Episode 709 Scott Adams: Representative Matt Gaetz About Impeachment, Nuclear Power, Climate, More

Date: 2019-10-30 | Duration: 33:43

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK goes on sale 11/5. Pre-order: https://bit.ly/2NRammu Special guest Representative Matt Gaetz The Ukraine impeachment play and Rep. Schiff’s tactics Leading the protest to “storm the SCIF” Nuclear Gen IV solutions for climate change

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> [!note] Rough Transcript
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## Transcript

[0:04]

pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom hey everybody come on in here it's time for coffee with Scott Adams and the very best one yeah they've they've all been great but today the best one ever today we have a guest assuming our technology works I should be joined in a little bit with representative Matt gates you will love it you'll love it but before we get to that there's a little thing I like to do this is called the simultaneous sip it's the best part of your day and it doesn't take much to participate Matt if you're already watching you may have a beverage ready to join in on the simultaneous it all you need all you need is a copper Margaret glasses snifter stein chalice tank or thermos flask canteen Grail goblet vessel of any kind fill it with your favorite liquid I like coffee and join me for the dopamine hit of the day the thing that makes everything better

[1:05]

the thing that makes everything better it's called the simultaneous sip it's sweeping the world join me now oh that was so good best one yet alright before I check to see if representative Matt Gaetz has joined us as a guest I have to do a little technical thing to add him on before that I wanted to give you a little background about why I want to talk to him in particular I have long pointed out that the two best communicators the most persuasive people on both sides of the political aisle who are not President Trump who sort of stands alone as a probably the greatest communicator we've ever had as the president not probably definitely the best communicator but of the younger generation I would say that ALC is the

[2:05]

generation I would say that ALC is the best communicator on the left and Matt Gaetz is by far the best communicator in the GOP and that's what interests us here when we talk about persuasion and communication especially in politics let me give you two examples example number one you all know about the controversy of Katie Hill and her private photographs were published and she had some interesting person life we don't need to get into I'm only aware of one Republican politician maybe there were more but I'm only aware of one who decided to tweet a supportive tweet about Katie Hill basically saying maybe maybe this isn't really the issue that we should be jumping on and if you think about it you took a position against revenge porn and it was so easy shouldn't everybody have taken that position but why didn't everybody do it just bad gates because he's the one who

[3:07]

just bad gates because he's the one who saw some free money sitting on the ground it's not only the high road it's it's exactly the opinion I agree with but it was just there and he got it and everybody else just walked right past it but there's even a better one today and I'll add Matt gates in a minute she's ready yet yeah he's ready to come on I'm gonna I'm gonna add you right now Matt Gaetz and in one moment we should be able to hear you representative Gaetz let me know when you've got audio on your side can you hear me yet
our technology is cooking away you know it's the only thing you can't rely on this morning I got up and I didn't have Wi-Fi because probably the power was that was somewhere in the state all right it looks like that connection is still cooking and while that's doing that let me complete a representative

[4:09]

that let me complete a representative Gaetz you good you're on I was just gonna give you one more compliment on your excellent Alyssa Milano tweet those who didn't see it so yesterday Alyssa Milano sort of gently mocked you by saying aren't you that fringe right Republican who supports weed and LGBTQ rights and now you're telling me you're at you've acted in two TV shows referring to an earlier tweet of yours you're one of those out of touch Hollywood elites snowflake so she makes this gentle kind of mocking tweet and your response to it was one of the best things I've seen you said will always have marijuana reform and LGBTQ rights Alyssa so what I love about this is Alyssa Milano has 3.7 million followers probably almost all on the Left who you just paste you just agreed with them on two of their biggest issues and they never would have heard of you or known that you hated them of that if

[5:10]

or known that you hated them of that if you had not respond cleverly to her tweet this is why you this has many other reasons or why you're the best communicator in the GOP now of course you're also famous lately for leading the protest against the secret skiffs situation I have to ask you this question privately when you talk to Democrats about impeachment because you must have friends or Democrats that you just chat with casually do they ever laugh at how ridiculous the impeachment process is yes I think there are a lot of Democrats who could no longer defend

