Rep. Paul Gosar Speaks at the Freedom Center’s Restoration Weekend

Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar delivered a powerful speech recently at the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s annual Restoration Weekend, held November 10-13, 2022 at the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, AZ. He addressed how the incoming Congress can turn things around and make America great again.

Don’t miss this patriot’s passionate talk below:

Congressman Paul Gosar from DHFC on Vimeo.

Transcript:

Paul Gosar: Well, thanks, everybody. Yes, I am a dentist. (Laughter). And thank you very much for your smiles today because as a recovering dentist, I need to see that smile. (Laughter).  First of all, what an honor it is to speak to you. I have been a big fan of David Horowitz from day one, and so hopefully, I can even come close to Victor Davis Hanson in my comments.

I’m going to first give you an update on the election in Arizona. So there’s roughly now 495,000 votes, or so they say, left to be counted. A little over 300,000 are the day of, which most people believe will run either 2:1 to 3:1, maybe even 4:1 Republican. So what does that mean for our slate of candidates? Kari Lake for governor roughly has to win about 52% of those ballots to be the next Governor of Arizona, which she will; 61% for Blake and for our Secretary of State candidate. So we’ll see what transpires here. But most of those people that voted the day of, some of the numbers, I can tell you, 51% Republican, 38% independent, and 11% Democrat. So hold that line.

So where I’m going to go is a little different. I think when you see the results, you’ve got to look backwards and see what worked, what didn’t, and where you’re going to go forward with. So one of the things I’m going to mention first is Ron DeSantis and Florida, the big winners. Now Ron is a friend of mine who is a former Freedom Caucus gentleman, very active, and he showed that you can go bold and not go home. In fact, people revel at it.

So what that has to do with my conversation is how do we structure the incoming Congress? Now let me tell you a little bit about me. Democrats had labeled me the most dangerous congressman on the hill, not because of my antics, but their line was this Gosar guy is very different. He doesn’t go to the microphone very often, but he gets things done, that’s what scares us. He’s taken on big insurance and he’s won. He’s very prolific with rules and regulations, and was a big help to the Trump campaign, our Trump administration, in getting that done. So it proves to you that when you have seven siblings that hate your guts — (Laughter) — you can still get something going because I am my mom’s favorite. [Applause].

And I have a Cheney connection. So I’m originally from Wyoming, and those siblings who are contacted by former Vice President Dick Cheney. He said, “Help me take out your brother Paul —  (Laughter) — and Andy Biggs,” just to show you how toxic that can be. Out of the seven, four of them rebelled saying there was no way in heck they would vote to help Dick Cheney or Liz Cheney. So what is it? Thank you. [Applause].

So what is it that we can do? I started by talking to you about Ron DeSantis and the 10th Amendment. That’s why it’s so important for Kari Lake to be that — sitting in the governor’s seat. Here’s why. [Applause]. Thank you. Here’s why. What we’re going to see is the federal estate has to be challenged. We, the people in the states, gave to the federal government its limited powers and it’s the way that we will get it back.

Let’s talk immigration, for example. Kari has said that she was going to declare a statewide emergency. The moment she takes her hand off the Bible, thank God. We’ve also talked to her about putting the National Guard. Even if they’re the militia, she has to rename them the militia and take up their budget, put them along the border and do — let’s do something else. Let’s get a twofer in this one. Let’s be smart. Let’s outline the (indiscernible), a Native American reservation that doesn’t allow our border patrol to actually go on the border.

Why that’s important is it’s going to highlight to the world and the rest of the country where human smuggling and drugs prolifically are coming through. It also is a second challenge to the federal estate. The jurisdiction of those Indian tribes. [Pick the fight], don’t allow anybody to come. It comes with some consequences, but take the shot when you actually — she denotes Article IV, Section IV of the Constitution, which guarantees the safety of the state from invasion.

5-plus million illegal immigrants into this country is an invasion. [Applause]. What the state has that you and I don’t have is the ability to petition the Supreme Court. Why not? What do we got to lose here? The Supreme Court has already shown the (indiscernible) of taking this up. How about West Virginia versus the EPA? They showed the (indiscernible) they want to come back to the 10th Amendment, to the state’s rights issue. Let’s do it; let’s not talk about it, let’s do it.

Now, what ends up happening, the worst they can say is no, but what ends up happening? Arizona’s a very interesting state. Taft, when we first petitioned to become a state, turned us down because we wanted to recall federal judges; boy, were we ahead of our time. (Laughter). So when he came back, he forced Arizona to take the federal estate. And what he did to get that was he promised Arizona that the multiple use doctrine of the federal estate would be maximized, so that the state and the federal estate could actually get the maximum return on the dollar. That implies contract.

