Show Notes and Transcript
Matt Strickland, a veteran from Virginia, returns to Hearts of Oak to share his journey of challenging COVID mandates for his restaurant despite facing legal battles and political persecution.
He discusses running for office against corrupt politicians and the challenges faced during the primary election, emphasizing the battle for freedom and justice in Virginia.
Matt highlights the need for more veterans to join the fight for national values and freedoms, advocating for grassroots movements and citizen involvement in pushing back against oppressive mandates and corrupt systems.
His determination serves as a call to action for others to stand up for their beliefs and fight for freedom and justice in their communities and beyond.
At the age of 17, Matt Strickland joined the United States Army to escape the gang violence of the neighbourhoods where he was raised.
Inspired by his grandfather, who served as an Infantryman under General Patton in World War II, Matt enlisted in the Army in 2001.
After completing basic and advanced training, Matt received orders to his first duty station, 25th Infantry, at Ft. Lewis, WA. He reported to 25th Infantry on September 10th, 2001, not knowing the next day, life as we once knew it would change forever.
Matt knew he had a full life ahead of him, but he was ready to give it up in defence of his country. Matt spent most of the next ten years in Iraq & Afghanistan defending his country.
Matt’s service to his country includes multiple deployments as a private military contractor as well, serving on Blackwater’s Counter Assault Team until 2010 when he decided to accept a position as an Intelligence Analyst back in Virginia.
In 2014, when ISIS began sweeping through Iraq, Matt could not sit back and watch, so he deployed once again to join the fight against The Islamic State.
In 2016, after fighting ISIS for two years, Matt hung up his combat boots.
The previous two years allowed Matt to reflect on the legacy outside of combat that he wanted to leave for his children.
Cooking has always been one of Matt’s hobbies and biggest passions, and owning a restaurant was always his ultimate goal.
Matt opened his first food truck in 2016 which quickly became a success, and he and his wife, grew from one truck to three trucks in just over a year.
Two years later he sold the food trucks and opened the doors to the restaurant version, and it continued to grow in success.
Everything was great until 2020 when the government began using the Coronavirus as an excuse to control society.
Matt continued to open without restrictions, regardless of the consequences, he and his wife opposed the unconstitutional mandates and the restaurant was filled with Patriots from open to close.
Despite numerous threats and attempts to shut them down by the state and federal government, he remained open and stood with the people.
The Attorney General of Virginia sued Matt in an attempt to shut their doors, but he won, restoring his hope for the country’s future.
Through his fight against the tyrannical government, Matt realised there was a void in Virginia politics and that catalyst sparked his interest in running for State Senate and with him being a fifth-generation Virginian, his state and his country mean everything to him.
Connect with Matt...
WEBSITE mattforva.com
X/TWITTER twitter.com/mattforva
FACEBOOK facebook.com/mattforva
YOUTUBE youtube.com/channel/UCFArRLx6n7UTbOBN0EYjn7w
Interview recorded 7.5.24
Connect with Hearts of Oak...
X/TWITTER twitter.com/HeartsofOakUK
WEBSITE heartsofoak.org/
PODCASTS heartsofoak.podbean.com/
SOCIAL MEDIA heartsofoak.org/connect/
SHOP heartsofoak.org/shop/
*Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast.
Check out his art theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com and follow him on X/Twitter twitter.com/TheBoschFawstin
Transcript
(Hearts of Oak)
I'm delighted to have Matt Strickland back with us again from Virginia.
Matt, thank you so much for jumping on today.
(Matt Strickland)
Thank you for having me, Peter.
It's always good to be with you, brother.
Always great.
And if anyone is in the Virginia area, if they're in Fredericksburg area, then there's no better establishment than going to Gourmeltz for atmosphere, for great food, great drinks, great prices.
It's all good.
Good so make sure and check it out all the links will be in the description, but Matt obviously people can follow you @Matt4VA on Twitter or X but maybe I can ask you first you're you're a little bit of your background I know we had John donkeys ago.
