Speaker 1: We welcome Florida Congressman Matt Gates. Congressman, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining us this evening. You are the driving
Speaker 1: force behind yesterday's motion to vacate this historic moment, first
Speaker 1: time in American history of a speaker of a House
Speaker 1: be ousted. And now we have a race between potentially
Speaker 1: Jim Jordan Steve Scleeze. In the past, you said you
Speaker 1: would support Steve Scaleze, but you're a friend of Jim Jordan.
Speaker 2: Who are you going to back?
Speaker 3: Well, I'm for both of them right now. I'm eager
Speaker 3: to hear their plans and their vision. But if the
Speaker 3: House of Representatives goes from the stewardship of Kevin McCarthy
Speaker 3: to either the stewardship of Jim Jordan or Steve Scalise,
Speaker 3: that's going to come to the delight of many Conservatives
Speaker 3: and certainly many of the Floridians that I represent.
Speaker 2: But it's not just about the person.
Speaker 3: Both of these folks are honorable, man, It's about the
Speaker 3: plan they have to reduce spending. We sit a a
Speaker 3: top of thirty three trillion dollar debt, We're facing two
Speaker 3: trillion dollar plus annual deficits, and I am worried about
Speaker 3: global dedollarization. I see what's going on in the African
Speaker 3: Union where more of those countries are you using local
Speaker 3: currency when they're selling natural resources. I look to a
Speaker 3: lot of the golf monarchies and energy producers in the
Speaker 3: Middle East that are moving away from.
Speaker 2: The dollar and toward the law.
Speaker 3: Matter of fact, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and
Speaker 3: Iran just in August joined the bricks system, the Brazil, Russia, India, China,
Speaker 3: South Africa system to dedollarize. That with the latest Reuters
Speaker 3: survey showing that economic analysts now believe that in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty four you're really going to see a cooling off.
Speaker 2: Of the dollar. So I believe we have a lot
Speaker 2: of grit sa plan.
Speaker 1: A lot of critics, sir do say though an expansion
Speaker 1: of bricks, though, means it actually dilutes it. They cannot
Speaker 1: coalescerund anything, and that actually helps the fact that the
Speaker 1: dollar remain the primacy currency on the global stage.
Speaker 3: I wonder I think that that is not a linear progression, right,
Speaker 3: because as bricks becomes more institutionalized, you could see more
Speaker 3: and more good.
Speaker 2: I mean, the real worry.
Speaker 3: About bricks is the movement of natural resources outside of
Speaker 3: the dollar, or as the Global South continues to develop
Speaker 3: and pack an even larger punch in the economy. I
Speaker 3: think that the downgrade from Fitch was largely driven by
Speaker 3: the fact that there's no real backstop to spending.
Speaker 2: So here's what we need, no matter who's the speaker.
Speaker 2: We need a top line budget.
Speaker 3: That at least in the House of Representatives, returns to
Speaker 3: pre COVID spending levels. And then we need to be
Speaker 3: able to have single subject spending bills with open amendments,
Speaker 3: to have programmatic review of agency spending.
Speaker 4: Well, Congress, well let's talk a little bit about what
Speaker 4: just happened. Nobody has ever done this before. It was
Speaker 4: history making yesterday, the ouster of the Speaker, we're told
Speaker 4: that you are the least popular man in the House
Speaker 4: of Representatives, or at least to the Republican Conference. In fact,
Speaker 4: just yesterday, your Republican colleague from New York, Mike Lawler,
Speaker 4: suggested violence against you in an interview right around this
Speaker 4: time yesterday. I'd love for you to hear what he
Speaker 4: said and have you respond.
Speaker 2: Here's, mister Lawler.
Speaker 5: The only thing that I would have done differently is
Speaker 5: flung it in the direction of one person. Look, he
Speaker 5: absolutely epitomized the frustrations of the conference and the American peoples.
Speaker 2: Is that person we need to get? Oh yeah, I
Speaker 2: would have hit him square between the eyes.
