s a member of the housermed Services Committee and the house judiciary committee. His work in congress foces on National SecurityVeterans Affairs and adherence to constitutional principles. Congressman gaetz discusses his look firebrand. Joining me with ideas images and stories. This is not my chronological diary can watch me on television for that. Wed like you to enjoy your Virtual Program with congressman matt gaetz and executive director john heubusch. Congressman matt gaetz welcome to the reagan library. I wish we were there and not socially distance like you are in the coast but what a terrific look. Congratulations. Thank you so much gritty was a joy writing it and particularly a joy to participate in our Politics Today whether on the political right are the political left. What we see is a lot of energy and passion and enthusiasm that i was glad to reflect to my perspective. You know congressman i think i read in the book that you love sports and you like this ball could when i was a kid i was into baseball a lot in there is a book that came out and maybe you have read it or know of it. It was by a pitcher for the yankees and his name was jim. I dont know if you are familiar with the blood that if you dont mind i want to read you an excerpt because when i saw this reminded me so much of him and the book that you have written. The book was a frank insider look at her fashionable sports and covering the off the field sidef a spotlight including obscene jokes, drunken tomcat and by the players. And do you accuse him upon its publication he tried to force bounce in two sign it sang everythi was fictional. When i read your book congressman i thought you know this is so refreshing. Heres a member of congress who puts himself out there and writes the truth in what he said were rather then the virtual stuff that we see. You have the fearlessness and the courage to you that i dont think we see very often especially with younger members like yourself. Thank you. I lay bare the experiences that ive having congress and frankly washington remains a deepl corrupt place where people have to pay for Committee Assignments and for leadership opportunities, to. A sense of upward mobility within the institution and while i have great reverence for Public Service and a profession might father was a Public Servant by grant but rather was a publics servant i believe its noble to choose to survey neighbors in your community or they fear the noblest profession bears a striking resemblance to the oldest profession of politicians exchanging money for favors and thats why i am the only republican in the congress now who has sworn off donations from all federal political actions. I dont know how a member of congress can take money from pacs and then tell their constituents that there arent strings attached. Of course there are in far too many in congress and the calendar off to the lobbyists on k. Student hand their voting cards to the leadership. They are just sort of along for the ride back it i believe that President Trumps so different in its approach to washington that actually creates some oxygen and creates spaces for nontraditional members like myself to choose a different way to serve. For the for me thats meant a lot of commentary and media and a lot of work in the Digital Space but maybe not so much of the normal gladhanding and elbow rubbing that you see from a different generation in washington. Have you ever had any comparisons congressman that you are kind of like Newt Gingrich was. I get Leonardo Dicaprio more than Newt Gingrich and comparisons. This does bring a certain figure to the place a certain effort to reform some of the practices that really lean into the base of the corrosive elements of washington. When you write a tellall about congress youre usually not still in congress. Thats whats little different about my book but im still there and people are still my colleagues but i think to address the generational challenges tha they face whether you are on the rider on the left eye do think issues ke immigration and how we deal with digital platforms, the environment and Climate Change. These are generational challenges that will require a political realignment. I dont think that returning to our corners republican versus democrat is all that productive and his wife and writing a book about so my friendships with people like alexandria ocasio cortez. We need to listen to one another and acknowledged thathere may be many things you disagree on but is there some things can agree on you ought to put those on the front of the list. And the minute i want to ask you about katie hill because you cover them both in your look really well. Are you a naturalborn politician . I know your dad is a terrific politician. A naturalborn politician who has figured out how to achieve celebrity status and a social dia ager maybe the converse . You are naturalborn like Ronald Reagan a great actor whos figured out how to make a work in politics. You know i started in the state legislature. I write aut being being an idol idol is the 26yearold who thought i could contribute to a new generation of Republican Leadership in the state of florida. I t a chance to serve in a number of capacities there. Think my first passion is policy, ensuring that we put the policies iplace that can lift up all americans. I do believe that you have to have those policies with a certain panache in the certain showmanship and convince members of congress to in the middle of the night go to the floor and give these ovations to empty rooms. Normal people would think that would be a sign of Mental Illness but thats how we help people to move up in congress. Rather than speaking to an empty room i think you have to be on television on the radio and the internet sharing with people and in beit peopleo movement. Thats one thing ive done wit firebrand anna trieto do with my service. Ura matt gaetz about how media equates to value in advertising. It seems like you have figured