Enter the Gaetz of Hell

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors — the audio is the record.

0:00:00 Clip: You must never, ever give up or give in. You must keep the faith and keep your eyes on the prize. That is your calling. That is you mission. That is moral obligation. That is mandate. Get out there and do it. Get in the way. Change happens because people care. The people have the power to make this life free and beautiful. To make this live a wonderful adventure.

0:00:38 Clip: I still believe with all my heart, America can be a place where no child is left hungry, no community is left behind, and no one gets told they don't belong. Country is always worth it.

0:00:58 Thomas: And welcome to Opening Arguments. This is episode 1088. Oh, Thomas, that over there is real life attorney Matt Cameron. You have that in common with another Matt. Matt, how's today. It going, Matt?

0:01:07 Matt: Been spending way too much time today with Matt Gaetz but otherwise I'm doing great. Yeah.

0:01:10 Thomas: So the plank length of time, I the minimal measurable amount of time is how much you've spent with him?

0:01:15 Matt: Is too much but I have spent hours with Matt Gaetz including his actual voice as I'll talk about. That's

0:01:20 Lydia: What's the conversion into Scaramucci's? How many Scaramucci's would that be?

0:01:20 Thomas: We're going to hear it. That's like such a fraction of scare move. Jeez, we can't even. Wait a minute. Who's that? Who's invading our show? It's Lydia. How's it going, Lydia?

0:01:24 Matt: A lot of planks

0:01:30 Lydia: I snuck in. Hi, pretty good.

0:01:34 Thomas: Not an attorney, but something an expert in these fascists over on Where There's Woke. And there was so much staffing happening so fast that we had to accelerate our timetable here on covering Trump's staph infection. So we're get to it. We've got a lot to cover. I think today's episode is going to focus primarily on Matt Gaetz because as much as we actually all actively tried, like, hey, we don't want to spend too much time on this guy, but he has a way of just really making you forget how long you've been, you crap about him. Just the time flies when you talk crap about Matt Gaetz. So we're going to focus primarily on that. We're also going to talk about the bold 2025 vision for the Department of Justice and project and how it's going to unfold as well after this break. So we have that to look, quote unquote, forward to. Support support the show, patreon.com/law, avoid the ads, get the law awful movies that, hey, that one, if you haven't seen it, seen it. If You haven'T Heard It, law awful movies, The Conjuring was really fun. And Lydia was on that as well.

0:01:32 Matt: Hey lydia

0:02:36 Thomas: It's a great time.

0:02:37 Lydia: I watched a scary movie for you all.

0:02:38 Thomas: Yep. And it was also about the law in ways that are really funny. So make sure you catch that second tier here and above patrons, patreon.com/law. And I can't wait to do one for November. That was so much fun. I'm looking forward to it very soon. And you get rid of the ads. So thanks so much to our supporters at patreon.com/law, please join their ranks. And after this break, we're gonna get to it. Okay, deep breath. Here we go.

0:03:09 Matt: So we're taking lawyers today. We're going to talk DOJ pics, and we'll Also talk about Some of the Other Miscellaneous Top Attorneys that Trump's Already Nominated Here. Did want to mention that authoritarianism really does require lawyers, and it's one of the reasons that Trump first term didn't go as well as he had hoped, because he just didn't have a staff of oil lawyers ready to go. Going to talk about Project 2025 up front, about how this all fits in, but I just want to mention before I let Lydia take over, I have to tie this into our ongoing conversation about fascism. August 1934, there was an oath that all the judges in Germany had to take to Hitler directly. They changed the oath from the constitution to the Fuhrer.

0:03:41 Matt: Yep. And they all took it. And the Nazi legal scholars had come up with something thing called the Führer Principle, in which basically what the Fuehrer said goes. That was the legal theory.

0:03:50 Thomas: It's such an easy job though can I say to be a lawyer for the authoritarian I got a new uh doctrine it's called the whatever the f he says doctrine I'm brilliant yeah right you said the oath I already was thinking like man trump has done an informal version of that forever for even back you know in 2016 were

0:03:58 Matt: This morning. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, well, Oh, that is where things are going here. But it sounds a lot like the unitary executive theory, which is what conservative law people have been pushing for a long time and which the majority of the Supreme Court at this point, I think, supports, obviously. But I just want to mention, because I think it's good as we're talking about this stuff to talk about some heroes that have gone unsung. And there was a man named Martin Gager, who was the only public attorney in Germany to refuse to take the oath, just one person.

0:04:32 Matt: And he said in a letter to his brother that I could not swear an unlimited oath of loyalty and obedience to a man who is bound neither by the law nor the traditions of justice. So I just wanna honor that and anyone in his position.

0:04:43 Lydia: Before we dive in then to the people who are probably not unsung heroes in this regard, I wanted to talk about what kinds of things they might be doing in these roles, specifically with Project 2025 and the chapter that was issued as part of that mandate for leadership that everybody's always been talking about. You guys very early on that we're talking about, but specifically the Department of Justice chapter. York Times actually characterized the changes that were included in the Department of Justice Chapter as, quote, sweeping changes to the Justice Department that would ultimately erode its independence from White House political control. So what are some of those things? Couple of things that are called out specifically in that chapter are are dissolving the FBI's Office of General Counsel because we already have a DOJ. We already have a bunch of attorneys. So the FBI should just use the attorneys that are in the DOJ the be reporting in a different structure. They should be reporting to an assistant attorney general in a relevant division like criminal division because the FBI thinks that they are on the same level as the DOG and that's inappropriate. So that is something that they They want to see as like a restructuring and specifically it's called out, you know, we don't need congressional approval to do this. It's just a reorg. That is something that they are looking to do. Some of the specific issues that they want to look at are things like prohibit the FBI from engaging in activities related to combating the spread of so -called misinformation and disinformation by Americans who are not tied to any plausible criminal activity, saying that it's infringing upon free speech rights when you're looking into folks that are promulgating misinformation.

0:06:25 Lydia: Think so. I think it was related to like, well, I don't know if the FBI specifically has like election misinformation, a of COVID misinformation. But again, I do not know that necessarily the FBI was getting involved there. I guess to some degree they probably were if this is being called out in that specific way. But nothing is cited.

0:06:24 Thomas: They doing that like election action misinformation or something? Is the so? OK, first off, Lydia, is there excuses about this or is this just presented as as like, no, we're going to do this because because evil or like Like, what's their justification in Project 2025 for, like, any of this? Rogue bureaucrats. Yeah.

0:06:58 Lydia: Just, I it's like increase efficiency, consolidate, you know, the spread of bureaucracy.

0:07:06 Thomas: Rather than having three co -equal branches, that's redundant. Why not just, yeah, we only need one of those. We can cut that by 66 .66%. Get Elon Musk in there.

0:07:10 Matt: That's true. True.

0:07:18 Thomas: Guess, Matt, like guess. What's What's the difference between like DOJ and FBI and the kinds of things they look into and like why why it matters if those lines are kind of eroding or going away altogether?

