At the GOP First in the Nation Leadership Summit in Nashua, New Hampshire, on Saturday, Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) assailed President Biden and Democrats.
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00:00 (audience applauding)
00:03 - Hello.
00:05 (laughing)
00:07 It's kind of hard to follow Senator Scott, you know?
00:10 It sounded like a revival backstage, right?
00:14 But that's great, that's the kind of energy that we need.
00:16 I love that, I love that.
00:18 So my name is Congresswoman Kat Camack.
00:21 I represent Florida's third congressional district,
00:24 the Gator Nation.
00:26 I know that we have some snowbirds
00:28 that have some ties to Florida, so that works.
00:30 But yes, I'm referred to as the adopted Congresswoman
00:34 for New Hampshire, for no other reason
00:37 than I do the translation, right?
00:40 (audience laughing)
00:42 So it's pretty interesting being here
00:44 at the First in the Nation Summit.
00:46 You know, we have tremendous talent
00:49 in the presidential field.
00:50 We've got two amazing patriots from Florida, right?
00:54 President Trump, Governor DeSantis, right?
00:57 (audience applauding)
01:00 You've heard from two great Southerners,
01:02 Governor Nikki Haley and Senator Tim Scott, right?
01:06 (audience applauding)
01:08 We have a really good field.
01:10 But it's funny because then I come up here
01:13 and I'm like, how y'all doing?
01:15 And they're like, y'all.
01:16 Y'all.
01:18 I'm like, you guys have a bunch of Southerners
01:20 for presidential candidates,
01:22 so I'm gonna do a quick translation.
01:24 So as y'all figured out, y'all,
01:27 that's youse guys.
01:29 (audience laughing)
01:30 Right?
01:32 Yeah.
01:32 I got in at about 1.30 this morning
01:36 and I was like, we can just, you know,
01:39 we'll like pull in right there and yeah, over yonder.
01:43 And the guy's like, you mean pop the car?
01:45 (audience laughing)
01:48 I was like, yeah, that.
01:49 This morning I was messing with the TV,
01:54 just catching up on some news.
01:56 And you know how it feels.
01:58 I mean, you wouldn't be here if you weren't frustrated
02:00 and mad and angry like me, right?
02:02 And so it's hard not to throw the remote at the television,
02:05 right, but somebody's like, no, don't throw the clicker.
02:09 (audience laughing)
02:11 Right?
02:12 So while we may say things a little bit differently,
02:14 you know, like pop the car and the clicker and all that,
02:18 one thing is unique to us as Americans,
02:22 not as Northerners and Southerners,
02:25 but our love of country and what we're willing to do
02:29 to get our country back on track, right?
02:31 (audience applauding)
02:35 I flew up last, well, I guess this morning,
02:38 I landed about 1.30 from DC, the fake swamp.
02:42 I represent the real swamp, the Gator Nation, you know?
02:45 (audience laughing)
02:47 DC has been, you know, stealing all the ideas
02:49 and all the names and everything for years.
02:51 That's the fake swamp, but I flew up from DC.
02:54 You guys may have heard we're having some issues.
02:58 Yes.
03:01 It's like a reality show, it really is.
03:03 It's like next thing you know,
03:04 you're gonna turn on the television with the clicker
03:07 and you're gonna see, it's like the Real Housewives
03:11 of Washington, DC, only the congressional edition, right?
03:16 So yeah, we're having a bit of some speaker drama.
03:19 We right now don't have a speaker,
03:22 but we do have a bright spot.
03:24 We have a speaker designee, Representative Jim Jordan.
03:28 Yeah.
03:29 (audience applauding)
03:32 And that's encouraging because I've been sitting in a room
03:36 kind of like this for about two weeks with my colleagues
03:41 and there's been a lot of talking about feelings,
03:43 lots of feelings.
03:46 And I finally at one point said,
03:48 "Y'all," again, y'all.
03:51 I was like, "Y'all, if you don't get your act together,
03:55 "if you don't stop this, he hurt my feelings,
03:58 "this person looked at me funny one time.
04:00 "If you don't put your differences aside
04:03 "and put the needs and the will of the people
04:07 "that we represent first,
04:09 "not only will we lose this majority,
04:12 "we will lose this country."
04:15 Because yes, yes.