[6:11]

remember Scot was two weeks ago Nancy Pelosi said that the concept of having a vote was just a Republican talking point then last week we ripened these issues of due process and now this week Nancy Pelosi is holding a vote on an impeachment inquiry and so I think she's doing that because of the feedback from her members that they could no longer defend a process that had no rules no boundaries no guardrails now there it's almost like there are two impeachment processes going on there's one of the people people like you who understand all the ins and outs in the details but then there's the public who really is completely lost in the details and it looks to me like the the Dems are playing this long con game in which they're trying to generate a lot of smoke this artificial smoke which will make the public think well I don't understand the issue but with all that smoke and all these votes and all these meetings and skips things there must be some substance there does it look like just a long con to you it does it looks like a long con sort of constructed by means of nanotechnology because you've

[7:12]

means of nanotechnology because you've got Democrats trying to take a policy disagreement about how to deal with the Ukraine and Russia then reshape and reorient the molecules into some sort of impeachable offense but you really have happening here is a lot of folks in the diplomatic corps who grew up in this post Cold War era where everything had to be about posting up against Russia that Russia was this great malign actor and that the only way to deal with them was through through deterrence through strengthening the Ukraine and there are a lot of people still in our government like ambassador Taylor like others who believe that this is the only acceptable principle now Donald Trump ran on a different ideology that we could actually work with Russia where we had aligned interests and that could reduce the need for the United States to have military presence everywhere in the world and frankly you see that starting to work out in in Syria and in Turkey where Russia is assisting in efforts to try to reduce some of the violence but nonetheless whether you agree with the

[8:13]

nonetheless whether you agree with the president or not a policy disagreement about Russia and the Ukraine is not the basis for impeachment and so you've got a lot of these diplomatic corps career swamp you know oriented swap bathe to people who are trying to fashion their disagreement into a reason to undermine democracy and I think that is the fundamental point we got to make to the American people now there's a persuasion trick that the Democrats are using and so far I have not seen anybody on the GOP respond to it in a way I think is Right know what the thing that they continued to do and the pundits on their side do as well is they refer to the Ukraine phone call as quote digging for dirt on an opponent and then you saw that Colonel bin Minh testified that he didn't think the phone call was appropriate and he said it had nothing to do with national security and I'm watching this whole thing and I'm saying to myself if you've got a presidential candidate Biden who's leading in the polls to be the next

[9:14]

leading in the polls to be the next president of the United States and there are some legitimate information in the public that there might be some conflict of interest something to look into and the president of United States looks into it isn't that exactly his job the president's job to make sure there's no potential for blackmail or foreign interference and isn't he doing something that's also his top priority which is protecting the election because if Biden got in and if he had some ties that would be a big problem not only with Ukraine but probably Russia would know what's going on why is it that the GOP is not framing it as actually doing his job and a top priority I think it's been hard for Republicans to centralize a message on this Ukraine sequel to the Russia hoax because we don't have the benefit of open hearings that that create the platform for us to all observe the facts and then get on the same page yeah in a way have to tip your hat to the Democrats their strategy of

[10:16]

hat to the Democrats their strategy of holding secret hearings leaking prepared opening statements and then requiring us you know four or five six hours later when we have a good point in cross-examination to try to explain that to people within the confines of the rules it really gives them a natural advantage and I think you know the way you described it would be more effect if you know one there was a court in the Ukraine that ruled that there was Ukrainian election interference in the United States when it came to the disclosure of man afford information well timed in a way to best help Hillary Clinton second point is that not only is that generally the president's job to make sure that we're not doling out cash or military assistance to people who aren't using it correctly or who may be engaged in corruption corruption as to Ukraine there is a specific element of the National Defense Authorization Act that requires the president to certify that before any aid is given to the Ukraine that it will not be subject to any corruption and that it will actually

[11:16]

any corruption and that it will actually be used for its intended purpose and so time and again you have the reinforcement that this is the president's job and I think that the more that we point out that the president was legitimate in his thinking that maybe the son of the vice president shouldn't be out shaking people down for money and it is for access you know that's a dog they'll probably hunt working working people and so this leads me perfectly to your your protest some people are calling it a stunt because that's what the other the other side says when you do something that works it's a stunt and you turned this concept this this vague concept that there was an unfair process that the public wasn't quite understanding what's unfair about it why is it different but when you let the protest you turn that into a visual and you only own the headlines and I'm wondering it did you get any pushback from the Republicans when I assume you first suggested this did anybody say no no don't do this or were they completely on board well Scott I don't think it'll surprise you

[12:17]

