Biden each year, there have been more and more border crossings.
According to the Office of Homeland Security Statistics, there are around 2.46 million encounters by Border Patrol agents in the Southwest in fiscal year 2023. In 2022, there were 2.34 million encounters.
In 2021, there were 1.7 million.
Compare that to the four years of the Trump administration.
And it is higher.
On average, from fiscal year 2017 through 2020, when former President Trump was in office, encounters averaged around 572,000 each year.
A record 8.6 million migrants have crossed into the U.S. since President Biden took office.
The Border Patrol Union telling us Mr. Biden should not have reversed Trump border policies.
They were very effective for us as Border Patrol agents in securing the border.
In NBC News poll shows 57% of Americans say Mr. Trump can best secure the border.
Just 22% say Mr. Biden will.
We're back live.
It's funny on the live stream comments, people are suggesting that that was a very different Joe Biden.
We saw in that debate than we saw now.
It's amazing how much he's lost off his fastball.
An anti-mom gene says, I paused TimCast replay to watch this.
I was on TimCast last night.
We got into a lot, as we typically do on that program.
But when you had Trump putting downward pressure on the border...
Then you have Biden saying he's going to give freebies, free healthcare, free housing, you name it, to illegals.
Then this is what you get.
A total stampede on the border.
Take a listen.
Free for all at America's southern border.
A group of migrants crossing into the U.S. were spotted wearing Biden, please let us in t-shirts.
And while the White House refuses to call what is going on a crisis, a leaked memo says border agents are being overwhelmed.
According to Axios, hundreds of unaccompanied minors are being taken into custody on a daily basis.
And Border Patrol is struggling to deal with the skyrocketing number.
So let's do this Taylor Swift style, okay?
First, there was the, you know, Trump limitation on immigration, getting the border under control era.
Then we had the Biden promise of freebies era.
Then after that, you get the border is secure era.
Remember that era?
Remember, right as Biden gets in, they peel back these Trump policies on day one.
They offer the freebies.
All those people show up with their Biden let me in shirts on, undeniably handed out by some sort of NGO that you're probably funding.
And then they say the border is secure.
Let's all relive that moment.
The bottom line is that U.S. borders are not open.
The immigration situation here in Del Rio has never been this bad.
Just yesterday alone, they apprehended more than 900 migrants in total.
The restrictions at our southwest border have not changed.
Border Patrol here completely overwhelmed, overstretched.
They can't be everywhere at once.
This was a human smuggling stash house that was busted in Alton, Texas yesterday.
More than 100 migrants being kept there by those human smugglers.
The United States continues to enforce its immigration laws.
We are prepared.
These migrants continue to show up by the hundreds pretty much every single hour.
The number of migrants under that bridge has now swelled to more than 14,000.
Individuals and families continue to be sent back.
But that's mostly single men being sent back.
A lot of the women, children, and family units will be able to stay.
They'll be processed and released into the U.S. Consistent with enforcing our laws.
Do you have a message for U.S. President Joe Biden?
Yeah, I have a message for Joe Biden.
We see what he's doing in the all of our lives.
Ghana.
You're from Ghana.
You're from Haiti.
The federal government has apparently been moving illegal immigrants all around the country in the dark.
The bottom line is that U.S. borders are not open.
The Border is Secure era actually came with some startling admissions.
I had the opportunity to question Alejandro Mayorkas in this time, and what I wanted him to focus on is the fact that as people were coming into our country committing crimes, the people who were the victims of those crimes were the collateral damage of these bad policy choices.
Take a listen.
You have the lowest deportation rate in the history of the department, right?
Your data that you cite is misleading.
No, it's your data.
This is actually what your own agency is reporting.
So, do you think that it just might be the case that one reason that we will encounter the highest number of illegal immigrations in our nation's history, This month and next month because everybody knows that even if they come here, even if they go through the removal procedures, even if a judge issues a final order, you still think there might be more due process and you have no plan to remove them.
And then when I ask you what the plan is, you say, oh, well, resources, I got to make finite decisions.
I go back to my first question.
How many ICE agents to remove the 1.2 million?
Congressman, I'd be pleased to provide you with a resourcing And I think it's telling that you got plans for pronouns and you got plans for misinformation, but when it comes to the plan to remove the people that have had due process, you don't have one at all.
Now, 800,000 people have encountered your CBP agents and those folks have been released into the country.