Now, in that contract, I would state that it’s not the federal government who has last resort, say; it’s the state of Arizona. Why not fight there? What you’re starting to see here now is a whole other line of attacks, but once again, we, the people and the states gave to the federal governments limited powers. We got to fight back. Now, let’s go back to a strategy at the federal level. We’ll probably have a limited majority in the House and so now we’ve got to go back to the Constitution, this is what’s going to save us. We have a rules package. I’m one of those that have been fighting with leadership over and over again that we need to have the conversation about the rules package before we elect leaders. [Applause]. I will tell you, the current leadership has balked at that.

So what’s happening right now is you got leadership that has called for a forum Monday night to talk about leadership. And then they hurriedly, because of the backdrop or back hit, they quickly scheduled a forum on the rules package. That doesn’t work for me; that doesn’t work for a lot of us. Here’s why. I want the leadership to tell me when you’ve promised the American people you’re going to get rid of the 87,000 IRS agents, how are you going to accomplish that? How are you going to talk to the American people to accomplish that? I can tell you how it is. You’re going to pass it, you’re going to probably pass it in the budget deal. And what’s going to happen is the president, if he can get it through the Senate, the president’s going to go, “Nope, veto.”

So what do you do? You got to start doing this, otherwise, the republic is lost. (Inaudible) from my example would be allow him to shut down the government and now everybody goes, oh, oh no, oh no. If you really realize what’s happening in that aspect, almost 85% of the government is on autopilot. How about coming to the table with an alternative? Put the federal estate in quandary. Here’s where the 10th Amendment comes back again. Bring the DeSantises in, bring in the Lakes, bring in Texas and Virginia and say, how do we devolve this power that belonged with you originally, back to you? Put them in the cross-hairs — I mean the federal estate. This is how you start empowering people. We’re done in victimizing people. Now it’s time to empower.

How about we go back and really put a quandary on this federal issue? What does the house have or the Congress have that we really have a moniker for? How about the power of the purse? So what if, as soon as we’re sworn in, we bring up the Covid national emergency? This is an interesting concept because the law states that once a national emergency is declared, Congress — and it uses two words very unusually — must-shall convene to decide whether to continue it or to kill it. We’re well over 6 months; I know because I’m the guy who dropped the bill. Pelosi killed it with a rule. I dropped it again, I’m a persistent little bugger. (Laughter).

I dropped it again. She voted it down with another rule. So what I did is I moved it over to the Senate, had some of my friends, they moved it through and it sits down as a discharge petition. She has — we had no support from our leadership in trying to get that out. And why that is, is that once you get 218 signatures on there, it has to come to the floor.

Now when we start looking at this, do you know that there’s over 40 national emergency declarations that date back to 1982? Why is this important? Well, once you kill them, they’re outdated, there’s monies left behind. How about we gather those back up, show the American people what they are and say, listen, we told you we were going to get this under control; we reclaimed the power of the purse. We showed you the money, now we’re going to get back to work. Do it under open rules, so that the Democrats have to squawk, or are put in a bad position to squawk. How can they argue against their job? It’s their job.

Now let’s go another direction. Let’s go back to the Constitution. How about letters of mark and reprisal, anybody familiar with that? It’s got an application today, folks. What if Congress and its ability puts a bounty on the heads of anybody bringing in drugs and human trafficking? [Applause]. Can you imagine Dog the Bounty Hunter and his mercenary friends? (Laughter). Better yet, what about the cartels going against the cartels? They brought chaos to our southern border. Let’s bring it to theirs.

Freedom isn’t cheap, it’s not free. And on a day like Veteran’s Day, we have to acknowledge what it took to be living in this country, the red, white, and blue, the sacrifice. So why not use it? There’s so many things here that our constitutional framers put in there. It’s unbelievable how they apply to today. Those letter of remarks and reprisals, how does it belittle a Department of Justice for not doing their job? The optics are unbelievable. So stand for something. Empower the American people to come forward. Take it to the lowest common denominator of the 10th Amendment.

I got to tell you, the sky is bright and our future is bright when we empower ourselves to support that Constitution and stop the victimization of members of Congress. Empower them to be the shining light. I will say this once again, the power of the House is not in the speaker; the power of the House is not in the majority leader. The power of the House is not in the minority or the whips. The power of the House is in the members of Congress.

Audience Member: Yes.

