Speaker 1: you know, the biggest beneficiary of the last 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours of
coverage of the Derek Chauvin case and other things.
The biggest beneficiary has been Matt Gates, who has been able to get a respite from the
focus on him, but he is still in full damage control mode.
We're going to talk about that after the break.
And we are also hearing about a Republican that supposedly is moving in the direction
of running for president in twenty, twenty four.
I will tell you who it is and the implications right after this short break.
As I mentioned before the break, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the last 48 to 72
hours of the news cycle being on the Derek Chauvin case has been Republican Congressman
Matt Gates, who is in full, full damage control mode.
He should be in resignation mode, not damage control mode.
And I believe that the attention is going to get back to Matt Gates.
There's a very interesting Daily Beast article which points out that quotes his latest campaign
finance report, reflects a public relations scramble that began even before he acknowledged
being the focus of a federal investigation.
We now are learning that Matt Gates knew much earlier that he was the focus of this investigation
and that he was already working on his public relations campaign.
The filing, which covers the three months between January and March, writes The Daily
Beast, shows that Gates has incurred unprecedented fundraising expenses during a typically quiet
period.
In that time, Gates dropped six figures on a direct mail blitz, shelling out more for
fundraising services than he did in all of 2012.
We now understand the cycle.
One of my criticisms of the status quo of the House of Representatives and two year
terms is that with two year terms, you basically get elected, you get six months and then you
start campaigning again.
Matt Gates is doing the fundraising during that six month period where you are typically
not campaigning.
It's basically a year and a half of campaigning, not to.
Matt Gates is starting right away, and it tells us quite a bit about the panic that
he is likely feeling as a result of these investigations.
The article goes on to say, Gates also paid five thousand dollars in strategic consulting
fees to notorious political operative Roger Stone, and he gave money to a number of Republican
Florida state lawmakers that he has never supported before.
Would it appears he's trying to do there.
And again, we're left to read into the actions of a madman.
It seems he's trying to curry favor with some of these fellow Florida Republicans so that
they will not abandon him and hopefully will speak out in his support if and when it gets
really, really ugly for him, which could be any time.
The Daily Beast writes that the report also indicates Gates may be increasingly isolated.
He's received no contributions from his Republican colleagues.
More than anything, the filing reflects a concerted effort to bolster support ahead
of the creeping shadow of the investigation.
Gates has spent roughly one hundred and seventy K on direct mail this year.
One hundred and sixty thousand of it all on one day, March 31st.
I think that's the day after I know I was on or I was on our break that day.
That must be the day after the bizarre interview with Tucker Carlson.
The previous day, The New York Times broke the news that the Justice Department was looking
into whether he had sex with a 17 year old and paid for her travel, which possibly violates
federal sex trafficking laws.
Gates has also invested in fundraising, paying Nevada based Redrock Strategies nearly one
hundred and sixty K for fundraising consulting.
That's more than he spent on fundraising services in 2019 and 2020 combined.
That is stunning.
Last week, Politico reported Gates spent six figures on TV ads punching back against the
accusations, 30 second spot slated to run in his home district in the Florida Panhandle
and on national cable networks, asking supporters to, quote, fight back against a, quote, multi
week fake news cycle targeting CNN.
There is one expense in particular, raising eyebrows, a five thousand dollar strategic
political consulting fee to Drake Ventures.
That's the company belonging to Roger Stone.
Friday, the Department of Justice sued Stone and his wife, saying they owed millions of
dollars in unpaid taxes and are using that very same Drak ventures to shelter more than
one million dollars.
Isn't that unbelievable?
Look at look at how the tentacles of gates are spreading into so many different things.
So there's the investigation into Gates, which we already talked about.
And then now in light of that, it's sort of weird that Gates was the lone no vote on some
sex trafficking bill a couple of years ago or whatever.
Okay, that's weird.
And we're starting to see that in a new light.
Then we learn about Gates's alleged involvement in a shill candidate scheme in a different
district in the state of Florida.
We had a report on that, I believe it was earlier mid last week.
Now we find out that Gates paid a consulting fee to Roger Stone's company.
And it is the very same company that now allegedly is a way for Roger Stone and his wife to shelter
more than a million dollars and avoid paying.
Taxes.
It's so tied in with all of this stuff and in a sense, I don't feel bad for him, but
Gates may end up being another sort of victim of the Trump grift.
The way that the Trump grift works is Trump loves you, loves you, loves you for as long
as you are saying good things about him and for as long as you are useful to him and Trump
will introduce you to all sorts of different people.
Who knows how Matt Gates ended up sort of entangled with Roger Stone in the first place?
My instinct is that it has something to do with Donald Trump.
As soon as you are no longer useful to Trump or as soon as you are potentially a problem
due to your own issues that you were having from a public relations standpoint, Trump
is gone.
And indeed, the reports are that Matt Gates has been trying to meet with Trump.
Matt Gates has been claiming that he has Donald Trump support, although it's not completely
clear that that's the case.
And it is another in at least partially.
I'm not saying Gates did the stuff.
If Gates did the stuff he's accused of doing, he didn't do it because of Donald Trump.
But he is another one of these guys who got sort of lulled into Trump's circle as a brownnosing
sycophant and then dropped like a bad habit as soon as he was no longer useful.
One other piece of this very extensive Daily Beast article about what's going on with Matt
Gates quote, The report also suggests Gates has few friends in Washington.
While Gates swore off donations from corporate PACs, he kept the door open to donations from
candidate committees.
But he has so far reported no financial support in twenty twenty one from friends in Congress
like Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise, both of whom donated back in 2020.
While Gates made the same day four thousand dollar donations to Mike Lee and Rand Paul.
Gates did not give money to any House colleagues.
He did send out a thousand, a few five one thousand dollar donations to five Republican
Florida senators and had not donated to their campaigns previously.
So I would expect that the media attention will go back to Matt Gates at some point relatively
soon, at some point relatively soon.
I would imagine we will know whether there will be charges filed as a result of what
appear to be multiple investigations into Matt Gates.
But certainly Gates must be thrilled that for the last two to three days, the focus
has been not on him, but rather on Derek.
Shervin, we'll get back to him, no question about it.