Like, some of those people are going to commit crimes, aren't they?
Congressman, may I have a moment?
To answer your questions?
Will some of the 800,000 commit crimes, yes or no?
Undoubtedly.
Undoubtedly.
And so the Americans who are the victims of the crimes for the people that you release in the country are collateral damage that you are willing to accept in order to have our border function as a turnstile.
You're willing to accept that collateral damage.
Congressman, I couldn't disagree with you more.
Let me give you, if I can, some data.
More than the data, how about this?
How did it feel to you when you went to the border and the Border Patrol agents turned their back on you?
One Border Patrol agent turned his back on me and I addressed that as the leader of the Department of Homeland Security.
So if I can return to data because I want to Make sure that you have accurate information.
Everyone knows that you have more people coming in than ever, and you're removing fewer people than ever, and it's because you have no plan and because it's on purpose.
See, I don't buy the theory that you don't know how to do this.
I think you're actually a highly competent dude.
But the reality is, your plan is to bring these people in and to send the message to the smugglers and the criminals that they will never have to leave.
That's why your workforce turns their back on you.
And you have tools that you could use to deport these people.
You have facial recognition.
You have flights going all over the country dropping people off.
And I think we ought to use the best tools in the country to find these folks, round them up like they were at the Capitol on January 6th, and deport every last one of them.
I yield back.
Treason is the word we're seeing on the live stream and a lot of frustration over the limited removals of people who have gone through the entire process and he wouldn't do it.
Now, what do we do about this?
What do we do about the fact that you got Mayorkas who's gone lawless.
You've got the border that's been flung open.
House conservatives repeatedly call for fixes on the border, demands on the border, closure of the border, before we fund every other woke and weaponized element of this government.
This is the essence of the House conservative argument.
No border, no funding.
Take a listen.
Well, right now, my position is very clear.
No security, no funding.
I believe that we're seeing an increased understanding by my Republican colleagues, because guess what?
They were at home in August.
They're getting their butts kicked up and down by their constituents from New York to Texas, all the way out to, you know, throughout the entire country.
They're seeing the reality of what's happening on the ground, and Republicans will be a total and complete failure.
A failure if we do not hold the line and demand that President Biden come to the table, sit down with us, and pass legislation that will no longer fund a Department of Homeland Security at war with the American people.
That is it.
There is no negotiation on that.
Secure the border or you shouldn't fund the Department of Homeland Security.
More and more of my colleagues are starting to understand that.
Unfortunately, some Senate Republicans are still hand-wringing around about shutdowns.
The American people are tired of all that Beltway speak.
They want their country back.
Speaker Mike Johnson today led a delegation of some 60 GOP House members to Eagle Pass, Texas, where the crisis again is at a breaking point.
And there are five Republican House members who are kind of branching off and doing their own thing here in Eagle Pass today, away from the Speaker's event.
They include Matt Goetz, Andy Biggs, Bob Good, Eli Crane, and Matt Rosendale.
They spoke to me about an hour ago telling me they are willing to shut this government down if this border isn't fixed.
Take a listen.
No more money for this bureaucracy of his government until you've brought this border under control.
Shut the border down or shut the government down.
We are all committed to that.
There's a national security issue that is taking place here on the southern border, and that's what it's going to take to hold this administration accountable.
That was Matt Rosendale, Andy Biggs, and Chip Roy making what was a pretty solid argument.
I joined them in that perspective and indeed in that trip.
But that's not what happened.
Instead of getting demands on the border, instead of stopping the flow, instead of making Joe Biden reverse course on the demolition of the Trump policies that were working, we got this.
Take a listen.
And we have a Fox 5 newsletter.
Congress rushes to pass a bill to avoid a government shutdown, at least for now.
Shirin Rajay joining us with the latest from Capitol Hill.
Shirin?
Yeah, Jim, Angie, the winter weather expected in D.C. tomorrow likely added to the pressure to hold a vote today ahead of Friday's deadline.
Congress took the crucial step earlier this evening, voting to pass a short-term spending bill to President Biden.
If signed by the president, the measure will keep agencies open again.
This is just temporary until March 1st, which is now the new shutdown deadline.
About half of House Republicans join Democrats today in passing this stopgap measure, but some on the far right are still skeptical of using the temporary measure again for the third time.
In just moments, I have to go to the House floor and I have to vote against this turd sandwich of a continuing resolution.