04:17 (audience applauding)
04:19 You know, and leave it to a woman who's five foot three
04:21 with T-Rex arms to be the adult in the room, right?
04:25 You know what I'm talking about.
04:31 For all my short girls, you know what I'm talking about.
04:34 See, it's a thing, it's a vibe.
04:38 But no, so we're in this room, locked in this room together,
04:41 no phones, they took away our phones,
04:43 which that was a blessing
04:44 because right now we're living through this era.
04:47 You know how I talk about this reality show
04:48 that DC has become?
04:50 The new business model in politics
04:53 has turned into what I call angertainment.
04:56 Angertainment.
04:58 It is this notion that you rage against the machine,
05:05 you stomp your feet, you tweet in all caps,
05:08 but you actually don't fix anything.
05:10 It's the perception of fighting.
05:14 It is a show and it's all to raise campaign cash.
05:18 And I know that for a fact because I've been living it.
05:22 Where I tell my colleagues,
05:23 you know that didn't really happen,
05:25 or hey, you know, that's not really helpful.
05:27 And they say, yeah, but I'm gonna get this re-shared
05:30 so many times on the internet
05:32 that I'm gonna raise a ton of money.
05:34 I've had colleagues tell me, Kat,
05:36 I know that that wasn't how it went down,
05:39 but you know, I just raised $250,000.
05:42 I've had them say to me, the money's too good.
05:45 And so what we, as the people, have to do
05:51 is reject the notion that angertainment is what we need.
05:55 Be mad, yes.
05:57 Be frustrated, absolutely.
06:00 Tell people about it, oh, absolutely, sure.
06:03 But if you are not willing to back up your words
06:07 with action, it's theater.
06:10 And I don't know about you, but I am damn sick and tired
06:13 of the political theater where people run their mouth
06:16 and then they do nothing about it to fix it, right?
06:19 (audience applauding)
06:20 Yeah.
06:21 And so I've thought really long and hard
06:25 about what it would take to break this crazy cycle
06:29 of the rage against machine, the angertainment model
06:32 that everyone has evolved into, right?
06:35 Because everybody wants a fighter in Washington.
06:37 Everybody wants somebody who's gonna go up there
06:40 and fight fearlessly for the cause of liberty
06:43 and freedom, our republic, which if I hear
06:47 another damn Democrat tell me we have a democracy,
06:49 I will do something that I might regret.
06:53 Woo!
06:55 This is where we say, bless their hearts.
06:57 (audience laughing)
07:00 You know, I once said that to Nancy Pelosi.
07:03 (audience laughing)
07:09 And she didn't know me at the time, she knows me now.
07:11 She didn't know me at the time, and I just said it
07:15 with as sugary sweet as I possibly could.
07:19 I said, oh, bless your heart.
07:21 And she smiled at me.
07:22 (audience laughing)
07:26 And then about 10 seconds later, it registered.
07:29 She was like, oh, hell.
07:31 (audience laughing)
07:34 She told me to you know what.
07:38 That's what I love about, I love about being a Southerner,
07:41 is you can say things with a smile, you know?
07:44 And it really means something else.
07:46 Up here, y'all just tell it like it is,
07:49 and I do appreciate that.
07:51 But no, I've been thinking long and hard about
07:54 how do we fight back against this
07:58 anger-tainment machine that we've evolved into?
08:01 How do we get back on track?
08:04 And I know it's difficult because we're in a heated
08:07 primary across the country for the presidency.
08:11 We're in this battle to take the Senate.
08:13 We're in a fight to grow the majority in the House,
08:16 which we're hanging on by a thread.
08:18 And it dawned on me a couple of days ago
08:22 that the only way that we're gonna make it through this
08:25 is as a team.
08:27 In the South, we say, we're gonna love you through this.
08:31 Like, I'm gonna pray for you.
08:35 Like, that's an insult in some situations to say that.
08:39 But that's what we have to do.
08:42 I may not agree with some of my colleagues' decisions
08:45 and things that they say,
08:47 but they took the exact same oath that I did.
08:50 And as a constitutional conservative,
08:54 we have to get back to the basics as one team, one mission.
08:59 Nothing else will get us back if we ignore that document.
09:03 (audience applauding)
09:07 And I'll tell you, talking about unity, that is not sexy.
09:11 It's not.
09:13 When's the last time you heard someone who was all like,
09:17 rah, rah, here's the team?