0:07:31 Matt: My understanding is that FBI has always had kind of traditionally sort of a parallel role with the DOJ prosecutors. Obviously, they're the cops for the DOH. But I that Gene Hamilton's position, the author of this chapter, is that the FBI is located in the Department of Justice. And he said that it's sort of equivalent to the way that ICE is inside DHS and not independent. ICE is just like the cops of DHS. It's not quite like that, because ICE is carrying out orders from immigration judges. And it does do some some investigatory work. But for the most part, the FBI is working on independent investigations and working with DOJ prosecutors in sort of the similar way that cops and prosecutors work together. And the idea of bringing the police force directly under the control of prosecutors on the state level would be pretty bad. That's not really something we want necessarily. We do want some independence on both sides. To go there again, but of course, this was one of the things that Hitler did most successfully early on was to consolidate state, local, and federal power and to streamline federal law enforcement under his control.

0:08:28 Thomas: If this is all this is All Federal, though, right? When this when the argument be, hey, we're just streamlining federal control of federal whatever.

0:08:31 Matt: This That's right. But one of my things I'm going to be talking about a lot coming up here is the way that they're going to try to integrate state and local offices. But

0:08:40 Lydia: Specifically in Project 2025, they say that warranted and proper under federal law, initiate legal action against local officials, including district attorneys, who deny American citizens the equal protection of the laws by refusing to prosecute criminal offenses in their jurisdictions.

0:08:56 Matt: Yeah. That's been a big one for a while.

0:08:57 Lydia: Then it goes on to say that it holds particularly true for jurisdictions that refuse to enforce the law against criminals based on the left's favored defining characteristics. Characteristics, so race, so -called gender identity, sexual orientation, or other political considerations like immigration status. If, if right, the DOJ, if politically appointed folks at the DOH feel you would be a crime and you're just not pursuing it because this person's an immigrant, now they're going to intervene and potentially initiate legal action against the district attorneys in that local jurisdiction.

0:09:32 Matt: Bill Barr said some very concerning things about prosecuting DAs and other officials in sanctuary cities on his way out. Sounds like they're picking that baton back up. No surprise.

0:09:41 Lydia: They are looking to focus on sanctuary jurisdictions in information about any immigrants throughout the country. They want to bring back all the Trump admin rules, go through the rulemaking process, kind of firm those up, rid of everything that Merrick Garland has done. Also want to move the prosecution of election related offenses from right now it's in the civil rights division of the DOJ and they want to remove it to the criminal division. And there's some election denial happening in the Project 2025 chapter here that, know, with respect to the 2020 presidential election, there were no DOJ investigations of the appropriateness or lawfulness of state election guidance. Um, also a really awful point here about the death penalty that they need to, um, speed up and obtain finality for the 44 prisoners on federal death row. Um, they'd like to see the death penalty be applied in cases of violence and sexual abuse of children. Right now, there are limits there if can be applied or not. And they would like to see that changed, people are going to feel how they're going to feeling about that. I know that's kind of a complicated issue. Then there's just like a couple like very classic where there's what kind of things where there is one that says they would Like the DOJ. They should be targeting violent and career criminals and not parents. And that's coming from basically Merrick Garland had issued a memo. It was called the October memo that everybody talks about in like, I think, 2021, I want to say. And it was when things were really tense at a lot of school boards and of school boards had reached out and said, like, a lot OF folks on the school boards across the country are feeling intimidated, harassed, you know, with people coming to these meetings and screaming at them and threatening them and, you Know, throwing stuff and like things were getting really, really heated. Garland issued a memo related to that. But the way that these folks see that is that parents are being targeted and the DOJ wasn't looking at criminals anymore because I just like really wanted to focus on these parents that were harassing school board members. Then, of course, the criminal enforcement of mailing abortion pills, that's a big thing as well. Following Dobbs, there's no federal prohibition on enforcement of 18 U .S. Code subsection 1461, 1462. So any provider or distributor of abortion pills quote that use the mail, they would be looking to enforce that statute. We're starting with this is, you what all is folks are going to be looking to do. And I think, there you has been some attempt at distancing from Project 2025 25 saying like, oh, it's you know, it'S the folks that put this together. It's kind of what they'd like to see. There's no guarantee that this is going to happen with the administration, etc., etc. Matt had mentioned that this was written by Gene Hamilton. And I think a lot of people probably don't know who he is. Actually the vice president and executive director with America First Legal, which is Stephen Miller's legal entity that he created post -Trump administration. They are like Tweedledee and Tweedle -Dum. Like they are always together, always. And much so that in a deposition in October 2017 that The New Yorker looked at, Hamilton said that he was behind the Trump team's lead on development of all immigration policy issues. So

0:12:54 Lydia: Stephen Miller is the name that gets associated with all of that. But Hamilton constructed a lot of these things. Admitted writing the that was terminating DACA. Had to speak with regard to the family separation policy because he was behind that as well. Him and Stephen Miller as a pair. Even though Gene Hamilton technically does not have a position with the admin yet, he's very connected to Miller. Miller is not only serving Serving as deputy chief of staff of policy, but also homeland security advisor and the incorporation of immigration throughout the Department of Justice chapter within Project 2025. These things are going to be very interconnected. Gina Hamilton has like a very voice and a very clear avenue to continue the work that they were doing during the previous administration with when Trump was 45th president. So I think that's what I really want to emphasize here is that people are going to say, oh, you know, it's fear mongering potentially, like these things aren't necessarily going to happen. And it's like, well, of all chapters, I feel like this is probably set up in a way where it's really just picking up from where they left off. And these folks, I suck. I'm not a fan, obviously.

0:14:05 Thomas: I just wanted to clarify. So this Dean Jean Hamilton guy is not appointed to anything yet in quotes, even though I guess Stephen Miller is right.

0:14:11 Matt: We'll get there. Already. Deputy Chief of Staff.

0:14:14 Lydia: Stephen Miller's does not require Senate confirmation.

0:14:17 Thomas: Right, right. And so we're looking at like kind of the plan for DOJ based on project 2025, which is something insider info, despite Despite Trump having disavowed it, everybody, you heard it here first, official show position, we don't really think that he did disavow it. We think that's probably not real.

0:14:32 Matt: Course.

0:14:34 Lydia: Yeah. Yeah. Then just another little thing. If guys ever saw, there were a lot of really insane 2022 midterm election advertisements from this group called Citizens for Sanity. A political action committee that was formed like during the midterms that said stuff like they not an ideological organization, but we just oppose woke insanity. And it's led by the Heritage Foundation president. And Mark Meadows served as senior advisor for this. Gene Hamilton is the treasurer for this and are additional folks from America First Legal that are on the board as well. It is funded by dark money of course because everything is. And then yeah Street Journal investigated this in 2024 and found that Elon Musk had donated over 50 million dollars to it back in 2022.

0:15:18 Thomas: In 2022?

0:15:20 Lydia: 2022. Yep. And

0:15:20 Thomas: That's actually kind of significant. I didn't know that.

0:15:23 Lydia: Anti -trans. A lot of their television ads focused on that sarcastically, like, you know, trying to say, like one of them said, vote to keep our borders, jails and bathrooms open, vote progressive. Yeah, so things like that. Right. And Elon Musk was a big funder. Fifty million.

0:15:38 Matt: Out I've been following Gene Hamilton a long time for obvious reasons. And and Stephen Miller both came up under Jeff Sessions and worked closely with him. So this is the continuing extension of Jeff Session's immigration policy, which is not great. It's not what we need. So this is a good intro because we're going to be talking about these different lawyers. And I was kind of looking as I was looking at their histories about what we could expect out of DOJ, but we don't really need to guess because a lot of it's right here.