This thing's apparently going to March 1, March 8. No demand on border.
It's not sufficient.
It's not enough.
It's not what the House of Representatives should be doing.
So he surrendered the leverage and the advantage that we had at that time by unlocking all of Joe Biden's spending ambitions in the absence of that downward pressure on the border.
And then we got this.
We got the argument.
Remember the Lankford bill?
We talked about the Lankford bill a ton.
That was the bill that said, well, we're going to do the executive actions to shut down the border, but only after 5,000 people come in each day.
Remember that?
Remember that crazy Lankford era?
Take a listen.
A bipartisan bill would be good for America to help fix our broken immigration system and allow speedy access for those who deserve to be here.
President Biden on Saturday making a lofty promise to lawmakers if they can get a deal done on immigration.
If that bill were the law today, I'd shut down the border right now and fix it quickly.
The White House has been working with a bipartisan group of senators for weeks to reach an agreement on the first major overhaul of the country's immigration system since the 1990s.
Among the changes, it would reportedly give the White House the authority to deny asylum seekers when migrant crossings surpass a certain number.
When we can no longer detain and deport, when we can't process the people and actually make a decision right there at the border, then we'll actually turn those folks back around to Mexico and say, we can no longer do this.
While I have people from around the country and back home that say, do a Republican-only bill, just get all of our priorities and none of them, none of theirs, I smile at them and say, welcome to governance.
We understood from the beginning we're not going to solve everything.
We're not.
We knew from the beginning it's not going to be perfect, but we also knew the status quo is untenable.
The National Border Patrol Council gave this statement, the Border Patrol Act of 2024 will give the United States Border Patrol agents authorities codified in law that we have not had in the past.
While not perfect, and I'll agree with him on that, the Border Patrol Act of 2024 is a step in the right direction and it is far better than the current status quo.
Governance, Senator Langford lectures us.
We need to understand governance.
As House conservatives, we knew what that governance could look like.
It didn't have to look like some compromise with Chuck Schumer.
We just had to put pressure on Biden to not do the things he did by executive order when he first came in that he promised on his campaign.
And no one made the argument better than Mike Johnson.
Take a listen.
And it's important to point out, and I want to make this very clear, the President's statement on Friday, he falsely claimed, it was a false claim, that he needs Congress to pass a new law to allow him to close the southern border.
He knows that's not true.
The President has been around Washington a long time, okay?
And the President repeated his claim yesterday on the White House lawn.
He said, quote, I've done all I can do.
Just give me the power I've asked for.
That's all I can do.
Just give me the power.
I've asked for the very day I got it off.
Give me the border patrol.
Give me the people, give me the people, the judges.
Give me the people who can stop this and make it work less.
Let's set the record straight.
What he said is demonstrably false.
I've explained to him specifically.
I read the president of the United States, the law, the black letter law, on the phone about two and a half weeks ago.
I said, Mr. President, It says very clearly, you have all the tools and the executive authority necessary to reverse the catastrophe that you have created.
He has those tools right now and he has since day one.
The Immigration and Nationality Act, for example, coupled with recent Supreme Court president, give the president, quote, ample authority to suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens or impose any restrictions he may deem appropriate.
That's the broadest authority that Congress probably has ever given a president.
And it's been there for a long, long time.
In fact, the very provision that I just read you was used by the Obama administration more than 19 times.
It's been used, I think, 69 times by presidents since 1980, but not by President Biden.
He pretends it's not there.
Any attempt by this president to pretend that he's a bystander bereft of any ability to secure the border is patently absurd.
And we're going to continue to remind the American people of that.
So it's absurd for the president not to take those 64 actions that Mike Johnson talked about.
But that's when Joe Biden rejects the use of executive authority, says, no, no, no, no, it cannot be by my hand.
This can only happen through a bill.
He said so in the State of the Union.
Here are the receipts.
My team began serious negotiations with a bipartisan group of senators.
The result was a bipartisan bill with the toughest set of border security reforms we've ever seen.
Oh, you don't think so?
Oh, you don't like that bill, huh?
That conservatives got together and said it was a good bill?
I'll be darned.
That's amazing.
The long-awaited border security bill is done.
Already facing backlash in some sectors, as the text claims there is no amnesty for anyone already here.
These are just some of the highlights.
50,000 new visas per year for five years.
$650 million led over from the Trump years to build the wall.