Paul Gosar: [Applause]. We elected them. Don’t let them be victims. They’re playing small doesn’t do anything for any of us. When you let somebody else’s lights shine, it empowers you and enlightens you up. That’s a quote, a partial quote, from Maryanne Williamson. So for a Republican to cite a former Democrat, progressive independent, who ran for Democratic nomination for president, I got to tell you, God does wonderful things. He highlights things in the most unusual places, sometimes even in a dentist. (Laughter). [Applause].

So I’m going to finish by this. When you see the struggles going on over the next month when we’re trying to figure out how we lead, that doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result, doesn’t cut it anymore. We’re out of IOUs, we’re at our faces in that wall. We can either go right towards God to the rights of what our framers did, or we can go left and forever lose that light that Ronald Reagan talked about. That choice is ours.

I ask you to hold your member of Congress accountable. What did you do? How can you do it? I’ll use me as that example. You can be the most conservative member of Congress, which I am, and be one of the most accomplished members of Congress, which I am — (Laughter) [Applause] — I am the member of Congress most of the time put in time-out, yes, I am. (Laughter). But going back to my mama, sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. The choice is yours. Let’s live for another day. Let’s smile while we’re kicking some you-know-what, and let’s get some leadership that has got some cajones. [Applause].

It’s been a pleasure talking to you this morning. Once again, you smiled at the end of the thing, so maybe you liked it. And that does my ego as a dentist a lot of good. (Laughter). Thank you for this morning and I look forward to your questions.

Male Speaker: Ladies and gentlemen, let’s thank Congressman Paul Gosar.

Paul Gosar: Thank you.

Male Speaker: Did you have time for a question?

Paul Gosar: I do; I asked you.

Male Speaker: The Congressman would have time for one or two very quick questions.

Paul Gosar: So remember, I want to tell you as a dentist, I do kiss and tell.

Audience Member: Who do you see as an alternate to Kevin McCarthy?

Paul Gosar: I think there’s plenty of individuals that would rise forward. I think the system is what’s wrong, the system is very wrong. Here we’re not even a week past the election and we’re running to go to leadership. I haven’t even looked at the rules package. How are you going to use the rules package, for example, in regards to the FBI? So here’s a little teaching. There’s this thing called the Holman Rule where you can go line-by-line in a budget and you could take someone’s salary down to a dollar. I’ve done that. (Laughter). I got to tell you, it gets a different response from a bureaucrat. (Laughter).

I’ll give you an example. Mark Gabriel on the WAPA, Western American Power Authority, he was misusing funds to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. So we experimented in the last year of Paul Ryan’s speakership and I took that amendment to the floor. Democrats went crazy. I lost that amendment. But on a flight back from Denver, my friend Ken [Bach] was accosted verbally by Mr. Gabriel. He goes, “What does Congressman Gosar have to do with me? Why does he got this hang-up with me?” And Ken [Bach]’s comment back was, “If Paul Gosar has got a problem with you, the problem isn’t him, it’s you.” [Applause].

So once again, how do we use this in a bureaucracy? You use it on the DOJ. I want to know that my leadership is going to utilize that. Same thing with the power of the purse. Why haven’t you brought up my resolution on the national emergencies? This is empowering folks. [Applause].

Audience Member: Absolutely.

Paul Gosar: And you don’t get that when you just have a forum, and you don’t have an acceptance of that rules package before you do leadership. It’s absurd. So to your answer, I don’t know if it’s me, I don’t know if it’s Jim Jordan, I don’t know if it’s somebody else there that’s sitting on the sidelines waiting for this line to come across. What about Louis Gohmert?

Group: Yay. [Applause].

Paul Gosar: Oh, how about one of you? You didn’t realize that you don’t have to be a member of Congress to be that speaker. (Laughter). I want to see those rules. When those rules are empowering, it’s going to bring people off the sidelines. It might take somebody to block and tackle that basically blocks that nomination because you know what happens behind closed doors in the conference, you only have to win 50 plus-one of the Republicans. I can tell you, I’ve been here and done that, I know this. The D-day is January when you elect a speaker; you have to get 218. So if your majority’s only 220, that’s not too many people that have to block.

This goes back to what I kept saying, the power of the House is not the speaker. They need to work for the members who work for you. The great speakers were the ones that involved the very blessings that each member had, whether they be Republican or Democrat. The last time I looked, all the good ideas aren’t Republicans; there’s some really good ideas from the Democrats. But you can take that air down by opening up the rules, opening up the discussion and the debate. That’s one thing that’s not happening. So I don’t know who that person is. I suspect there will be several that step forward. Wink, wink, nod, nod. [Applause].

Male Speaker: All right. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m getting the call that I’ve got to wrap this up, and we’ve got to go down to Ballroom A and B. But once again, let’s give our round of applause to Congressman Paul Gosar.