0:16:01 Thomas: Did Gene Hamilton, you said, continuing what did in the first term, did he have some official role in the second term? In the first turn or no?

0:16:07 Lydia: He was a counselor to the attorney general. So for Jeff Sessions, and he was considered the expert on Title 42 to can explain it better than I can, but essentially like using COVID to say that, you not allowing immigration to occur because of this communicable disease threat.

0:16:22 Matt: He was, of course, one of the architects of the family separation policy, naturally. Not my favorite DoJ lawyer, that's right.

0:16:33 Lydia: Yes, he all like, honestly, like the policy writing and constructing of various things. But I think, yeah, we should just kind of dive in and start talking about who are now.

0:16:43 Matt: We should start at the top, shouldn't we? Might as well just get it out of the way.

0:16:45 Lydia: Think so.

0:16:46 Thomas: Trump? Oh, no.

0:16:49 Matt: Gaetz, I've learned way too much. I listened to a lot of his book recently, and unfortunately, he reads the book. Yes, it's called Firebrand. I listened to him read it in my ear because I had other things to do, like play Dragon Age.

0:16:50 Lydia: Mr. Botox. Yeah, sorry. Firebrand. He

0:16:56 Thomas: He wrote a book? My God. Could you hear any statutory rape happening, like, in the background?

0:17:03 Lydia: Was like whispering in your ear. Oh,

0:17:06 Thomas: God, when do you have time for that?

0:17:08 Matt: He was talking about it. There's a lot in the book about what a great womanizer he is. He loves talking about the the women he slept with. Like it's in the book. This actually, no, this book, honestly, it would be a great lot awful movies type book. Like we should do what did the Gorsuch book. Cause I, honestly, I went to the trouble of listening to this. I got to tell you something about it. I'm not going to tell You too much about it today, but it's something, it's quite a book.

0:17:19 Thomas: We should do that. Yeah, let's do it. I can't believe, yeah. Oh, this guy. I, the, the picture that his face that was stapled back to his scalp or whatever, like that's real. That his face doing that is, isn't it? That's not like edited. That's a scary, like he was in men in black and bug thing when he pulls this face back. I was like, is that better? Like that's is it? Someone I wake me up in a hundred years when they have a lot of good, if, research on this time period. And I want to know the connection between just completely demolishing one's appearance and being connected to Trump and fascism, because it's, it's not just the women who, but it is the women, but it's also so many of the men, the Tanner, the weird thing. Like, what is that anyway? Okay. Sorry.

0:18:07 Matt: I wouldn'T usually go along with talking about somebody's looks, but I gotta Say he, most he famously very recently was talking about how ugly people that support abortion are. He had like extensive rants. So this is only fair. Totally fair.

0:18:17 Lydia: I also want to point out, I'm sure a lot of people saw this. Staffer had reposted this on Blue Sky. Fox News contributor Ben Dominick said he wrote a whole piece about Matt Gaetz because he does not like Matt Gaetzt. And the end of it, it says, a hypocritical ass with the worst Botox money can buy, pursuing an ever thinner nose and higher cheekbones at every opportunity, like a real housewife gone mad for fillers.

0:18:41 Thomas: And, and I'm not even, I can stay totally just neutral on what what he looks like. I'm just talking about the fact that all these people go the knife a lot. You know what I mean? Like it's, it's this, yeah.

0:18:51 Matt: There's a look. There's a look. Yes.

0:18:52 Thomas: And to the point of being unrecognizable from who they used to be. And I, that is a weird connection that I, I'll be honest, I don't quite get. Cause it, you would associate it more with like, oh, you know, Hollywood actors, leftists or something, you Know, like, yeah, it, I guess it's money, but everyone's, everyone's got money in politics, you know? I don't know. Anyway, so,

0:18:51 Lydia: Kimberly Guilfoyle. She's, yeah.

0:18:52 Matt: Just thinking of her. Yeah, sure.

0:19:05 Lydia: Money.

0:19:06 Matt: Yeah. Yeah well, let's talk about Matt Gaetz. We We should just do the background real quick. So

0:19:15 Thomas: Well, he was born in hell.

0:19:19 Matt: He at least did summers there I think but he graduated from Niceville High School. I just thought it was a nice detail detail. And you He would also, the Gates family home is the actual house that Jim Carrey's character lived in, in the Truman Show, which I just, I love this detail. It's just some kind of metaphor. I don't know. It is the Truman Show house. It has like a plaque in Seaside, Florida.

0:19:32 Thomas: How?

0:19:38 Matt: So yeah, you are growing up thinking you are going to be on TV, I guess. Yeah. Know if it was on purpose. Maybe they just love the movie or they just like the house, but no details. Yeah, no, he actually, Actually, at this point, Matt Gaetz represents one of the most conservative districts in the country. It is the most Republican district in Florida, per the Cook Political Index.

0:19:39 Thomas: Like, did they buy it later? Huh. Yeah, it would have to be for him to have a safe seat.

0:19:58 Matt: And in his book, he cites Jim Jordan as his mentor and model. And he says that Jim Jordan is Congress's most talented and hardworking member. Every day is a chance to compete hard for a chance. To help people. That's what I think of, Jim Jordan. Yes.

0:20:11 Thomas: Help people? Wow.

0:20:13 Matt: Guess it's

0:20:13 Thomas: I'm surprised he even said that, because at a certain point, they stop even like trying to pretend it's about helping anybody it's all about just owning the libs or whatever okay

0:20:16 Matt: Incredible no no have to say after listening to a lot of this book I think he might believe some of his own bullshit I've always assumed he doesn't but uh might it's very possible um let's play the clip real quick of mike johnson talking about matt gates and

0:20:33 Clip: I were classmates who came to Congress at the same time in the 115 Congress in January 2017 and alphabetically we're seated right next to one another in Judiciary Committee. We served there together for seven years. Some of y 'all who cover Judiciary know those are long meetings so I got to know Matt very well. Look, I'll say this, everyone who served with him will tell you he's one of the most intelligent members of Congress.

0:20:53 Thomas: They won't they won'T say that

0:20:54 Clip: He's an accomplished attorney. He is very very concerned about the lawfare that has been occurring in the Department of Justice under the Biden administration and the fact that the American people have lost their faith in our institutions of justice because of everything they've seen. He's a reformer in his mind and heart, and I think that he'll bring a lot to the table on that.

0:21:15 Lydia: Interesting.

0:21:15 Matt: All right. That's enough. A reformer in his mind and heart. Wanted to focus on the part where he said that he's an accomplished attorney, because we got to talk about that. As you said, I actually didn't know he was a lawyer either, because it just never came up. I have to admit, I did not know that.

0:21:29 Thomas: Name one accomplishment.

0:21:30 Matt: Exactly. Well, I'm going to try really hard. I will say,

0:21:33 Thomas: He pass the bar? I guess he's had to have. Oh, okay.

0:21:37 Matt: Okay, it's not nothing. He is 2 -0 in his appellate cases. He has argued two appellant cases and won them both.

0:21:42 Thomas: Enough.

0:21:43 Matt: That's more appellat cases than a lot of lawyers. Record is, I will, say substantially better than that, but that's just me.

0:21:48 Thomas: Better than a hundred percent. Wow.