They'll start finishing, get about 50 miles.
Increase ICE funds and detention capacity to 50,000.
Shut down authority.
After an average of 5,000 encounters a day.
Here's what Speaker Johnson said.
I have seen enough.
This bill is even worse than we expected.
It won't come close to any of the border catastrophe the president has created.
As the lead Democrat negotiator proclaimed, under this legislation, the border never closes.
If this bill reaches the House, it will be dead on arrival.
Your thoughts?
Yeah, unfortunately he would step out and be able to see that right away before obviously he had had a chance to be able to read it as well and to be able to go through it.
The key aspect of this again is, are we as Republicans going to have press conferences and complain the border's bad and then intentionally leave it open?
After the worst month in American history in December, now we've got to actually determine are we going to just complain about things or are we going to actually address and to change as many things as we can?
No one is saying we shouldn't change everything we could change.
The issue is who ought to do the changing and what is the appropriate remedy given the harm that was done.
And as we've showcased in this episode, the original sin of the Biden administration was repealing the Trump policies with their executive order.
And yet, after all this, after the...
I'm going to give free stuff era, after the border is open era, after it has to be a bill era, after there can't be executive action.
Lo and behold, we get Joe Biden doing the thing he said could not be done, taking executive action on the border and still, without a hint of shame or irony, blaming Republicans.
Take a listen.
So today, I'm moving past Republican obstruction and using the executive authorities available to me as president to do what I can on my own to address the border.
Frankly, I would have preferred to address this issue through bipartisan legislation because that's the only way to actually get the kind of system we have now that's broken, fixed, to hire more Border Patrol agents, more asylum officers, more judges.
But Republicans have left me with no choice.
Today, I'm announcing actions to bar migrants who cross our southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum.
Migrants will be restricted from receiving asylum at our southern border unless they seek it after entering through an established lawful process.
And those who seek to come to the United States legally, for example, by making an appointment and coming to a port of entry, asylum will still be available to them.
Still available.
But if an individual chooses not to use our legal pathways, if they choose to come without permission and against the law, they'll be restricted from receiving asylum and staying in the United States.
This action will help us gain control of our border, restore order to the process.
This ban will remain in place until the number of people trying to enter illegally is reduced to a level that our system can effectively manage.
Man, I did not plan for this to be a feature of this episode.
But if you just watch the clips of Biden in the debates, and then you watch these current clips, the guy looks like he's aged 100 years.
It doesn't even look like the same guy.
And of course, even though he's taking this action, here's why it won't work.
They're still giving health care to illegals.
They're still setting up sanctuary cities where in jurisdictions like New York...
A huge percentage of the overall hotel rooms are for the illegal aliens.
You're paying higher prices when you go visit the Big Apple because there's less inventory for Americans because you're paying out of your pocket for illegals to get those benefits.
Linnie Bell in Washington State, Spokane County.
She's mad that Her only ballot option is a mail-in ballot.
Says it's not right.
You move to Washington.
Florida's ready when you are.
It's always been that way in the Pacific Northwest.
A little strange to me.
Like what?
Is it the rain?
You guys can't go out and vote in person?
I'm with you.
All right.
We got to go over the vestiges of these Biden choices that are going to impair this executive action.
The first, of course, is the free health care that was promised in the debates.
Let's get an update on where that stands.
This morning, President Joe Biden is extending Affordable Care Act coverage to include recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. In a new federal regulation, the administration is modifying the definition of lawfully present so DACA residents can get access to certain health care coverage.
DACA allows undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to live and work legally in the country.
Health and Human Services estimate that 100,000 uninsured DACA recipients will likely take advantage of this new rule.
When people in the third world see that illegal aliens are getting free benefits and free health care, they will come here.
And I don't even particularly blame them.
I blame us.
I blame the pull factors that we create.
Sometimes we create the push factors, but we definitely create the pull with policies like that.
And what's the consequence?
The once great cities of America being overrun.
No sanctuary from my standpoint.
More like a hellhole.
Watch and listen.
These migrants, whose journey brought them to the United States, now making their way through the American justice system in handcuffs.
So in recent months, a wave of migrant crime has washed over our city.
In this alleged crime spree, the NYPD says 13 men and a woman were behind a lucrative robbery ring that was being driven by moped thefts, then used for violent muggings across the city in recent months, just like this woman who was dragged in Brooklyn.