Speaker 4: He's going to hitch the square between the eyes with
Speaker 4: the speaker's gavel. He was suggesting, Congressman, do you expect
Speaker 4: to be expelled from the Republican Conference?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think that that was a very frustrated person who's
Speaker 3: having to come to grips with the stages of grief.
Speaker 3: My mission is to ensure that the House of Representatives
Speaker 3: runs better because the way we've been running Washington, d C.
Speaker 3: For the last thirty years has led us to a
Speaker 3: point where no one is really responsible for the spending.
Speaker 3: We are backed up against shut down politics. We are
Speaker 3: governed by crisis, and the biggest problem is lawmakers have
Speaker 3: to take one up or down vote on continuing our
Speaker 3: resolutions and omnibus bills to either fund or not fund
Speaker 3: the entire government. That truncates the type of thoughtful and serious,
Speaker 3: you know, analysis that we have to apply to how
Speaker 3: the federal dollar is being spent at a time like this.
Speaker 3: So I'm not much for political violence. I don't want
Speaker 3: to hit anybody. If Mike Lawler comes at me with
Speaker 3: a gavel, I'm not entirely sure that would concern me.
Speaker 2: But that's not the direction I think we ought to go.
Speaker 3: I think we ought to maybe craft a budget before
Speaker 3: an attack strategy.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, Kevin McCarthy says this was personal. He
Speaker 4: spoke about this at length yesterday that he's seen texts.
Speaker 4: He said involving an ethics probe against you. Congressman, what
Speaker 4: do you know about the status of this investigation.
Speaker 2: Have you been called to appear personally? You know, I haven't.
Speaker 3: I've answered all the questions I've been asked, and I
Speaker 3: am the most investigated man in the United States Congress.
Speaker 3: I have been cleared by the FBI, the DOJ, the
Speaker 3: Federal Elections Commission had a five to zero vote to
Speaker 3: clear me, and the people who told vicious lies about
Speaker 3: me two years ago are now sitting in federal prison
Speaker 3: for being part of a criminal fraud scheme to shake
Speaker 3: down my family. So I don't fear any investigation. I
Speaker 3: have never asked Kevin McCarthy to assist me in that matter.
Speaker 3: And sometimes people try to make policy failures personal because
Speaker 3: those failures are so personally embarrassing to them. So when
Speaker 3: Keviny McCarthy talks about this conflict being personal, I think
Speaker 3: it's more projection than a sober analysis of where the
Speaker 3: House stands. Like if Kevin McCarthy had passed a budget
Speaker 3: and followed the law to move twelve single subjects spending
Speaker 3: bills regardless of whatever's going on, he would still be
Speaker 3: the Speaker today. It was his unwillingness to do that
Speaker 3: and has desired to centralize power in contradiction to the
Speaker 3: agreement he made in January to become speaker that led
Speaker 3: us to this moment.
Speaker 1: Congressman, I believe you're alluding to Stephen Alford, who is
Speaker 1: in prison, but he is not in prison for what
Speaker 1: the DOJ was investigating you on, which was sexual allegations
Speaker 1: of trafficking a minor. He was in prison for trying
Speaker 1: to extort your father for money to try to get
Speaker 1: an individual out of Iran a hostage, and also potentially
Speaker 1: a pardon for you. And yes, the DOJ has not
Speaker 1: pressed charges. But what Joe was asking about the House ethics,
Speaker 1: and that's very broad. The list is quite long in
Speaker 1: terms of what they're looking at. They're said to be
Speaker 1: looking at at allegation of sexual misconduct, campaign finance violations,
Speaker 1: taking bribes, using drugs, share it inappropriate images or videos
Speaker 1: on the House floor, and miss using state identification records.
Speaker 1: Have they discussed any of these issues with you directly?
Speaker 2: Those things are all false.
Speaker 3: Those things were all investigated by the FBI and DOJ
Speaker 3: officials who hate me for years.