0:21:50 Matt: No, you're right. My record is not better than because I've actually argued more cases, which means inevitably you you lose some of them. That's how it works.

0:21:59 Thomas: I would take a seasoned lawyer with more experience who had a couple of losses versus a two and oh, we

0:22:05 Matt: My record is bigger than that. So that's what I meant to say.

0:22:09 Thomas: Don't want to compare sizes here. That's playing their game, Matt.

0:22:13 Matt: It's true. It is true. Bolivac did an investigation because there is nothing available online at all that I could find about his legal career. I don't want to belittle anybody working for a small firm. I work for a smaller firm. I run a small farm. Matt Gaetz, for several years, worked at a small firm that's about twice the size of mine. And he did pretty typical small civil stuff. Kind of dispute about skydiving on a farm or something.

0:22:32 Thomas: Represented people whose lives have been turned into reality TV shows without their knowledge.

0:22:37 Matt: He grew up ready for that one. He represented a restaurant called the Crab Trap in a workers' comp case, represented an airline maintenance company in a negligence case. Again, not to this is his regular everyday lawyer work.

0:22:46 Thomas: So is he always on the bad bad guy side? He represented the employer in a thing against employees and

0:22:52 Matt: He's a corporate lawyer, small -time corporate lawyer. That's what you expect. But in a tiny custody case, again, just regular bread and butter, small time lawyer stuff. This is what most lawyers in America do. I'm not belittling it at all. This Is How You Make Your Money. And he was able to do this while he was a Florida state rep because they're only part -time reps. So he was just as we are in Massachusetts to be a practicing lawyer the whole time, but he practiced for maybe seven or eight years, and there's nothing spectacular at all on his record, just everyday, workaday civil lawyer.

0:23:21 Thomas: Or would have thought. I mean, he's so young. I didn't... I guess he's

0:23:24 Lydia: Has a lot of money and a lot of connections, right?

0:23:26 Thomas: Yeah.

0:23:26 Matt: I was going to mention Don Gaetz. His father's been in Florida politics since 94. He was a Senate president last year. He's still in the Senate. Actually sold the end -of -life healthcare company that he created in the 80s for half a billion dollars in 2004. So his family's doing fine. So grew up with a lot of privilege, and he just seems like the kind of guy.

0:23:43 Matt: He's grown up with the lot of privileges. He got that

0:23:43 Thomas: His face looks like he grew up with privilege

0:23:46 Matt: It's all over his face. It just the way he talks. Will mention he did have one bar complaint after he tweeted at Michael Cohen before he was about to testify in the House. Does your wife and father -in -law know know about your girlfriends, that kind of tweet. So the bar wrote and said that even though it didn't warrant formal discipline, the grievance committee believes it was not consistent with the high standards of our profession. And again, I'm sorry, Florida, but we're talking about the Florida bar. So high standards were not met. He did actually apologize publicly, but he's that the bar cleared him. I will also mention he has had some adverse contact with the legal system. He was a defendant in a DUI case in 2008 that was dropped under somewhat questionable circumstances. Child of privilege.

0:24:23 Thomas: That's right I've seen the head the well I was gonna say I've seeing the mugshots but I don't know that could be some other how many mugshots does he have is it just that one just

0:24:30 Matt: He's had a number of speeding tickets and other minor infractions, but I think that's his only real criminal offense. Will also mention, since you mentioned mugshots, one of his accomplishments in the Florida House, I don't think this got through, but he was a Florida legislator for a few years. Did actually sponsor a bill that would keep mugshots from going on the Internet. And he mentioned at the time that this was very self -serving.

0:24:48 Thomas: For a friend just not just so I know someone who had that happen to them oh

0:24:54 Matt: Yeah, that's It actually specifically would keep them offline until people are convicted, which I think they should just be offline completely. I don't think people's mugshots should be online.

0:24:58 Thomas: That's fair I actually think that yeah that

0:25:00 Matt: Yeah, I totally agree with that.

0:25:00 Thomas: Is the kind of thing where he accidentally would be helping a good thing because he's a criminal

0:25:05 Matt: Think if he didn't happen to have a mugshot online, he might not have thought of it. But, you know, that is whatever it takes, I guess. Also mentioned, we will just talk real quick about his legislative record. He did the stuff you would expect in Florida. And local agencies to cooperate with ICE, they reviewed the Stand Your Ground law, and he made it clear he wouldn't change a damn comma. And then he strengthened it by allowing anybody who had successfully used Stand Your Grounds to expunge their records.

0:25:08 Thomas: Does he he know he's not supposed to be reviewing grammar like he's actually like yeah and thanks for the note but like yeah that's not really the point oh

0:25:28 Matt: Yeah, yeah, commas aren't that point. Just to give you an idea of what a petty asshole he can be uh he is only one of two state reps to vote against a revenge porn bill in florida yep uh he did not say why uh it appears that he voted against it and previously tried it was appears to be a personal grudge against the sponsor tom goodson just he didn't like the guy and but yeah sure right I'm sure that was his cover but it was also it was a very restrictive bill and it sounds like like, yes, the whole concept of it.

0:25:39 Thomas: My god f you just another for a friend just I just no yeah not because of me sure personal grudge against not revenge porn yeah so

0:26:00 Matt: Goodson wouldn't reveal who pressured him, but it sounds like Gates might've pressured him to restrict the bill quite a lot because it ended up being less useful. And it's good that it exists, but basically it's limited to something that includes personally identifying info, which is not typically what's going to be included there. And only something that's posted online versus if you send it to somebody else through other means.

0:26:16 Thomas: Gonna go ahead and bet whatever whatever carve outs he did are specific because of him but he's done whatever that is like you know that's just speculation on my part you

0:26:23 Lydia: That way, doesn't it?

0:26:29 Matt: We could talk about his federal record real quick, which I should probably just mention. Much Not to speak of. He was a federal rep until November 13th when he resigned because it was very exciting.

0:26:36 Thomas: I thought you meant federal like criminal record

0:26:38 Matt: Yeah, no. Didn't end up with one of those, as we discussed last time, pretty close. Just a couple of highlights from his... Well, not really even highlights. I as a federal rep, from what I can tell, because he's a troll. That's his job. He's just a professional troll. Filed a bill in 2023 to eliminate the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Agency. Notably, for the purpose of today's show, he said, we either get this government back on our side or we defund and get rid of, abolish the FBI, CDC, ATF, DOJ, every last one of them if they do not come to heel. So I guess they're going to be coming to heel. I will note that the bill that he filed, the entire text of the bill, and I'm not sure this is legal, it says the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is hereby abolished.

0:26:38 Thomas: Lucky yeah

0:27:22 Matt: I think you have to do a little more than that. I Think you actually have to like cancel some statutes and, you know, like explain what you're doing. You don't just say like it's gone. Concerning. Recently, he filed a bill with Lauren Boebert just a few weeks ago, which would remove nonprofit status from any organization that provides legal services or or other services to anyone other than citizens and aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence.

0:27:44 Thomas: I thought it was gonna be that puts on beetlejuice the musical without yeah allowing for yeah like once again just just it's a friend this time actually for real it is a friend of mine got in trouble for this

0:27:47 Lydia: Hand stuff.