Since the arrival back in April of 2023 of migrants, this type of crime, this pattern, we're seeing a significant increase in.
The NYPD has also seen increases in retail and subway thefts, pickpockets, and even human trafficking.
So cops are increasing foot patrols around migrant shelters and going after the ringleaders and seizing scooters, some 20,000.
This was a scene last Thursday at around 11 a.m.
According to the NYPD, they responded to a 911 call about a man causing a disturbance at the migrant shelter on Randalls Island.
Police say they saw the migrants getting in a verbal dispute with security, so they removed him from the shelter.
But not before the other migrants in the shelter started throwing things at the officers.
Mayor Eric Adams says around 3,000 people live at that shelter.
It's also not the first time police have had to respond to a situation there.
Adams on Tuesday also responded to questions about the incident that occurred at Times Square.
According to police, they asked a group of migrants acting disorderly to disperse.
And when one man refused, they attempted to place him under arrest, which is when a group of around a dozen migrants ganged up on the officers, kicking them repeatedly.
Under no circumstance should we ever give the belief to anyone, migrant or non-migrant, that you have the authorization to try to grab a police officer's gun, to kick an officer, to fight an officer.
Now to a significant increase in people experiencing homelessness in Chicago.
According to the city, a one-night snapshot shows the number of unhoused people has tripled year over year.
The city's annual count explains how migrants have played a big role in that growing number.
A snapshot of homelessness in Chicago released by the city shows nearly 19,000 people experienced homelessness on a single night in January, roughly three times the number reported in that same analysis in 2023, due in large part to the influx of migrants.
Meanwhile, hotels in Santa Monica and Los Angeles are being accused of hiring migrants to replace striking workers.
The LA County District Attorney's Office and the Hotel Workers Union now saying some of the hotels are exploiting the desperation of the migrants by giving them these jobs without paying them fair wages.
The group making the accusations say some of the migrants even hired were on the buses sent to LA from Texas.
We are back live.
The obvious answer to these questions is a return to the Trump policies.
It could be done immediately and I think it just may be in January of 2025. A lot of hot takes on the live stream.
Ditka on Getter says Chip Roy sucks.
I totally disagree with that.
Chip Roy is in a lot of ways the intellectual leader of House conservatives on a lot of these major policy questions that we have to address and he's a good partner of mine.
And we had another comment.
Donald, I wish we had Matt in Idaho instead of the rhinos we send back.
Except Russ Fulcher will keep him.
I certainly agree with you as to Russ Fulcher.
He's a great guy, certainly not a rhino.
Idaho is one of the few states I have never been to.
But I hear it is becoming a refugee camp for Californians who want to get to a state where you can own a gun and not have to pay everything that you own in taxes while people defecate on your streets and make quality of life miserable.
One thing that makes quality of life miserable is the work of a lot of the woke corporatists in boardrooms, and they are doing so in a way that puts ESG and DEI at the forefront of the otherwise free economy that we would like to be able to enjoy in the United States.
But when massive woke power centers start driving decisions in corporate boards, then you see more ESG, higher prices, more DEI, more racism.
No one was better at laying this out, laying out how.
The ESG cartel is working to drive up your prices.
Then House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan in a hearing this week.
Take a listen.
I now recognize the chairman of the full committee, Mr. Jordan, for his opening.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, witnesses, for being here.
It's good to see our former colleague, the Attorney General, Attorney General Ellison.
If you conspire to reduce the output of a good, it's called restraint of trade.
And when you form a cartel to limit supply, it's restraint of trade.
And more importantly, it's illegal.
And it's illegal because it drives up the cost to consumers, to Americans, to the people we represent.
And it sure looks like that's exactly what these three organizations are engaged in.
Now, they'll say it's for a good cause.
We're going to save the planet.
Never mind that the cost of food is going to go up, the cost of fuel is going to go up, there's going to be less airline flights, there's going to be less cars.
Never mind all that.
We're saving the world.
The courts have been clear.
Very clear.
So, quote, social justifications proffered for restraint of trade do not make it any less unlawful.
How does this conspiracy work?
Ceres, CalPERS, and Arjuna, our witnesses today, formed this group called Climate Action 100. I'm sure the chairman talked about it already.
They describe themselves as the global navy in a war to decarbonize companies.
700 member investors Sixty-eight trillion dollars in assets.