It seems like a lifetime ago, whenever you're running for state legislature there for the the senate in Virginia and you had a whole backstory of how you oppose the the lockdown mandates in your restaurant there and maybe just give us a quick overview before we get on to the latest persecution that you're facing.
Yeah well, I'm a veteran you know, I joined the military at 17 years old spent a lot of time overseas both Iraq and Afghanistan and 2016 I was done with the serving my government, you know, as I I realized how corrupt it was while I was working as an intelligence analyst.
So, I wanted to jump into the private sector and I wanted to be a small business owner.
So, I opened a food truck in 2016 and it took off, grew to two trucks, three trucks.
And in 2018, I opened the first restaurant version of Gourmeltz here in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
And that was going well until March of 2020 when COVID happened.
And long story short about that, I realized very early on that those COVID mandates were more about control than health and safety.
So, I felt it was my duty to fight back, you know, because I had been fighting dictatorships in other countries for years and I was not going to allow a dictatorship to rule in my country.
So, I fought back.
And because I said these COVID mandates make no sense and I'll take no part in removing my customers' constitutional rights from them.
The health department in the state of Virginia, they took away my health department license, my license to serve food, and which in the state of Virginia, that automatically suspends your ABC license, which is your license to sell liquor.
So, I lost both of those licenses the same day.
And what I did from that point on is I said: "well, hey, listen, if the Constitution means nothing to you, then your licenses mean nothing to me."
And I continue to operate and I continue to sell food.
I continue to sell liquor without those licenses.
And when my story became public, the community just came out in droves to support me, and it was very heartening.
I mean, I had people flying from across the country just to come to my restaurant and shake my hand and thank me for what I was doing.
And it was at that point that I knew I was doing the right thing.
And I was standing up for those that didn't have a voice, you know, because small business owners, we did have a voice to stand up and fight back.
And I was disheartened that more small business owners didn't do so.
But I did.
And because I did, so many people supported me.
One of the things that happened is a lot of people in my community came to me and asked me to run for office, they said: "hey Matt, we need somebody that's willing to fight against the establishment the Uniparty, the globalist," whatever you want to call them and that is willing to fight against both parties because both parties are corrupt the republican establishment is just as corrupt as the democrats are and we need somebody to run for office that is going to fight against both of them.
So at first I wasn't interested.
I had never been interested in politics and or politicians.
In fact, Peter, the first time I ever voted in my life was in 2020 for president Trump.
And the reason why I never voted before that is because I got to meet a lot of these politicians when I, when I got out of the military, I worked for a company called Blackwater and I was on the counter-assault team with Blackwater.
I was a medic.
A medic on Blackwater's counter-assault team.
One of our jobs as Blackwater downrange was to protect all of the politicians that came downrange from congressmen on up to the president when they would come visit in country.
And the medic on the team always stays with the person that you're protecting, the principal, because in case something happens, they want the medic to be right there.
So as the medic, I got to meet all of these guys and they were all fake.
They were all full of sh*t.
And in fact, they would all say the same thing before they leave.
Hey guys, what do you need down here on the ground to successfully accomplish your mission?
I'll make sure you have it once I get back to DC.
And it got to a point where we'd have a list form.
Hey, we need this to accomplish our mission.
And same thing every time, no matter if it was a Democrat or Republican, we never hear from them once they got back to DC.
So, I just left a bad taste in my mouth and I didn't trust any politicians.
But, I'll tell you what changed for me in 2020, is while I started my food trucks and my restaurant, I was still working as an intelligence analyst for the military as a civilian, because when you first open a business, you're not making money.
So, I had to do something to provide for my family.
And as I was working as an intelligence analyst under the Trump administration, a couple of things happened that really made me come out and realize I need to support President Trump.
And I'll tell you, the first thing was, if you remember, Iran shot down one of our drones back in 2019.
And that's an act of war.
And all of these neocons up in D.C., they have been fiending to go to war with Iran forever.