0:28:01 Matt: He had to troll because this is what he does by calling it the Helping Americans by Restricting Resources to Immigrant Services Act. You get it? It's the Harris Act. Is like a week before the election. Yeah. Funny, but it's not funny because if that were to actually pass, I'm trying to get a nonprofit going. I know plenty of people involved in nonprofit immigration services. This is directly targeting us and keeping us from nonprofit status. Bad. And obviously, everyone has a right to counsel, including

0:28:23 Thomas: Wouldn't people think harris did it then when that doesn't like the opposite ha I'm gonna prank this by calling it obamacare but yeah but then they think he did it never mind okay

0:28:34 Matt: Just so stupid, just putting her name in there just gratuitously. And she has nothing to do with nonprofits that do immigration services. I mean, it's just nothing at all. Tried a dumbass amendment to the unlawful entry statute, 18 U .S .C. 1325, that would have allowed an order of restitution for unlawful entry to the United States, I guess, just pay us back for coming in illegally.

0:28:54 Thomas: Like pay like the coverage cover chart the door charge

0:28:58 Matt: There we go. Get your hand stamped on the way in. Yeah, well,

0:29:02 Thomas: There's like 20 five yeah bucks that you owe us well

0:29:06 Matt: 20 if there's a band playing, but yeah.

0:29:07 Thomas: And the two drink minimum so yeah helping

0:29:08 Lydia: A two drink minimum. That's true. That'S where they get you.

0:29:11 Matt: Signed on to a resolution denouncing the horrors of socialism. He introduced a constitutional amendment to limit the Supreme Court to nine justices. Oh, my favorite. He introduced a that it is the sense of the House of Representatives that former President Donald J. Trump did not engage in insurrection or rebellion against the United States.

0:29:20 Thomas: People that's what they're doing oh

0:29:30 Matt: So just FYI, that's what we think. He tried to file an ethics complaint against Nancy Pelosi for ripping up a copy of Trump's State of the Union address during the speech. He said that she was destroying official records.

0:29:37 Thomas: I remember that yeah that was the why weird that she had the official one of it why

0:29:46 Matt: Irreplaceable. Yeah. Accidentally invited a guy who'd been accused of murder to recite the Pledge of Allegiance on the House floor. Many didn't say he didn't know that later. Of course, the most famously tried, ousted Kevin McCarthy in October 2023, almost certainly because McCarthy was supporting the ethics investigation. So speaking of that ethics investigation, I was looking a little more, uh, do you know about Joel Greenberg? Has this come up before?

0:29:51 Thomas: Yeah I remember that yeah is that the guy who like pled out or something yes

0:30:07 Lydia: That's his friend, right? Yeah.

0:30:09 Matt: Yep. And, and turned on him and flipped, uh provide information, but

0:30:10 Thomas: I remember that happening you'd be like boy sure seems like if somebody quote -unquote turned on you then something should happen right like first off you're guilty of something. Secondly, then there should be consequences, right? I don't, and then there just never was.

0:30:17 Lydia: Something's going on there. Yeah.

0:30:18 Matt: You might think, yeah especially considering what Greenberg was doing. Greenberg was a local tax collector who was up to all kinds of stuff. The federal judge who sentenced him said, I have never seen a defendant who has committed so many different types of crimes in such a relatively short period. And this is somebody who's been on the bench for decades, Judge Gregory Presnell.

0:30:39 Lydia: That is crazy.

0:30:40 Matt: Yep. He did everything from spending $66,000 in taxpayer money to set up a crypto company in the basement of his office, which caught fire and caused damage to the office. Sex trafficking that he he was involved in, that Gates was allegedly involved in. He was making fake IDs using social state resources in his office for the underage girls that he was paying for sex.

0:31:00 Matt: Gates was known to be in the place with him helping him make fake IDs at least once.

0:31:05 Thomas: Was what happened there that like, did this guy try to get out of trouble by ratting on Matt Gaetz, but then it turned out that this guy was actually just doing everything, or at least in terms of the law, like this guy was convicted of doing all those things.

0:31:17 Lydia: Yeah, like the way the DOJ kind of settled on this, right, like, how did that happen?

0:31:17 Matt: Did plenty. He ended up with 11 years. Because even the stuff I mentioned, there's much more. He also was stalking a political opponent by making up stuff about him having sex with a high school student, which I thought was really telling, accusing people of the thing you're doing. So not great. And that was a good friend of his for a while. Should also, just before we close out on Matt Gaetz, we have to mention his record on January 6th, which is very bad. And one of the biggest sources of concern for somebody coming in as the Attorney General, because he was involved in January 6, before and after and has never really on the record ever said it was bad in any way that I could find.

0:31:54 Thomas: They passed so many resolutions about saying different things are bad or good. That was the main thing he did, but couldn't muster that one. Interesting.

0:32:02 Matt: Not that important. Was part of the pressure campaign to get Mike Pence to reject the election from the beginning. Even while they were in lockdown, hiding, Tom Emmer from Minnesota asked him if he would maybe withdraw the objection that they were about to put into the election and move on so the House could take the high ground.

0:32:19 Matt: Of immediately, like while the smoke was clearing. Continued to insist for years that the FBI was involved. Was self -aware enough to ask for a pardon for his part in January 6th, as well as the sex trafficking allegations. Very broad pardon he was looking for. Didn't happen, obviously.

0:32:34 Lydia: It was like any and all things that have happened previously and future forward.

0:32:36 Matt: Yeah, because there's plenty. Yeah, he was

0:32:36 Thomas: I mean, worth a shot, honestly. If guy, like, yeah, sure. Give it a try.

0:32:44 Matt: Might as well ask. He'd done a lot, done a lot. Was one of 21 House Republicans to vote against giving medals of honor to January 6th officers. So that's his stance on all of that. The second anniversary of January 6, he went on Steve Benn's podcast and said, we're ashamed of nothing. And he said he was going to go walk the route that those patriotic Americans did that day. This is bad. Wrote a letter of support for John Eastman when he was getting into trouble at the California bar and said that the legal counsel that Eastman provided was not only not criminal, but not unreasonable, not only reasonable, but correct. His views were correct, obviously correct, and widely shared among attorneys across this country. His view is on how you could overthrow the government by forcing Mike Pence not to certify the election. Really wanted to mention that because he is almost certainly going to find a way to free or let out or reduce the sentences of January 6th defendants. And it's going to be a problem in this country, it's going to Be a serious problem when that happens.

0:33:35 Lydia: Yeah, that's very scary.

0:33:35 Thomas: If, yeah. I'm already worried about just a mass pardon, potentially. I don't that just take care of it anyway okay might

0:33:39 Matt: Yeah, very likely. Would, yeah. But I mean, there's also in terms of the pending cases, is, you and I know, but certainly a mass pardon, but anything else he can do to help them, he's going to help him, no doubt. And he's behind them. And again, like I said, just doesn't seem to think there was any problem. In terms of his behavior in Congress, let's just listen to a couple of clips and you can get the idea. He is yelling at the director of FBI, Christopher Wray.

0:34:00 Clip: Court said it was over 200,000 that have occurred on your watch. Do you have any basis to disagree with that assessment? Again, I don't have the numbers I sit here right now. Seems like the number you should know. How many times the FBI is breaking the law under your watch? Especially if it's like over a million to not know that number.