Scott I don't think it'll surprise you or your viewers to know that I am NOT the most popular person in the Republican Conference I'm not going to win many mr. congeniality contests in my own conference because I push my conference I often think we we don't take the bad off of our shoulder enough when dealing with the radical left you know more broadly I think that on the right we have accepted this notion that we can win the battle of ideas but lose the fight for the soul of the country with the left because they fight a lot harder than we do cases and so I challenged my colleagues to be a part of this visual always in Washington people are complaining about process the right does at the left does it and it all becomes white noise I thought we needed to show the American people that this was something happening down a staircase in a basement behind lock double doors with red signs on them you know and that when members of Congress went in we were either gonna get in or the American people were gonna see you know 50 60 members of Congress

[13:18]

see you know 50 60 members of Congress representing millions of Americans pounding on a door to try to find out what was going on and in either of those cases I thought it would it would elevate these due process arguments beyond the normal tit-for-tat in Washington and and it's hard to argue with its effectiveness it was unorthodox admittedly but you know just last week Nancy Pelosi was continuing to have a process where they made the rules up as they went along now they're at least trying to create some sense of order with how they're organizing the remainder of their impeachment strategy but but it's noteworthy Scott that like they've got Adam Schiff doing this instead of the Judiciary Committee because Jim Jordan and myself and a few others on the Judiciary Committee worked him silly when they had the Muller hearings when they had the Lewandowski hearings remember that crazy day where they brought in John Dean like the ghost of Christmas past talk about you know what life was like in the 70s of Richard Nixon I mean

[14:31]

so Matt we're having a little bit of audio problem on your side I'm not sure if you can still hear me you know there you're kind of cutting in and out let me ask let me ask a new question and see if our audio clears up and in the meantime so first of all I want to point out the reason that I call out the representative Matt gates as one of the best communicators as you saw him describe this gif in such visual language that he took a concept turned it into a room and gave you the details in the room that is pure Trump level persuasion to take a concept border security and turn it into the wall I mean when you see anybody doing that you know you're dealing with somebody who knows how to communicate and a completely different level let me ask you about climate change and nuclear where are you on climate change is it real is it a hoax what's your basic idea and then I want to ask you about nuclear energy sure I believe that the earth is warming believe that humans contribute or I accepting those two premise would

[15:35]

or I accepting those two premise would necessitate an adherence to the left
yeah we have a little bit of audio problems here by the way we we always wonder if the social
all right we're having a breakdown of audio here I can I can tell you that my my yeah I can hear you you're cutting out a little bit but the we always suspect that the platform is intentionally muting some voices that are important so it could be a coincidence could be but so you are pro-nuclear because the nuclear solution is the only well it's the only practical smart thing to do but I would but would you agree we should also be pushing solar and other

[16:36]

should also be pushing solar and other green energies at the same time oops I lost you let's see if I can add you back mmm
mmm no possibly not try it one more time there you are well I had you back and see if that works are you back yes so I think we lost you when you were saying you did think the earth is warming but that the solutions were maybe not optimal and maybe they should include nuclear did I summarized that right you did Scott I don't believe that the answer to climate change is to unilaterally disarm the American economy and ship overseas every pollution causing job I think that the better answer is to have a more a more inclusive technology doctrine in our country that would include way more nuclear way more hydropower way more solar and the best way to achieve that

[17:38]

solar and the best way to achieve that is not by turning the government into a venture capitalist but instead limiting some of the regulations that impair nuclear access and hydro access and then having the right trade policies and intellectual property policies so that American solar dominates like we used to and we don't get ripped off by China now do you know offhand I'm not sure if you would know this but do you know if President Trump has ever had a private conversation with Bill Gates to get up to speed on just how good the opportunity is for the generation for nuclear that doesn't melt down and also eats other nuclear waste for its fuel does the president understand that we're right on the cusp of nuclear going from something that was designed by literally slide rulers the ones in this country to supercomputers and it's really not the same technology fundamentally does he understand that do you think I'm sorry Scott can you rephrase that I lost you a second there oh do you think the president understands what Bill Gates

[18:39]

president understands what Bill Gates would tell him if he talked to him in person that the new generation for nuclear is not only designed to be safe from meltdown by design it can't meltdown but also some designs can eat nuclear waste that exists therefore decreasing the amount of nuclear waste in the world do you think the president's up to speed on just how good the opportunity is oh I lost him again this is just the those of you who have watched me before know that we've never had this much trouble on a call and to imagine that this is a coincidence is a stretch all right it looks like we're not going to be able to get him back but representative Gaetz thank you very much I know actually that you needed to go just about now anyway so thank you for spending time with us and much appreciated the final thing I