Speaker 2: They turned out to nothing. I didn't get the.
Speaker 3: DJ didn't find so much as a parking violation on
Speaker 3: my behalf.
Speaker 2: So I'm not at all concerned about this.
Speaker 3: This is a distraction to try to not confront the
Speaker 3: substance of argument I'm making about spending. I'm making an
Speaker 3: argument about the fact that the United States Congress should
Speaker 3: follow the law and have a budget. And the response
Speaker 3: is people think I'm an ethically challenged person, even though
Speaker 3: these things have been thoroughly reviewed. Like you mentioned campaign
Speaker 3: finance violations, I think appropriate context for you is the
Speaker 3: knowledge that the Federal Elections Commission looked into those things
Speaker 3: and found by a five to zero vote, that I
Speaker 3: had done nothing wrong. So I am the most investigated man,
Speaker 3: I am the most exonerated man, and Stephen Alford was
Speaker 3: absolutely part of using vicious lies to commit a criminal
Speaker 3: fraud against my family. If people are trying to use
Speaker 3: those vicious lies now to try to limit my ability
Speaker 3: to represent my constituents in Washington, d C. They will
Speaker 3: not be able to be successful, just like mister Alford
Speaker 3: wasn't successful.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But going back to twenty twenty one, Joel Greenberg, an
Speaker 1: individual who is in prison who cooperate extensively with the
Speaker 1: Justice Department about this chex trafficking probe, had said on
Speaker 1: more than one occasion, this individual is involved in sexual
Speaker 1: activities with several of the other girls, the congressman from
Speaker 1: Florida's first condition Congressional District, and myself. He is an
Speaker 1: eleven years in prison by a federal judge in Florida
Speaker 1: because of this. This is a letter he wrote, as
Speaker 1: obtained by The Daily Beast. Are you concerns about these allegations.
Speaker 1: I know you say the DOJ did not press charges.
Speaker 2: This information is.
Speaker 1: Out there and the House ex rice and it was
Speaker 1: investigating you.
Speaker 3: I can assure you that those claims will never be
Speaker 3: evidenced by any facts because the FBI and DJ attempted
Speaker 3: to do that. Keep in mind, one of the reasons
Speaker 3: Joel Greenberg is in prison now is because he falsely
Speaker 3: accused a different person who was a political rival, of
Speaker 3: the same type of misconduct. So Joel Greenberg is literally
Speaker 3: in prison in part for making false accusations that directly
Speaker 3: trace the false accusations he's made against me. I think
Speaker 3: it's like thoroughly unserious that you guys are trying to
Speaker 3: breathe life into these things that have been discredited and debunked,
Speaker 3: and the people who have said them have in some
Speaker 3: cases found themselves in prison.
Speaker 4: I want to ask you about Donald Trump Congress when
Speaker 4: he was questioning Republican infighting in a post on truth
Speaker 4: social that I'm sure you saw. But you speak with
Speaker 4: him personally, you have a close relationship. What does he
Speaker 4: make of all of this? When's the last time we
Speaker 4: talked to him?
Speaker 3: I talked to President Trump pretty regularly, and he has
Speaker 3: been thoroughly encouraging of my efforts, and I look forward
Speaker 3: to actually being with President Trump in Palm Beach. We're
Speaker 3: both scheduled to speak together next to a Wednesday, so
Speaker 3: if we're not having a speaker vote and I can
Speaker 3: make it down, he and I will be together a
Speaker 3: campaigning and I look forward to making sure he's the
Speaker 3: next president of the United States.
Speaker 4: Did he not call you last night after that history
Speaker 4: making vote.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to get into exactly when I speak
Speaker 3: to the president, but I speak to him regularly. He's
Speaker 3: been encouraging and I look forward to continuing to campaign
Speaker 3: with him as I have in the past.
