Exclusive – Rep. Mike Garcia: The Pandemic Was an ‘Insidious Encroachment on Our Bill of Rights’

Congressman Mike Garcia (R-CA) joined SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Saturday to speak about the pandemic being an “insidious encroachment” on the American Bill of Rights throughout the County.

The host Matthew Boyle, brought up the Congressman’s recent op-ed published this past week at Breitbart News, “Time to Re-Embrace the Bill of Rights After the Pandemic’s Encroachment on Our Liberties,” which talked about how the “country consciously trades stability for liberties” and how challenging events makes some want to reexamine the Bill of Rights for what life will be like in a post-pandemic world.

Boyle spoke about Garcia’s state, California, which was one of the hardest hit from the pandemic under the governorship of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). Newsom restricted Californian’s personal liberties with capacity limits on everything from churches and restaurants to even grocery stores. Boyle asked what Garcia’s post-pandemic world would look like, with the governor announcing the state will be open starting June 15.

Garcia first said, “I don’t believe anything that Newsom says, obviously,” adding that what he believes Americans should really be looking for in the post-pandemic era is “exactly what we should have been looking for frankly, during the pandemic.”

The Congressman thinks Americans are losing out on rights. He feels it “was an insidious encroachment on our Bill of Rights in some states and in California, was pretty flagrant and we saw it effectively on day one through today, and it still continues to exist.”

“I was thinking about what we’d been through in the last thirteen or fourteen months. I was able to do you know of a wire diagram from every single or a policy and regulation that not just California but many states we’re putting in place to directly, infringing on one of the Bill of Rights, and it’s uncanny when you go down one through ten for the bill through the Bill of Rights, is something that we’ve been subjected to, whether it was exercising our religious right,” when talking about the reasons for writing the op-ed. “Whether it’s been this a cancel culture or the censorship during the pandemic, ah for the freedom of speech clouding, the freedom of the press and getting false in a data and information out there in the midst of the pandemic. Ah- and- and you know sacrificing in jeopardizing that.”

The Congressman added that it is a shame that some of our “rights” have already been taken away from the pandemic. He said, “obviously, our rights to peaceably assemble have been jeopardized. In some cases, clean turned completely off and so are you look at it, and you and you literally go down each one of the Bill of Rights. There’s clear examples where we’ve been deprived, and ah well in the title is actually really embrace because I don’t think we as a nation have really lost an allegiance to the constitution.” Garcia noted, this is what every American has seen recently. “In this last thirteen fourteen months, and the pandemic was an excuse, but we should never lose our rights. We should never lose those inherently connotational guaranteed rights.”

Garcia also brought up an argument during a subcommittee hearing Thursday hearing this past week between Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Anthony Fauci, a member of President Joe Biden’s coronavirus response team, who was testifying on Biden’s coronavirus response. Garcia wanted to specify bring some attention to what was going on in the back of the room with Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), who is currently the House majority whip.

The Congressman said, “Clyburn, who is the majority whip, was saying in the background, and he basically said look when ninety percent of members get their vaccination, that’s when Americans will get their liberties back, and that’s shocking to have the majority whip, basically throughout out an arbitrary and capricious number like that at the national level and holding our American. All 330 million of us hostage to what members of congress are going to do relative to their vaccination choice, is staggering and it’s an extension of what we see here in California every day, but ah, we’ve got to really be paying attention here, as Americans and double down on our constitutional rights.”

Boyle brought up the one-party rule in Washington and mentioned how California is one of the few states that have to also deal with the Democrats’ majority rule too in Sacramento. Boyle mentioned the Democrats only have a five-seat difference in the House and the Senate is a 50-50 tie, but Vice President Kamala Harris could break the tie. Boyle mentioned how California used to be a Republican state, adding Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon came from California too.

Boyle said Garcia led the charge in California, having Republicans win back seats previously won by Democrats. He added that Garcia was the first person to flip a congressional seat from Democrat to Republican in roughly 20 years. Garcia flipped the seat during a special election, once the previous Congresswoman, Katie Hill, resigned following allegations of inappropriate sexual relationships with congressional staffers, one of which she openly admitted to.

Garcia said, “absolutely!” Then added he believes, “it’s a testimony of the message I think, as well as the candidate that one of the best campaigns in the nation, if not the best, in my opinion, the best team.” He added Boyle was right about his race. His race “was the first seat in California to go from a blue to red in 22 years, actually and obviously on the heels of the Katie Hill shenanigans. It was a stark contrast and leadership and style, but also principles experiencing in value to their constituents, or I ran on what I called the four “C’s,” and it wasn’t a Republican versus Democrat thing. It wasn’t a left versus right or red versus blue, kind of argument.”

Garcia added that his district is actually a Democrat district with about eight percent more registered voters than the Republicans. He said, because of the district being like that, he said when you run, you cannot just run as a conservative. “Running on as a very conservative republican required me to stay on message then on party and the four “C’s” that I used where the constitution, capitalism, competition and charity, and I am a truly believe that, if we as a party, we as a nation stick to those four “C’s” value those four “C’s” reinvest in those four “C’s” make sure that especially the constitution is held intact and we understand where it came from and why our rights are the way they are. We as a nation can solve pretty much any problem that we face, and the charity pieces a big element.”