09:18 No, because right now, everybody wants to talk about
09:20 how that person over there is a rhino
09:22 and that person over there is crazy.
09:25 Listen, I'm fluent in fringe.
09:27 I can talk to the mods.
09:32 And the thing that I have figured out,
09:34 working in all these different circles,
09:37 is that we all want the same thing.
09:38 We just disagree on how we wanna get there.
09:40 Some people wanna take the scenic route.
09:44 That's fine.
09:45 That's why I like New Hampshire so much.
09:47 You guys have seasons.
09:48 We have two seasons in Florida.
09:52 Hot and gross.
09:54 Our state bird is the mosquito.
09:58 And if you listen to the urban legends,
10:01 we, University of Florida, go Gators,
10:04 we created these little things called love bugs.
10:07 It's two bugs that are stuck together,
10:10 engaging in questionable activities.
10:13 That's why they're called love bugs.
10:15 And they stick to your car and they're everywhere.
10:17 They come out twice a year.
10:18 It's terrifying.
10:19 People get very confused and very scared.
10:21 But that's the thing, though.
10:24 If we don't come together, all is lost, right?
10:31 We have got to understand that you can take the scenic route,
10:35 you can take the expressway.
10:37 We're all heading to the exact same spot.
10:40 We have got to figure out how to get everybody on the bus.
10:44 And I think it starts in this room.
10:46 This is first in the nation.
10:49 Iowa picks corn.
10:52 You guys pick presidents, right?
10:54 (audience cheers and applauds)
10:58 My Iowa friends are gonna be like,
11:01 oh, Cat Camac.
11:02 Right now, they're saying, bless your heart.
11:07 That's all right.
11:12 They're gonna be madder than a tapeworm
11:13 in a terminator patch right now.
11:15 Yeah, that's another Florida special right there.
11:19 But no, think about it.
11:22 It's not necessarily the candidates.
11:25 It's us in the room.
11:27 If we are continually out there pointing fingers,
11:29 saying you're a rhino, or you're crazy,
11:32 or you're doing this, or you're doing that,
11:34 we're just continuing to further divide.
11:36 And if we do not come together
11:40 and love each other through some of these difficult moments,
11:44 we will never get this back.
11:48 People talk about the Roman Empire, right?
11:50 I'm a history nerd.
11:52 We are not headed towards, we're not in the empire.
11:55 We're at the republic stage.
11:56 See, Rome was a republic before it became an empire.
12:00 There was this fight between Caesar and Pompey.
12:03 That's where we are.
12:04 You can literally go back in the history books
12:06 and read about the various senators,
12:09 and you can match them up to who we have in Congress today.
12:13 It's terrifying.
12:14 I almost feel like a bit of a fortune teller, like, ooh.
12:18 That doesn't end well for you.
12:25 You know what stinks about Joe Biden?
12:27 He ruined whispering.
12:28 Now it just comes across as creepy.
12:30 It's terrible.
12:32 Like, damn it, this morning I saw somebody
12:36 who I've known for a couple years now.
12:38 I was like, hey.
12:39 I gave her a hug.
12:40 She had like really pretty perfume on,
12:42 and I was like, oh, I'm so sorry, just Joe Biden'd you.
12:45 The Democrats ruin everything.
12:51 They really do.
12:52 It's terrible.
12:54 No, I think when you take a step back,
12:57 you realize that history, yes,
12:58 it does repeat itself in so many ways.
13:00 We need to learn from it.
13:02 You read what happened.
13:05 I think, why didn't they come together?
13:07 They could have stopped that transition
13:10 from republic to empire.
13:12 They could have stopped it.
13:13 But so many people sat on the sidelines.
13:16 So many people said, nah.
13:18 We cannot do that.
13:21 We have to learn from history.
13:22 Because the enemy is not in here.
13:24 It is not amongst us.
13:26 And I don't care if you're a libertarian,
13:28 a moderate, a social conservative, a fiscal conservative.
13:33 I don't care.
13:35 If you love this country,
13:37 if you believe in the Constitution,
13:39 think of it as a Reagan moment.
13:42 If you're with me 80% of the time,
13:43 you are a good and trusted friend.
13:45 You are not a 20% traitor.
13:47 And that is my message
13:48 as we're going through this speaker's fight,
13:50 where 55 of my colleagues say,
13:52 no, I don't want Jim Jordan.