Those member investors are required to sign this statement and agree, as Mr. Massey just pointed out, the chairman just pointed out.
They push companies that they invest in to disclose and reduce emissions, in some cases reduce the output of their product.
And what do we know about these groups?
Here's what Siri said, just a quote from them.
Siri's objective is to, quote, make access to finance dependent on the transition to net zero by fundamentally rewriting the rules of capital formation.
Arjuna said this, U.S. is facing a second civil war led by a pro-Christian agenda.
This war will be fought by the investors who have a voice in how corporate America responds to this pro-Christian.
Wow.
What does this global war, this civil war, mean to consumers, to the American people?
If these guys get their way, what does it mean?
Even though the demand for energy is on the way up, more energy demand around the world, they say fossil fuels should stay in the ground.
They want to, literally, this is in their, they want to end the internal combustion engine in 10 years.
They want to reduce air travel by 12 percent.
They even want to restrict the amount of beef we consume.
One and a half hamburgers a week.
Chairman Massey eats that every meal from his grass-fed beef on his farm in Northern Kentucky.
But oh, no, no.
One and a half is all you're allowed a week, Thomas.
Forget Mr. Massey, Mr. Chairman.
They want to make it, think about this, more expensive to drive, more expensive to fly.
When you're waiting around the train station for the high-speed rail, you can order a hamburger while you're waiting, unless you've already had one that week.
Less coal, less cars, less cows.
They even said cows are the new coal.
This is, I mean, this is crazy.
Oh, and by the way, the Democrats agree with all this.
I want to play a quick clip from last Congress.
One of our colleagues, when we had Chevron BP, we had the oil and gas companies in front of us.
Here's what, here's, watch this, this questioning from Mr. Kahn and one of our colleagues.
Are you embarrassed as an American company that your production is going up while the European counterparts are going down?
Congressman, as we have already heard...
That's enough.
I mean, we got the point.
He's actually wanting oil companies to produce less oil.
I thought when you're in business to do something, you kind of want to make more of the product, sell more of the product.
I mean, that's what we're up against right here.
That's why this hearing is so important.
Mr. Chairman, I thank you for putting this together.
It's important that we stop where climate action wants to take the country.
I yield back.
I could not let Jim Jordan have all the fun.
I wanted to get my licks in with these folks, particularly when it comes to their pushing of DEI. And if you can hang with me through this five-minute clip, the real delicious morsel is at the end because you're going to learn that the person I'm asking questions to is not just a DEI purveyor, he is also a victim.
Take a listen.
Mr. Bienvenu, how much do you invest each year on behalf of how many of your members?
We manage a $500 billion portfolio on behalf of our 2.2 million members and beneficiaries.
And you've highlighted your principal responsibility is return for those beneficiaries, right?
Correct.
Everything that we do every day is about generating returns to pay benefits over generations.
You've worked there 20 years.
You've been the principal deputy since 2020, right?
I was named the deputy chief investment officer in April of 2020. Okay, great.
And so I think there's some parallels between what's going on with ESG and DEI. You don't deny that CalPERS has a DEI agenda, right?
CalPERS is all about generating returns to pay benefits, and every topic that we approach is through that lens.
Well, does DEI improve the returns to your investors?
I think part of good governance of a company is having diverse perspectives brought to bear as they manage that company.
And I feel strongly about that for the investment team that I lead also.
We want diverse perspectives.
And what is the evidence that you rely on for the belief that the DEI agenda will produce better returns?
Is there any study, report, analysis?
You know, as an investor, I read research reports constantly.
I probably read five, six, eight of them a day.
So over the course of my career, that's probably been thousands.
I know.
I'm just wondering if there's one that kind of sticks in your mind.
You can say, Congressman, I'm here to do good by these 2.2 million beneficiaries.
And my embrace of DEI, this is what I can point to as the evidence that that's helping them.
Every data-based study can tell lots of different things, and every data works that way.
That's the way investing works.
And remember that when we're focused on investing, we're focused on how we...
Mr. Bambi, you can either cite a study or you can't.
You can't, right?
In the thousands of studies that I... Just name one?
Okay.
Well, here's what.
I found a study that actually CalPERS did.
You guys did this study.
It's entitled Emerging Diverse Manager Data Report.
And I'm citing from the sixth page of report where it says, since inception, current diverse managers generally underperformed non-diverse managers in the asset class in the policy benchmark.