[19:39]

and much appreciated the final thing I wanted to say when we got cut off is just to make sure that President Trump is up to speed on the new developments with nuclear energy generation four in particular because I think he could be a great advocate for it and also the the issue of climate change he doesn't need to decide if it's real or a hoax because nuclear energy would be the right solution under every scenario and I hope that message gets to him all right we we are left asking ourselves is it a coincidence that the one time we have technological problems would be the one time that the most effective Republican voice was on this platform coincidence it could be my next set of questions were what should we do about social media platforms having bias so that was kind of bad timing all right

[20:41]

that was kind of bad timing all right there's a Democrat named Jeff Andrew who said he hasn't seen anything impeachable yet about President Trump or any of the Ukraine stuff now what does it mean when there's at least one Democrat who says I'm looking at the same stuff you're looking at I don't see anything what does that mean it means it's not there if if you have a situation where everybody's looking at the same thing and you've got one Democrat who says I'm right here looking at the same stuff you are don't see anything you can almost always guarantee that there's there's actually nothing there so I wanted to kind of emphasize that point I made earlier with representative Gaetz that the this is really clever long con game by the Democrats and it's really effective and I'm pretty sure that the

[21:44]

effective and I'm pretty sure that the general public has decided that there's something impeachable going on that they don't quite understand at any kind of a legal political level and so that allows them to read their own preferences into the story and what I mean by that is you know there are some people were saying well everybody's talking about impeachment it must be because and then they'll fill in their own reason because of Russian collusion which didn't happen or because of he's the border security or kids in cages whatever it is so it's quite brilliant what the play that they're running but I have to think that they want to they need to go right to the edge but they can't actually do an impeachment process because it would lay bare that they don't have anything there so we'll see how they play that all right I want to thank you all for

[22:49]

right I want to thank you all for helping get Matt gates on here just to remind you if anybody's new on here prior to the interview a few days before the interview I said that I wanted you all to follow him on Twitter representative Gaetz as a way to get his attention and show that there's there are enough people here that there's some scale and it would be worth his time to spend 15 minutes with us which he did I think we got about 10,000 new followers for him in a couple of days and I'm thinking that this might be a new model so what I'd like to suggest is that there might be some other opportunities where I could ask you to do the same thing and you don't have to follow people forever but you can certainly get their attention by following them all on the same day anybody's going to notice if their Twitter account goes up by 10,000 users in 24 hours and that should be enough for us to get some really interesting guests on here in the future

[23:50]

interesting guests on here in the future it worked once maybe it'll work again I think you noticed that I put on my good shirt and so thank you seriously I was actually spending time in my closet looking at my shirts and I was thinking I'm talking to ya a representatives offer our government I'd better put it on a collar so he actually caused me to put on a nicer shirt there you go again one of the Trump children on it's funny to call them children but I know what you mean yeah maybe they would they're all interesting everybody the Trump family is interesting if you notice that there are no boring members of the entire Trump family including you know people who married into the family they're just all interesting have you noticed that sort of a yeah sort of an interesting coincidence

[24:50]

yeah sort of an interesting coincidence all right
put his link again are you talking about Matt Gaetz yeah just look for ma TT g AE TZ
TZ just search for him on Twitter and you'll see he's got two Twitter accounts one looks like the official one one looks like more of a personal one I think he uses them both anyway my book loser think is available for order now and delivery November 5th which is next week right so if you want to order now for delivery next week you would be ahead of the crowd I have to tell you that I think loser think is going to move the dial a little bit I've introduced a number of examples of how not to think in there and I think they're sticky you've already seen that the number of people who say stuff like hey your mind-reading now or your word

[25:51]

hey your mind-reading now or your word thinking so there are a number of Defense's that I've built into the book so if you find somebody who's in a mental bubble maybe you can help him out and if you're in a mental bubble maybe you can get out Oh Brad parse Cal he would be near the top of my list of guests that I'd like to talk to let me think about that one I like to tie the guests to the news a little bit at least a little bit put on Alyssa Milano I would love that actually paid I've said before that I I might have more respect for Alyssa Milano than most people on the left because number one I don't think she's operating purely politically it looks like she believes what she's saying and also she's very effective and she's not just the tourist she's she's putting serious energy and reputation and you know it

