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