0:34:17 Clip: And I'm worried about your veracity on the subject as well. Play the video. The court

0:34:20 Matt: This is it's jim jordan he's doing jim jordan yeah he's just karaoke basically uh basically uh skip uh skip to four on the same video we'll get him yelling at mayorkas a

0:34:24 Thomas: Less charming jim Jordan. A lot of yelling.

0:34:32 Clip: Judgment. What you've done to execute this Mayorkas Doctrine, where so long as you don't commit a crime, you get to stay here and burden our hospitals, burden our schools, burden our social services, burden our jails. You've sent the message to the cartels and then you've taken this app and you've digitized illegal immigration and you're scaling it to the moon. Like this app that you've got everybody downloading is like the Disney Fast Pass into the country, never to be subject to actual removal, just removal proceedings as you call them. That app doesn't do any search of their criminal history in their home country, does it? Congressman, I disagree with everything you have said. Well, I'm sure, but just to answer the question, Does the app that you are out there promoting do any search of people's criminal history in their home country? Congressman, Customs and Border Protection screens and vets individuals whom they encounter. Your app, it either has the functionality...

0:34:51 Thomas: You can immigrate to the moon now?

0:34:54 Lydia: I

0:35:04 Thomas: How would it do that?

0:35:06 Matt: It's

0:35:13 Thomas: How? Why would it? Do you think that that's just available easily that they could just search any country often? By the way, we're getting immigrants and people seeking asylum as Matt. I'm sure, you know, from countries that don't have great infrastructure often, you right now. Not like an amazing infrastructure for like, hey, can we just hook up our app to your system, Haiti? Then just it'll tell us everything about every person.

0:35:22 Matt: So stupid

0:35:47 Thomas: Stupid.

0:35:44 Matt: They'll they can take a selfie and get a background check obviously that's typical Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan kind of thing where you make up a thing, you get really mad about that thing. He's talking about the CBP One app, which does exist, but is not in fact the Disney Fast Pass across the border, I promise.

0:35:49 Thomas: So dumb. Yep. And hey, that's a bad comparison. It's not that shit's free. It's actually pretty hard to get the Disney Fast Pass stuff. We know. It adds up. You think it's going to be cheap. And then they're like, oh, but that only applies to like this one ride. And then you got to do a different one for a different ride they you know like if we do it like that we're gonna be making a lot of money on immigrants that's all I can say

0:36:02 Matt: Us. That's right. Sure, sure. Yeah. Did want to talk very quickly about his love of Nayib Bekele, the president of El Salvador. He actually set up with the Democrat, Vincente Gonzalez, the House El Salvador caucus. He set this up after finding out about Bacalli. He actually went to his inauguration, and I'll talk about Bicalli in a minute, but let's maybe play the clip of him lauding Bacali's achievement.

0:36:37 Clip: Matt Gaetz from Florida, and I serve on our committees in the Congress that deal with the military and our justice system. The people in the United States of America are very grateful for the state of exception, And we're grateful that SECOT exists so that these criminals are not harming the people of El Salvador or harming people of the United States. A lot of the people behind me would have found a way to make their way to the United States and harm Americans. And we are grateful to President Bukele and his administration for establishing security and the state of exception and for all the good work that the people do here to keep everyone else safe.

0:36:42 Thomas: This is post glow up in quotes jesus fucking

0:37:13 Clip: El Salvador is a country on the rise. Is

0:37:14 Matt: So you see what's behind him?

0:37:14 Thomas: Christ you need to see that this is imagine

0:37:17 Matt: I'm going to link to it.

0:37:18 Thomas: A sizzle reel with that inspirational music and behind you might as well I mean look this a unique situation that man I'm sure you're gonna talk about but I don't care like how crimey these quote -unquote gang members are showing that music in that that like inspirational undertone to like with no shirts on chained together in a tiny like it's just it's It's just, it's just grow. Like, I don't care what they did or what that is like that this, idea that that could be your kind orientation of toward that, That, that could be your mindset toward just imprisoning in what looked like pretty bad conditions. A bunch of people, no matter what they are, like no matter what they might've done.

0:37:39 Matt: Packed in. Yeah. Yep. Yep, so heard him talking about the state of exception, which Nayib Bekele declared when he became president. State of exception worked to a degree because the gang problem in El Salvador is much better, but he did sweep up a lot of people, including a lot innocent people. The majority of my client base is Salvadoran. I'm pretty familiar with what's going on there right now. Generally, Salvadorans do like that the gangs have been off the streets, but this is not justice. They're holding them basically without charges for indefinitely. Get Guantanamo You kind of situation.

0:38:21 Thomas: Let me talk about that. Cause I actually, uh, an expert, but I did listen to a podcast which a lot of our best friends listen podcasts so you know they're they definitely are great no I listened and it might have been the daily I can't remember it was one of the one the news podcasts did a deep dive on this and it I stuck out in my mind because of exactly what you're saying where okay yes there's this big giant gang problem there's crime problem in el salvador okay represented by a lot of people as, oh, this guy, this heroic leader came in and solved it. You know, he did just basically threw everyone in prison like we're seeing in the sizzle reel of Matt Gaetz after his glow up. He's jailed everyone and the people support it. But me as this contradiction, this unfortunate feedback loop where source of this awful problem is, and Matt, you can tell me, I have no idea, whatever the underlying conditions of this offal gang problem are, people were like, well, this is horrible. We need to solve it. So we're going to essentially give this leader unchecked power, just authoritarian power to just imprison anyone on any suspicions and swept up

0:38:26 Matt: Enough? Yep.

0:39:19 Thomas: In that our families, our innocent people or whatever. And it just, yeah, what depressed me to no end was the idea that like, well, if something gets scary enough and it is scary, like if something goes bad enough, people are willing for the sake of what they think is their safety to just allow disgusting of power and abuse and whatever. And it's, it just, it then, this has been a while since I heard that podcast. It really made me think about our situation where people, you keep people scared enough of crime that by the way, is that like all time lows and you scare them enough and they're willing to let, you elect Trump and let his people do all these things, have unchecked power against these scary immigrants that, you Know, are invading, invading towns and all this crap.

0:39:22 Matt: Children? Well,

0:39:58 Thomas: That's not real.

0:39:59 Matt: Gates says in the video, we think the good ideas in El Salvador actually have legs and can go other places here. He sees this as a valid law enforcement model of these mass sweeps, the state of exception, the suspending due process, and these massive jails, which he thinks are run better than American jails. He said that.

0:40:15 Thomas: That wouldn't really be much of an accomplishment, but yeah.

0:40:18 Matt: That's true, But yeah. He said they have more discipline, which that's not really the right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Himself described himself as the world's coolest dictator. He's totally open about it.

0:40:20 Thomas: My God. Okay. Nevermind. Cool,

0:40:27 Matt: This is where we're going. No, Bekeley sucks. He also changed the currency to crypto, you might remember.

0:40:28 Thomas: Man. That's awesome. That's that guy. Okay,

0:40:34 Matt: Scat guy. So I just wanted to mention that because I am very concerned that an Attorney General of the United States would think that that is the law enforcement model the federal government should be following very concerned uh of the scariest things that I've learned about matt gates uh as I don't want to keep playing clips of Matt Gaetz yelling at people, there's one more here.

0:40:45 Thomas: Really scary. They don't have any normal clips of him you can't be yeah

0:40:55 Matt: That's his. It's like Jim Jordan. He's only yelling. That'S his only default. Quote.