The Republican explained that it is important one-party rule does not continue to happen. He said, “one party should not be associated with the constitution. While another party is not associated with the constitution, Americans should have a choice of two parties, where both parties and our nation actually ascribe to the values in our constitution and that that, frankly, is not happening today, and I think to your point when we get to a single-party system, work state like what we have in California and what we have now at the national level. You see these encroachments left unchecked, and there’s a lot of republicans who have been jumping up and down talking about the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth amendment like, like every day, and we’re not getting the traction, because the left [sic] as a as effectively a taken over the media and allow their narrative to be more important than the constitution.”

“That’s the fight, we’re fighting, I’m in this race, as you know Matt, to make sure that our nation doesn’t turn into what California has become, and we’re going to get California back over the next eight to ten years. But, we can’t lose this nation than the short term right,” he added.

Boyle brought up the current recall effort against California’s Governor, asking what Garcia thought about the effort. If a Republican and truly wins against Newsom after the recall, it is effectively going through to the end.

Garcia said he thinks everyone in California is putting effort into the recall, with their hands already full. He added, “First of all, I think Newsom deserves to be recalled. There are plenty of substantiations for that. He’s the kind of personality you got to hit over the head with a stick in order for him to start doing the right things,” adding, “The threat of the recall has improved his posture relative to the covert shutdowns.”

“So, I definitely support the recall, but the reality, this is still a very blue state,” the Republican mentioned. The Congressman said, if someone was to win, they would need to already have a lot of name ID and money to get started.

Garcia thinks with all the effort to recall Newsom, it still might not be enough to do it. He thinks it might not even happen in the next election. “We need someone to step up when you someone who has good conservative values, I would put very strong air quotes around a Republican. When you talk about Schwarzenegger, I don’t think he was what was good for our state at the time, Garcia said, adding as Californians, “we’ve allowed this state to be run by people who don’t know how to operate a business, who don’t have a conservative, financial and economic values, especially turn the state into one of the worst states, despite being a sitting beside sitting on some of the largest natural resources. The best weather geography and talent.”

Boyle spoke more about the national perspective of the one-party rule in Washington being slim. Boyle mentioned how the Democrats are trying to use every opportunity they can to pass parts of their partisan agenda while they still can before losing the House. Instead of “solving problems for people, addressing the concerns of the pandemic that led to this encroachment on people’s liberties,” Boyle said, they are just passing bills to try and get more power.

Garcia agreed and said, “what they’re really doing that is trying to change the rules right and, and in an attempt to retain power get to permanent power and that’s across the board,” he added, that the Democrats are trying to abuse their power by putting an end to the filibuster rules in the Senate, “which would have basically allowed them to run rampant through” all of their far-left ideas.

The Californian also mentioned some of the far-left ideas that the Democrats are trying to pass in the House and what they will do to America. Garcia said, “whether it’s packing the court, H.R. 1, DC statehood literally trying to change the rules that winch we have election elections, keep people in power.” The Democrats are also trying to “adjudicate our judicial branch, and make rulings on policy issues that are going to change the fabric and trajectory of our nation.”

The Democrats “are trying to change the rules and these bills, whether it’s H.R. 1, H.R. 6, or H.R. 8 they are lies, and the covid bill was an example.” He added the last $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill “was not a covid bill.” Garcia said the bill relief package was “more of a social welfare and a[n] infrastructure bill than it was covid with only nine percent going to covid.”

Garcia also brought up the Democrats’ upcoming bill on infrastructure where they are trying to spend $2.3 trillion. Garcia said, “The ‘Biden’s Job Act’ is not an infrastructure bill, it again a way for them to get support, buy votes and effectively run our nation’s debt into the ground even further, so we’ve got to be paying attention here.”

Garcia went as far as to say the legislation “is not serious,” adding, “Thank God we still have the filibuster, and most of this will go nowhere. We got to get the House back, and I’m confident that we will.”

Boyle asked Garcia if conservatives will win the culture war by the end of this.

“Yes, I’m faithful that we will. I have a lot of faith in the American individual, and I think this is one of the core values of the good Reagan conservatives. You value the American individual; you have faith in their ability to understand the issue and make the right decisions,” Garcia said. “We saw that in my district, in a district where on the presidential ballot the republican lost by ten points, I was still able to win it’s because I was very aggressive against an opponent who didn’t understand what she was saying or how she would vote and the implications to our district and to our nation,” he added.

Garcia said currently, what is happening is, Americans in the middle haven’t fallen in love with either party. He believes they understand the Constitution, care deeply about the economy and our national security.

“We are threatened as Americans right now, and I think the average American doesn’t necessarily really want to fall in love with a Republican or a Democrat. They just want to fall in love with individuals who understand what it means to be an American and how to stay secure as an American without worrying about our national security, our local security, without worrying about our financial future,” Garcia said, adding, Americans “just want to survive and thrive in a nation where we’ve already got the foundation for success in the form of the constitution. So I think we’ve got to be really careful with our messaging, talk about values and principles not necessarily party politics.” This is how Garcia says Republicans will be successful since this is the way he did his campaigning.

Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.