Are you familiar with this report?
Can I see a copy of that study, please?
Well, Mr. Chairman, I seek unanimous consent to enter into the record.
The Emerging Diverse Manager Report Published by CalPERS.
Without objection.
I'm not able to show it to you now, but you don't have any basis to disagree with the agency you've been a part of leading, saying that the diverse, the DEI hires aren't doing as well as the non-DEI hires.
As I say, when we think about diversity, we think about diverse perspectives being brought to bear on investment decisions.
Right, but okay, so those are two different things, Mr. Biammanou, because on one hand, there's provide returns for my investors.
And what your own data says is that your DEI hires underperform there.
And then on the other hand, you say, well, these diverse perspectives are really important.
But I worry about the market manipulation and the bullying, because as I review what CalPERS has put out under its own investment guidelines, you brag about the fact that you voted against 768 directors at the companies you invest in, Most recently, and then in the prior year, you'd only voted against 133 directors.
So is CalPERS voting against people as directors for companies based on their skin color?
We take up every vote independently based on the merits of the vote itself.
Right, but do you ever consider, like, someone's skin color?
Because it's pretty immutable.
People don't choose to be white or black or Asian.
They just are.
We choose based on what will make the best oversight board for that company.
Can you deny, under oath, that CalPERS is voting against directors based on the color of their skin?
I can tell you we make every vote based on what will make that the best board for oversight of that company.
Right, but the best board is actually not doing so well.
So, Mr. Chairman, let's look at the scorecard.
In the state of Florida, where we aren't pushing ESG and DEI, the Florida retirement system is netting a 7.5% notch for the fiscal year.
May I enter that under the record?
Without objection.
And CalPERS reports only 5.8% for 2022 to 2023. Can I enter that under the record as well?
Without objection.
So you're not performing as well.
Your own data says that your DEI hires aren't performing as well, and you were there for 20 years, and you applied twice for the chief investment position, and you were passed over for that position twice, and you said you weren't going to apply for it the third time because you'd been passed over twice, and I guess they've hired an immigrant to do that job instead.
Do you think that maybe you were passed over for some of these DEI reasons?
Cowper's hiring decisions is their own hiring decisions, and I'm not really a part of that candidly.
Clearly you aren't, and I think we all know why.
I yield back.
There is a part of me that felt pity for this person I was asking questions to, but these corrupt and racist systems only exist because there are people like that that are willing to advance it and demand it.
The great irony is he may have been a victim of that very system and his own desires for career advancement.
I want to get to a moment that we had in the House Judiciary Committee today regarding the testimony of Alvin Bragg that we would like to have before our body regarding coordination that his office had with any federal entities in the lawfare prosecution-persecution of President Trump.
Now, D.A. Bragg was the subject, Today's Judiciary Committee hearing, but he wasn't there and I'm getting frustrated because I worry that Time is running out on our ability to hold these people accountable and We seem to be very eager to send strongly worded letters and demands and invitations I think we should be sending subpoenas and then enforcing those subpoenas with
great rigor and I Presented that opportunity today in the House Judiciary Committee and would love to show it to you.
Take a listen.
We are here at the hearing on the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and the essential ingredient we seem to be missing is the Manhattan District Attorney, which I guess Mr. Roy would be a lot like going to the Salt Lick BBQ and not getting the moist brisket.
To Mr. Jordan's credit, great credit, he sent a letter to Mr. Bragg on May 31st inviting him to come participate, and we got sort of a nasty gram back from Mr. Bragg on June 7th.
Mr. Chairman, I seek unanimous consent to enter into the record the June 7th response from A.G. Bragg.
Objection.
I'm sorry, D.A. Bragg.
And in this letter, I'm going to quote from it, Ms. Foley.
Bragg says, this office is committed to voluntary cooperation.
Do you believe that?
No.
The letter continues, that cooperation includes making the district attorney available to provide testimony on behalf of the office at an agreed upon date.
Do you believe that?
I'll believe it when I see it.
It goes on to say that they're evaluating the propriety of allowing an assistant district attorney to testify publicly about the matter.
Now, that assistant district attorney is the one who downstream from DOJ, right?
So you think they're going to provide Mr. Colangelo here I would not expect Mr. Colangelo to show up.
And do you base that opinion on the lawsuit that Alvin Bragg filed against Jim Jordan in his official capacity in the Committee on the Judiciary?