[26:52]

energy and reputation and you know it can't be easy she's taking a lot of abuse so I I have a little on respect for Alyssa Milano as a citizen who's trying to make the world better you can disagree on her but you have to love I think you have to love the spirit the energy the you know the the positive intention anyway I mean all of that looks like good stuff all right
is there anything else happening I mean all we're talking about is Oh Joe Biden made another hilarious persuasion mistake today so I guess it was national dog day and Joe Biden does a picture of himself sitting on a bench with a wall behind him so it's an indoor bench but it looks like an outdoor bench but somewhere indoors with a wall behind him and he's got sort of a German Shepherd looking dog in front of him and he's saying it's national dog day and their president Trump didn't say anything

[27:54]

president Trump didn't say anything about national cat day or national dog day and that should tell you something about Trump at the same time the President Trump his pinned tweet the most important tweet is the hero dog the president's talked more about dogs in the last 24 hours than he's talked about people and Joe Biden is like he didn't say anything about national dog day do you know how important national dog day as to the fate of the Republic not a lot not a lot but anyway here's the funny part so Biden does this photo with the dog that reminds us because that is fresh in her head the dog reminds us of the hero dog now you might say to yourself hey that was intentional he got a hero dog to you know gain from the association but what it looks like to me is that hero dog chased Biden to the to a dead end and wondered why his

[28:57]

the to a dead end and wondered why his suicide vest never went off so when I look at it I don't think I don't think to myself
I just got a message from representative Gaetz staff they have some Wi-Fi problems on their end but you know if you're listening to me now probably not you probably would have to do something else but the Wi-Fi is probably not the problem it might be the platform we don't know anyway Biden does a picture where it looks like he looks like al Baghdady who's just been trapped by the Euro dog and I'm thinking to myself the poor guy has no advisors who have any idea about how to do visual persuasion they don't understand the internet they don't even understand the orientation to hold your camera when you're taking a video try this not this so watching Biden decompose right in front of us at first

[29:59]

decompose right in front of us at first you know if you've been watching my periscopes you know that I at first I was let's go easy on Biden there's clearly age has gotten the better of him and we don't wanna you know we don't want to dunk on somebody who's who's really served their country and you know we should give him a respectful you know final phase but the longer he stays in the race I don't know you can't not treat him like a target because a President Biden would be one of the worst things that ever happened to this country not because of his politics but because I don't think he's mentally up to the job you know and I think that's obvious to most people now so he'll run out of money soon I want to emphasize a suggestion I heard from Greg Gutfeld on the 5:00 yesterday I think it was Greg

[31:00]

the 5:00 yesterday I think it was Greg he suggested that maybe president Trump adopt a dog and it should be the hero dog is that the best idea you've ever heard seriously have you ever heard an idea that was better than president adopting the hero dog as the white house dog now I don't know if it's possible and I don't even know if it's safe because I don't know what the deal is with military dogs are they always safe they must be safe enough because they do later get retired to civilian homes but you know I don't know enough about that situation to be sure but think of the optics think of the optics of President Trump adopting the hero dog and wait there's a better part I haven't even told you the best part because it would give the hero dog permanent permanent security the way to protect the hero dog

[32:03]

security the way to protect the hero dog is to make sure that the hero dog has Secret Service protection because he's part of the White House how much would you love knowing that nobody could ever get to the hero dog and hurt it because it's now part of the White House and can never be harmed because there's just a ring of secret service because even after after the president leaves office whenever that is he still gets Secret Service protection which means that the hero dog would have Secret Service protection and it gets better I haven't even gotten to the best part yet imagine the movie in which you know somebody attacks the White House and the hero dog saves as a president now I don't think anybody's going to attack the White House in such a way that the hero dog wouldn't need to salt it would need to jump into action but if you were ever going to write a movie there was a popular movie hero dog in the White House I'm sorry it's a movie it's a

[33:07]

House I'm sorry it's a movie it's a perfect movie the hero dog retires to the White House hopes to live on its days in peace but the terrorists attack and the humans can't handle it it's all left to the hero dog the only one who can save the president and he does what a movie best movie ever all right I don't have much else today so I'm gonna I'm going to end here and thanks again to representative Matt Gaetz I know technology was not our friend today but I very much appreciate you stopping by and we will talk to you all later