that out. They are a number of algorithms. For me ubiquity is the objective. I want to contribute to the discussionn the debate. I come from the district and i write about my connection with people that observed in our military and theres a certain fighting that comes with the military. I never went downrange to hear shots fired in anger with the uniform on. To believe that they same sen of patriotism can convert to committerooms are on the floor of the congress or a possible television host. I write about the decisn ive made not just to appear with viewers but too on to the view or go on cnn or msnbc where they might not hold my politics near and dear to their hearts but its a sign of a healthy democracy to show that we can actually have some disagreements and they can be intesting and they can tell a lot about what we are trying tbring to the country. I told myriend congressman dell then you have to win all your home games to go 50 in the road and that acknowlge s you do put yourself out there you can sometes come away from some of those rhetorical and america is the better for it if we engaged with that. Would you go so far as to say that in Congress Today its not the currency o power. In the social media age its what drives power in this modern media age. Would you agree . I would agree and i think that creates opportunity because when you say that the people they get to run the place are simply those who have been around the longest then it creates a hazard because a lot of the ambitious people that want to do Something Else leave are the ones that have been around for 20, 25 or 30 years are the ones who think congress is the best they will ever do in the the most excitement they will ever have. Innovation and creativity that i think our country needs to meet these big new challenges. I write only a fool would expect oxygen aryans and says that americans to go unsolved the major challenges of the new generation of americans and i encourage young people wanting to serve whether they are on the right or the left. I think they have the most socially interconnected generation in all of Human History with millennials coming into political power. We should view that is a great opportunity to Work Together because look if we have an environment that is that will affect us all equally. If we have a country that is forever engaged in forever wars that trains the soul of the nation across the ideological and political spectrum. I think that sense of common destiny creates unity even in a dynamic ke you describe work confrontatn can lead to that type of on line attention. How has your book gone over with their colleagues in congress . It seems like and i will go back to newts days, the frankness that you have the courage to show. It might start trouble for you but i get the sense that thats not the case anymore. I didnt start witmany friends in cgress so i havent missed the many that ive lost that when you write a ok about congress and chaer 1 is called sex and money you can get the attention of a few of your colleagues and ive had challenges with both. Not that i should be discriminated against but i think a plethora of those ould be enjoyed i dont mind checking republicans and they did the wrong thing but i wrote in a book that senator richard burr who made really bad mistakes in choosing his own arsenal benefit in his own stock portfolio and so i will defen democra like alexandercasio cortez if i think they are being treated unfairly and i will attack republicans if i think they are engaged in misbehavior and what we are doing for ameri. We need more of an ability to recognize that we are in 22 separate teams wearing different jerseys. We are all wearing the american jersey and we can have different ideas but at the end of the day we have all got to get the country in. You are relatively on opposite ends of the political spectrum from aoc for example but is it fair to say you both have read the same playbook and you have similar operating styles andhe has the same style on the lefthat y have on the right. Not only do i recognize aocs star power to recognizeow the president does as well put your member donald trump is a way to judge a man who jges on talent competiti. He knows he is atar which is why he engages with h at times but i know that she is a socialist but i also know shes not a sellout and i think there e far too many washington in both parties who actually believe in nothing. They are just vessels through which specialinterest operate. If someone is sincere in their beliefs even if they are not my beliefs i can usually find a way to work with someone on policy issue that will help. Aoc and i worked on veteran legislation to help veterans do with ptsd and similarly they are people my own own party that i have a hard time supporting because they are more just did and being of ballet for specialinterest or aipac or dustry group than they are representing the vals that they campaigned on before their nstituents. You know i worked on capitol hill the entire reagan years and theres a cole in your book that i want to read. You say i hope to represent them meaning our conituents but i also represent them at their worst and id beg eir forgeness. It reminded me of something of a conclusion i came to after years on the hill and that was if it is actually a perfect reflection of the American Society weathered drug at x. Are thieves and the new have leaders and manitarians. Do you agree with that . I dont hold myself up the former constituents in the country as a perfect man. Im a flawed man and i think we all recognize that we can become a little more accepting of one another would listen to each other. Recently the politicians have had to have the perfect family, the perfect background, no scars on their records and now we have donald trump as president of United States someone who i think would ignore list throughout his life there at times when he fell short of his own standards. We all do and i think when we get rid of