Speaker 1: I want to also ask you about what's going on
Speaker 1: in appropriation bills. There's an ear mark that is for
Speaker 1: fifty million dollars for your district, and Jake Sherman of
Speaker 1: Punchbowl News is saying potentially that might get killed now
Speaker 1: because of the events that unraveled the past twenty four hours.
Speaker 1: Are you nervous about this? For the helicopter hangar that
Speaker 1: you were hoping to get those funds.
Speaker 3: For, well, I certainly hope that people wouldn't be so
Speaker 3: torqued over what's happened that they would deprive our national
Speaker 3: security of a key asset, so that brand new helicopters
Speaker 3: that were just brought in to train our sailors and
Speaker 3: our marines and our coastguardsmen would be secure and wouldn't
Speaker 3: be left out in bad weather or in an inferior
Speaker 3: hangar system. I've spoken to the Chief Appropriator on that matter.
Speaker 3: He said that Jake Sherman's report is false, that they
Speaker 3: expect that that fifty million dollars for Northwest Florida to
Speaker 3: support our aviation training mission will be there. Again, that's
Speaker 3: not something for me. That's something for our service members
Speaker 3: and to ensure that the new equipment we've purchased is
Speaker 3: well maintained and able to be used for training.
Speaker 4: Congress, when I want to just get back to where
Speaker 4: we started, while we have you with us, you accuse
Speaker 4: Kevin McCarthy on the floor of the House of cutting
Speaker 4: a secret deal. You said with Joe Biden over Ukraine.
Speaker 4: It was partly how you justified his removal as Speaker.
Speaker 4: Steve Scalise though aid for Ukraine just last week and
Speaker 4: is seen as a close ally of Kevin McCarthy. Is
Speaker 4: that a deal breaker for you?
Speaker 3: No, because it really is the secret part of the
Speaker 3: deal that offends me more than someone's personal views on Ukraine.
Speaker 3: The matter is somewhat settled now because in the Republican Conference,
Speaker 3: we have a rule called the Hastart rule, which means
Speaker 3: that once a majority of the majority takes a position
Speaker 3: on a policy matter, you can't use a minority of
Speaker 3: the majority to roll them. And in the last vote
Speaker 3: on Ukraine, we had one hundred and one Republicans vote
Speaker 3: in favor of that aid one hundred and seventeen vote against.
Speaker 3: So it's sort of a settled matter that the House
Speaker 3: of Representatives is done funding the war in Ukraine, no
Speaker 3: matter who this So you're.
Speaker 2: So that'll happen.
Speaker 4: There'll be a vote then on a supplemental request for Ukraine.
Speaker 2: Will you vote for it? Absolutely not.
Speaker 3: I've been voting against US involvement in this war for
Speaker 3: some time. I believe this war will end anytime. The
Speaker 3: European democracies wanted to.
Speaker 1: Sir, just quickly because you brought up the Hastart rules.
Speaker 1: That something you like to live by. Because yesterday four
Speaker 1: percent of your Republican conference ousted Speaker McCarthy when he
Speaker 1: had more than ninety percent of the backing of your colleagues.
Speaker 1: That was the majority, the majority, wasn't it sure?
Speaker 3: But the hassert rule would apply to policy matters and bills,
Speaker 3: not procedural matters such as the resolution to deem the
Speaker 3: Speaker vacant. Moreover, if I violated the hassert rule. It
Speaker 3: would only come after Speaker McCarthy violated it on the
Speaker 3: Ukraine supplemental. The last Ukraine supplemental we had didn't have
Speaker 3: a majority of the majority. I can tell you that
Speaker 3: that type of the kind of borish leadership wasn't sitting
Speaker 3: well with some of the people that voted with me
Speaker 3: to vacate the chair.
Speaker 1: All right, And I know it's not technically a real rule.
Speaker 1: It is just something you all like to live by.
Speaker 1: Congressman Matt Gabe from Florida's first congressional district district, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining Bloomberg Television Radio this evening.
Speaker 2: Thank you