0:40:57 Thomas: He's only that

0:40:59 Lydia: His eyebrows get higher he keeps yelling what

0:40:59 Thomas: We do really do need one of the people he's yelling at to be like are you are you scared right are you surprised right now I can't oh

0:41:11 Lydia: You trying to emote yeah

0:41:14 Matt: Is the potentially future Attorney General yelling at the current Attorney General, Merrick Garland. He's going to push a conspiracy theory about New York Trump prosecution.

0:41:22 Clip: General you've told us that it's a dangerous conspiracy theory to allege that the department of justice is communicating with these state and local prosecutions against trump you can clear it all up for us right now will the department of justice provide to the committee all documents all correspondence between the department and alvin bragg's office and fanny willis office and leticia jones's office the offices you're referring to our independent offices of state I did that I get that the question is why not you will provide all of your documents and correspondence that's the question it's I don't need a history lesson well I'm

0:42:00 Thomas: How's that a history

0:42:01 Lydia: It's not civics

0:42:01 Thomas: Lesson yeah

0:42:02 Matt: A civics lesson I know

0:42:03 Lydia: Lesson yeah Oh,

0:42:02 Clip: Going to say again we do not control those offices they make the questions that you communicate with them not whether you control them do you communicate with them when you provide this can you make a request we'll refer it to our office of legislature. But see, here's the thing. If you come in here and you lodge this attack that it's a conspiracy theory that there's coordinated welfare against Trump, and then when we say, fine, just give us the documents, give us the correspondence, and then if it's a conspiracy, that will be evident. But when you say, well, we'll take your request, and we'll sort of work it through the DOJ's

0:42:33 Thomas: Do you think he was is going to have it on him? Like, OK, it's in my pocket here.

0:42:34 Clip: Accommodation process, then you're actually advancing the very dangerous conspiracy theory that you're concerned about.

0:42:40 Thomas: What?

0:42:40 Clip: Now, you were a judge, once nominated the highest court in our country. When you were a judge, I'm just curious, did you ever make political donations to partisan candidates? No. No? And you didn't because that would create the potential appearance of impropriety. I didn't, because there's a federal rule allowing federal judges for making contributions. Right, but under that same theory of a tax on the judicial judicial process. Like, shouldn't someone be owed like a jury of their peers and a judge that's non -biased rather than getting a judge from your political opponent's donor file? Well,

0:43:03 Thomas: Guy. Oh, my God. What

0:43:19 Clip: I'm well aware that you're not asking a hypothetical.

0:43:19 Thomas: Are you talking about? How

0:43:21 Clip: You're asking me to comment on a jury verdict in another jurisdiction which has to be respected. I won't comment on it. That case is still ongoing. The defense... Mr. Attorney General, I hadn't asked you about the verdict yet. We were getting there. I

0:43:36 Thomas: Can people even on Matt Gaetz's side stand to listen to him?

0:43:40 Matt: It keeps going like that but

0:43:42 Thomas: There's plenty of people on our side that if they talk like that, I'm like, I can't listen. Actually, I actively don't listen to a lot of like who could stand anyone, no matter what their viewpoint, who's that full of themselves and full of shit like that is so unbelievable. Believable is

0:43:46 Matt: Just yeah it entire career is just trolling and yelling and again jim jordan it's it makes sense I didn't realize he was his actual mentor but it's right there for you uh got one more and this is a good one to close out matt gates on uh is a speech to the New York Young Republicans, so he's in enemy territory talking to Republicans, and some terrible jokes that we'll skip, but let's skip ahead to 1150 because there's a very, very telling comment around 1150.

0:44:21 Clip: Republican Party is the only vehicle available for our uses in the mission ahead. And you, as battle -hardened Republicans of New York, know how America's story ends if we fail. Importing the Third World's problems to slum it on your streets is rotting the Big Apple to its core. And just look at who the Democrats have given us as their standard -bearer. Joe Biden, in the words of America's greatest president, they aren't exactly sending their best. Joe

0:44:50 Matt: Reason I wanted to play that is he said, the Republican Party is the only vehicle available for our uses. It's a chilling statement. That really says something. We in this room understand that we are not Republicans, that we're something much further right than that, but this is what we got. Says Something. Matt Gaetz has latched himself onto Trump and the MAGA movement and never let go. And just one more on the way out here at 13. Let's just hear him just just really licks and boots.

0:45:18 Clip: Hotel, Central Park Skating Rink, the Plaza Hotel, some of the greatest assets in the world. And how has New York rewarded this great man? By trying to bankrupt and imprison him. And why has this been the left's response? It is because they seethe at the thought of greatness. They are the political party that considers Kamala Harris an intellectual, John Fetterman a senator, and Lizzo a sex symbol.

0:45:41 Thomas: Jesus cool

0:45:50 Matt: But his book, which again, we're going to have to talk about his book, but it is, there's so much in there about how great Trump is and how much he loves being at Mar -a -Lago and what a great time he has with everybody and how much he loves the family.

0:45:59 Thomas: The point trump's not gonna read your book do your sucking up in a medium that trump has ever done like might as well put out a a disc of of uh ass to trump Yeah. Oh, boy.

0:46:13 Matt: Cringe thing I've heard about Trump and Gates is that Trump calls him My Matt, which if anybody ever called me that, besides maybe somebody I'm in a relationship with, I guess, but even that, that's pushing it. My Matt. I will say this is is not a great victory for matt's everywhere this is going to be the first matt attorney general not happy about it and not the breakthrough we wanted but

0:46:33 Thomas: Here's what I want to say about Matt Gaetz. If we're kind of coming to a close on him, I Opinion time. Feel I've noticed that we are starting again. I thought we were done with this, but now we're going right back to it from Trump's first term. Starting to do the super secret genius Trump decoder thing. Thing. We're like, ah, is this a, okay. Is this a trick? They're going to get mad at him.

0:46:36 Matt: Let's wrap it up

0:46:51 Lydia: The decoy.

0:46:52 Thomas: Yeah. And then he's going to be some behind this. No, it's not that it's that he likes this guy. Trump likes this guys. This guy went in to Trump's office and said, Hey, I'm going to kill everyone at DOJ because you're the best man. You're amazing.

0:47:08 Lydia: That because that's what you want me to do. And so I'll do it.

0:47:09 Thomas: I want to get rid of them. And Trump Trump said, that's great. I like that. I'm Donald Trump. I'm always the same. You should get the job. Okay. That's the extent of the thinking.

0:47:19 Matt: That that's that's my matt

0:47:22 Thomas: There may be others who are doing, I'm not saying Trump never acts strategically, but there's no reason in this until proven otherwise, there's No reason to suggest that this is some decoy. This is some that are like plan where, Oh, he's actually going to sub in someone who's less awful. No, Trump wants this guy to be the attorney general. That is what he wants.

0:47:40 Matt: For good reason yeah

0:47:40 Lydia: I think Elon Musk has had Trump's like ear for a lot of these appointments too. And Elon loves trolls. Right. And Matt Gaetz is a troll. So I'm sure that he was also very encouraging that like not only will you will Matt Gaetzt do anything you want, Donald Trump, but also he's going to own the libs the entire time. And isn't that going to be funny?