13:54 We're gonna love him through it.
13:56 And we're gonna get Jim Jordan as speaker.
13:59 We will.
13:59 (audience applauding)
14:03 The enemy is not in this room.
14:05 The enemy is the liberal progressive agenda.
14:10 I see it up close and personal
14:12 every single day in Washington.
14:15 And people ask me, they say,
14:16 Kat, what is it that they want?
14:19 Is it open borders?
14:21 Is it crime?
14:22 What is it?
14:23 I said, oh, they don't have one thing that they're after.
14:27 The liberal progressive agenda,
14:31 it's nothing but dependency and control.
14:35 If you take a step back
14:36 and you look at all of their legislative achievements
14:39 and goals, it points to one thing,
14:42 dependency and control.
14:44 They want to grow the size of government
14:47 so that we are dependent on government programs
14:50 so that they, the swamp creatures in Washington,
14:53 stay in control.
14:55 That is all it has ever been about for them.
14:58 That is what they are rooted in.
15:00 And that is their vision.
15:01 They could care less about a particular policy issue.
15:05 All they want is what something,
15:08 all they want is a policy that advances that agenda.
15:11 Think about the nameless, faceless bureaucrats
15:13 that dwell in basements all over Washington, right?
15:17 We have three branches of government.
15:19 I affectionately refer to the fourth branch,
15:21 the regulatory regime.
15:23 It's a bunch of these bureaucrats
15:26 that have made careers out of dwelling in a basement
15:30 with no private sector experience,
15:32 creating laws, subverting Article I authority of Congress,
15:35 and then using their power to force their will on you
15:40 through rules, regulations.
15:42 That is why we're so out of whack right now,
15:46 because Congress has taken a step back,
15:49 saying, "No, we don't want to take and assert our authority.
15:54 "We'll let the White House do it."
15:56 And that has given license for this imperial presidency
15:59 to run roughshod over the American people.
16:02 But it wasn't just this presidency, it was Obama,
16:06 it was Clinton.
16:08 Heck, there was even some Republicans along the way, Bush.
16:13 We have to stop thinking about this as a R versus D.
16:18 In my mind, today, you are either a big government advocate
16:25 or a small government advocate.
16:27 And we're gonna love all our small government advocates,
16:30 because if we don't rein in that regulatory regime,
16:34 if we do not stop the Nancy Pelosi,
16:37 Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer agenda,
16:40 we will not have the free constitutional republic
16:43 that gives us a nation that is rooted in equal opportunity,
16:48 not equal outcome.
16:50 You heard Senator Scott talk about how he came up,
16:54 how he was destined for a life that was predetermined,
16:58 but because of the opportunity in this country,
17:02 and a badass mama, by the way, his mom is amazing.
17:06 Because of that, he is living the American dream.
17:10 He is the epitome of that.
17:11 You look at all of our candidates for president.
17:14 Look at President Trump.
17:16 Look at what he has accomplished.
17:18 You look at Ron DeSantis.
17:20 You look at Nikki Haley.
17:22 You look at all of our candidates.
17:24 They are the epitome of American dream,
17:26 because they know what it takes to succeed.
17:30 I'm standing in front of you today
17:33 as someone who 11 years ago was homeless.
17:36 Homeless, the daughter of a single mother,
17:41 broken family, very blue collar working class,
17:45 family struggled with addiction.
17:48 And because of the opportunity that we have in this country,
17:52 because of people like you who have continued to fight
17:57 for that opportunity for our republic,
18:00 I am now a member of the House of Representatives,
18:03 and only in this country can someone like me
18:06 go from being homeless into the House of Representatives
18:09 in the span of a decade.
18:10 So is that worth protecting?
18:13 Yes.
18:14 Are you going to stand with our candidates
18:17 and fight for our country?
18:19 Yes.
18:20 Do you promise me that we will be one team, one mission,
18:23 and defeat the Democrats next year?
18:26 Come on, you gotta do better than that.
18:27 Come on, there we go.
18:29 Okay, thank you guys so much.
18:31 It is an honor and a privilege
18:33 to serve as your adopted congresswoman.
18:35 I may not be able to receive your vote,
18:37 but I vote for you every single day.
18:39 Thank you so much.
18:41 (applause)