that. Allows us to be more real, more representative more visceral and more connected to our constituents. There are people in florida who at times due interesting and strange things and theres a similar line of the book where id now is George Herbert walker bush says hes a quiet man and heres the quiet wars is in the country but im a bit of a strange man i can hear the strange voices the country thats okay because at times its beyond the it can do exceptional things. I think we can celebrate that and be a little more gracious with one another about her personal short laws recognizing we all have something to contribute to america. Well put, well put. Back to katie hill for a moment because you focus on her in the book to some extent. I was interested in that story because she was representing simi valley where the Ronald Reagan library is. She seemed to me to be like a talented and tough operator. I wonder shes not the kind of my mind to fold up and things got tough. She had to hit the road because the leadership and Speaker Pelosi was concerned or do you think she came to that conclusion that it was the best as an individual to have homed . Her husband released private photos that they had taken they were deeply embarrassing and she did resign from congress. I encouraged her not to. I said you know kae acknowledged the fact that it took the photos and maybe shouldnt have but you are here to put the people first and she said each and every day she was riddled with anxiety over what next pho or next admission might come out of that former relationship and was surprised me so much is of all of the women in the United States congress there wasnt one who stepped up to defend her. The sisterhood of the traveling wasnt there for one of eir own even though they were quite willing to demonize the president for his own misgivings that they may perceive prodigioushought it was a human thing to do to be there for my coworker and the surprise in the katie hill endeavor was not her actions as much as it was the unwillingness particularly of her female colleagues to have her back. We are on the leading edge of millenal centering the congress. You see the titude changing on catol hill as time goes by and there is less of what you just described . I would definitely say the younger members of congress are more connected to one another than the older members of congress arent i think its time to her erased term limits and allow these longstanding grudges to paralyze progress in our country. Somebody said something to somebody 12 years ago and now they wont Work Together on legislation or budgeting or appropriation. For you and her the people theres a willingness to say well you know he corrupts sharing every instant we have on some on social media post and then theres the ability to come back together and reformulate the human bonds that are important to all of us. I do think we can attack some of us challenges and i think the challenges we have debates are very different for my generation. I dont think the baby boomer generation has tackled the omnipresence of digital platforms in the way that we will have to tackle them and how that affects peoples lives in the debate about Climate Change is whether or not its occurring. My generation is dealing with the reality of a change in climate and how that impacts people. I think that we can get past some of the old dogmas and move forward with progress that is i think very utilitarian with its impact in the country. You have a chapter called to parties, one scam and you cover a lot of issues in their bid what i wonder is from the republican perspective are there any republicans left in the house or the senate to give a dam about the federal deficit . It seems like the republicans have lost their way on spending and im startled having served in the Reagan Administration like that to see focusing on that there is no distinction between the two parties on spending any more. It seems. Am i wrong . You are not in their friend rand paul has a great saying could win the democrats are in power the republicans are the conservative party and when the republicans arent power there is no conservative party because oftentimes the things we campaign on become inconvenient when people are trying to govern. I think that frankly is because of the influence of special interests. Theres a strong specialinterest presence in washington to reduce spending. It almost increases spending because then the pie is bigger. I would say there is in this special interest against these because these. Slush Fund Opportunities for little accountability and theres not a big specialinterest push to limit illegal immigration. Democrats in terms of political power for them and a lot of big businesses who support republicans on illegal immigration as an opportunity to keep wages down for americans but a number of these issues is not republicans against democrats, its being in a party. Its the establishment tha republicans and democrats are willing to it here too so that the worst elements of washington, the ements that would impoverish trade deals that was spilled the blood of our bravest patriots without a clear understanding of what victory looks like an establishment at i think would fundamentally change america was an checked and illegal immigration. Thats a lot to fight against as part of the populist right in washington. I would just mention the endless wars, i have to say congressman of all the chapters in the book that pulled at my heartstrings. In your gut theres nothing more important than that and i wonder if the are matt gaetz rules on when you should go to war versus when you shouldnt . I think we have an trading the same in afghanistan for 19 years a great losto our country and our people and like i would say they are absolute or times when we have to fight in the fight is just and necessary and its one of the reasons why im so grateful president reagan is trying to republican ideology the notion of having a big strong Capable