0:47:57 Thomas: Absolutely. Yeah,

0:47:58 Matt: And his other qualification is that he's been investigated by the fbi trump loves that right I mean that's Yes.

0:48:02 Thomas: Something in common.

0:48:03 Lydia: Also kind gray, shady campaign finance law issues. I don't know if that came up in your research, Matt, but yeah, it was something I learned about that basically like he didn't have enough money when he was running to be a for Florida.

0:48:15 Thomas: Dad didn't want to fund him.

0:48:17 Lydia: Well, so he sold a house and some vacant lots he had and the company that bought it is owned by his his dad. And then, yeah. And Matt Gates was still listed as an executive.

0:48:28 Thomas: Wait, is there a campaign law against helping your very special boy with his campaign? I didn't know I would have assumed just based on all of the history of politics, that if someone's very special boy wants to be a politician, you're allowed to give of them as anything that's

0:48:43 Lydia: Yeah, isn't that crazy, though? I mean, and yeah, Matt Gates was listed as an executive at the time of the transaction with that company. It's probably probably legal, but it's it's weird. It's just interesting. The connections there. There. That's my Matt.

0:48:54 Thomas: My mat what

0:48:55 Matt: Weird and bad. That's our guy.

0:48:56 Thomas: Yep yep don't worry everybody that he went to high school with will finally like him after he does the authoritarianism that he's dreamed of doing cool

0:49:04 Lydia: Know, he walked around his high school when his dad was running for superintendent or something. He walked around saying Don for superintendent, wearing the same t -shirt every day. I'm sure he had a lot of friends.

0:49:13 Thomas: Man super cool yeah gosh

0:49:16 Matt: Yeah, well, he doesn't have a lot of friends in Congress, I'll tell you that. The likelihood of him actually passing, even with this Senate actually passing confirmation, there's like 30 of them have come out at this point and suggested that they might not. They'll be cowed one way or another. They'll probably do it if they have to. There'll be a recess appointment, as we've talked about.

0:49:31 Matt: One way or other, he'll get through, probably. But is extremely unpopular with Republicans, which, I mean, with everybody, really.

0:49:29 Thomas: I don't know Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, if I'm putting on my divining hat, I'm trying to just sit here and really predict what's going to happen without any wishful thinking or anything. I just don't know. I just don't know that we live in an era where there's meaningful opposition to Trump. I think on other hand, there's not much he can do to certain senators, right? I mean, if they're not up for re -election anytime soon, I haven't checked the map, but there's got to be just based on math. If he only has a majority plus, what does he have, two extra seats or three? Like odds wise, there's got to be some that are safe enough that would be willing to go against Trump and not worried about instant primarying. I also just don't, I just don'T know that the party, I don'T KNOW that the will to oppose Trump is there, apart from maybe a few votes. And furthermore, I also think the recess appointments thing might just be a way for them to kind of not have to specifically approve of people like this. Like, I wonder if that's a way to

0:50:33 Matt: Doubt. Yeah.

0:50:34 Thomas: Just kind of like for in their mind, it'll be like, yeah, to a certain extent. And so I, man, I, I don't know. If I, you had to take the odds right now of like, okay, will Matt Gates be the attorney general or not? Is the like odds you're putting on that?

0:50:36 Lydia: Keep their hands clean. Yeah.

0:50:48 Matt: Have no faith in Senate Republicans or any other Republicans to stop what Trump wants to do. So I'm putting them at above 50.

0:50:55 Thomas: I'm, I've, I he is really bad. There's a chance and you only need what three, four something votes against him to, to sink it probably, uh, or I guess three, four votes against the idea of recess appointments. So like, yeah, I would say, yeah. 70 % that he's going to make it. I don't have a ton of faith.

0:51:15 Thomas: Just don't Have a ton Of faith. Well, that's horrible looking everybody. Everybody.

0:51:21 Lydia: Boy I don't blame you oh

0:51:22 Matt: I'm changing my name. Oh,

0:51:24 Thomas: Yes, you should. Well, that's Matt Gatz and he's horrible, but what we want to do on OA is give you more than just the obvious horrible. We also want to take you into more, horrible, more like B -sides of horrible. Yeah. Yeah, we want it like, you now, this is off an album, the more obscure horribleness album, you know, that she, we can, and next episode, we're going to get into some of the other picks, uh, you wanna tease us? Who's it gonna be?

0:51:38 Lydia: B -sides exactly yeah no

0:51:51 Matt: Well, we've got two that that Gabble Gabble listeners be very familiar with. So I won't give that away yet, but two of our favorites. We'll start to talk about some of the other top attorneys that are going into these slots and the damage they could do.

0:52:02 Lydia: Ashley merchant don't worry folks oh

0:52:04 Thomas: Wait, wouldn't we want it to be Ashley Merchant? I would rather it be Ashley Ashley Merchant.

0:52:06 Matt: I'd be happy to see Ashley at DOJ.

0:52:09 Thomas: I've actually come, speaking of, I've come all the way, boy, I missed the time of the, yeah, don't you want some responsible people around him as guardrails? Yes. Actually, yes. I missed that. I was wrong. I'm going to go, I don't remember what my take was. I don'T remember what it was, but if we could go back to that, you sure back then we would have thought that too, had we known there was going to be more Trump, but like, boy sure. Do you miss those times where it was like, yeah. You need some responsible people around him. Yep. True. If we could somehow have some responsible people in Trump's administration, that would be really cool. I missed the idea of that. Now we don't have that. We've got none of that, so next episode, we're going to look at some more of these irresponsible people.

0:52:48 Matt: Thomas, that's a very good point because one of the things that authoritarian governments do on purpose is put somebody like Matt Gaetz in charge so the good people will just flee. Because would you want to stay at DOH if you're a responsible career prosecutor, right? It's going to be hell.

0:53:00 Thomas: What a tactic. That's so hard to resist. It's really hard to resist the idea of like, I want to get the F out of here because of that guy's face. Am I going to look at that guy face every day? No. Oh boy.

0:53:03 Matt: It's very effective. And who replaces you? They've got some people lined up. Always

0:53:16 Thomas: Chilling. All right. Well, more of that. We're going to do another right away because there's so much staffing to catch up on. Will see you on Wednesday for for part three of Trump staff infection. Thanks so much, Matt. Thanks so mucho, Lydia. Team up was everything I could have hoped and more.

0:53:29 Matt: A pleasure.

0:53:31 Lydia: But before you stop it, before have one little thing I'm that going I to just want to share with you guys. It's not important. But on November 10th, Gene Hamilton retweeted a of soft serve ice cream cone from McDonald's and said the post election day healing in the United States continues in so many ways, except the whole reason that McDonald's has ice cream again is because of Biden. Anyway, anyway. All right. I just wanted to.

0:53:51 Matt: It's because Joe Biden.

0:53:54 Thomas: Long history of them taking credit for stuff they actively fought against.

0:53:58 Lydia: Dare you with the McDonald's off serve? Like, that's.

0:54:00 Thomas: It's too good for you.

0:54:02 Lydia: Yeah, redo

0:54:03 Clip: This podcast is a production of Opening Arguments Media, LLC, All Rights Reserved. It is produced and edited by Thomas Smith, who also provided the fabulous intro and outro music used with permission.

0:54:21 Thomas: That's great. I like that.

0:54:23 Matt: Weird and bad. That's our guy.