I saw some of that, yeah.
I mean, look, you have a legitimate legislative purpose to be inquiring as to what you're doing, so they have no leg to stand on.
But they're not going to come because we ask.
And they're not going to come because they say so.
And we learned that by observing our dear friends at the oversight committee.
Because this will surprise a lot of Americans.
After hearing the enthusiasm around oversight of the Biden crime family, we never sent a subpoena to Hunter Biden to give live testimony before Congress.
Let that sink in.
The Republican House majority has never subpoenaed Hunter Biden for live testimony in public.
We've never done it.
And I worry that, you know, we're going about the same kind of process here, and we may end up there in July right after sentencing with an empty Alvin Bragg nameplate and an empty Matthew Colangelo nameplate.
And then we'll start the process again on letters and subpoenas and accommodation.
And I've just grown I'm tired of it.
And I think you're right, Ms. Foley, that this is all professional wrestling.
There's no real effort to bring these people to bear.
Will the gentleman yield for a question?
No.
One second.
I got a motion.
Mr. Chairman, I move under Committee Rule 4 and Clause 2M of House Rule 11 to require the attendance and testimony of Alvin Bragg and Matthew Colangelo On July 12th to discuss their involvement in the Trump prosecution, including their office's coordination with the Department of Justice.
Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Bragg and Mr. Colangelo have agreed to come on the 12th.
If they don't show up on the 12th, they will be subpoenaed.
So I would ask the gentleman if he could withdraw the motion.
They're coming.
We worked hard over the weekend to make sure they're coming.
And if they change their mind, they will get a subpoena from the committee Requiring them, compelling them to be here.
And then if they choose to go to court on that, I think we'll beat them in court like we did the first time when we got Mr. Pomerantz to come testify in front of the, uh, to come be deposed in front of the committee.
But Mr. Chairman, time, time then becomes determinative.
The problem is if we're going to bring these people in, let's go, I've made a motion to subpoena these people now.
Pursuant to the rules and I want to vote on my motion or I want someone to move to table it.
You made the motion to subpoena them for the 12th?
I moved under Committee Rule 4, Clause 2M of House Rule 11 to require the attendance.
I moved to table the...
I second that.
The committee will come to order.
The gentleman from Florida has two minutes remaining on his five minutes of questions.
Mr. Chairman, I will withdraw my motion based on the representations not only that you've made but that the ranking member has made in our colloquy previously that Mr. Bragg and Mr. Colangelo will be here and willing to answer our questions.
SLB on Rumble says, tired of the corrupt Dems getting away with murder, and we'll vote for food, replied, their Republican friends are even worse.
I am used to civil law practice where even when someone agrees to come in and offer testimony, you issue a subpoena to undergird that so that you have a basis to actually compel responses rather than just their physical attendance.
Because I worry you could have people not show up.
Our own witness said she didn't think they'd show.
Or if they show up to not answer the questions.
And if you don't have a subpoena, then there's no mechanism to enforce for the information we need for our legitimate legislative work and for our oversight work.
Enforcement of subpoenas creates an ethic That I think is very helpful in resisting the corruption of this town.
And I give Chairman Jordan deference.
He's been doing this longer and better than I have.
And he believes that they will show up the day after sentencing and answer our questions.
And I certainly hope That Chairman Jordan is correct about that.
Because if he's not, and then we've got to go back through this entire process, we will have lost valuable time, and they will have gotten away with it because we did not send a subpoena.
Just like we've never sent a subpoena for live testimony for Hunter Biden in public.
And I don't know why.
And it is so bizarre to me.
Politics may be ruining dating.
MSNBC did a recent segment that caught our attention.
Are you on one of those dates where if you say the wrong thing about MAGA or Black Lives Matter, you might not get that second date?
Maybe not for a while.
Take a listen.
Politics, though, did come up in a few conversations.
A few of the women we spoke to felt that they were really turned off by a few dates where the men, in one instance, somebody denigrated the Black Lives Matter movement, and the woman pushed back on that, and the man didn't receive it well, and that made her swear off going on dates with men for about eight months.
She goes on a date, and because the guy didn't sign up for the Black Lives Matter movement agenda she was pushing, she didn't date anyone else for eight months.
Something tells me in this case there might have been another condition that resulted in not getting a date for another eight months, but either way, we all feel sorry for her cats.
Thanks, everyone, for watching Firebrand.
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