And so this was their opportunity.
And I got to see these things behind the scenes.
And all of all of Trump's senior military advisers were asking him, you know, to to declare war on Iran.
They say, hey, listen, this is our opportunity.
This is what we've been wanting.
Let's do it.
Let's finally, you know, make make it happen.
There was one day, I think it was the day after the incident happened, and I remember it vividly.
I was at work working as an intel analyst and I got off at about five o'clock.
And I remember seeing the op water that came through that day.
And we had missiles trained on five different strategic military targets within Iran.
And of course, there was going to be some collateral damage if we hit those targets.
And I remember getting off that day at 5 p.m. thinking thousands of people are waking up this morning in Iran, not knowing this is the last time they're going to be waking up.
Thousands of people are going to be killed in just a few hours, and I know this and they don't.
It was an eerie feeling.
So, I forgot what time, U.S. time it was supposed to happen, but I remember checking the news at that time and nothing.
So I said, well, Michigan must have been delayed.
And I checked a couple hours later, nothing.
Kept checking, nothing.
So, I got off of work the next morning, turned on the news, nothing.
So, I got to work that day and Trump came on national television and he said: Last night, we had missiles trained on strategic targets within Iran, and all I had to do was give the go-ahead, and those targets would have been obliterated.
But I didn't.
And I didn't because I didn't feel that killing...
I didn't feel that you shooting down an unmanned drone warranted me killing thousands of people.
But make no mistake about it.
If it happens again, I won't hesitate next time.
And he caught my attention and he caught my attention, because it was about that time that I started to realize that these Iraq and Afghanistan wars were absolutely, totally corrupt.
And we were there for this.
We were there for money.
And that was it.
Of course, people had to die in those countries, but we could have accomplished those missions in just a couple of months, not 20 years.
And I started to realize that about that time.
And that's why when Trump said that, it caught my attention.
I said, well, this guy isn't the neocon, the warmongers that were used to having in this seat.
And I started paying attention to him and I started to support That day.
And then what really got me and what really made me say to myself, this man has earned my vote.
He's going to be the first person I ever vote for is, if you remember, just a couple of months after that, General Soleimani was killed.
And the reason why General Soleimani, the Iranian general, was killed is because he was the mastermind behind a weapon called EFPs, explosively formed projectiles.
And what EFPs are is they're an IED that form into a cone when they detonate, and they can penetrate just about any armour.
And they killed hundreds of soldiers in Iraq.
So, he was the mastermind behind that weapon and getting it into Iraq.
So, that's the reason he was killed.
And so we killed a top Iranian general.
So Iran called us, called Trump and said, hey, listen, you just killed one of our top generals.
I have to respond.
If I don't respond, I'll have a coup in my country.
And Trump's message to him was, yeah, Roger that.
I know you have to respond.
However, if... One U.S. soldier is hurt or killed, I will obliterate your country.
And if you remember, in response to us killing General Soleimani, Iran lobbed 17 missiles into Al-Assad air base in Iraq, if you remember that.
I think it was 17 that they sent over, only 13 hit inside of Al-Assad.
But out of 13 rockets, guess how many U.S. soldiers were killed?
Zero.
And zero were injured.
I know the media reported a hundred and something injuries, but those were, they were not injuries.
There were concussions and those were subjective injuries.
You know, people just said, oh, I've got a headache from the explosions, but that's a whole other story anyway.
O of 14 rockets or 13 rockets landing in Al-Asad, there were no casualties.
And it was at that time that I said, this man demands, he commands respect on the international national stage.
And this is a guy that deserves to lead this country, and from that day forward, I 100% threw my support behind Donald Trump.
And that's when I started to really pay attention to politics.
And then so when everybody started asking me to run, at first I wasn't interested, didn't want to be a part of it.
But what changed my mind is I started looking into who these people were locally that were representing us.
And I started digging into to specifically the Republican politicians, because if you support Democrat politicians and if you consider yourself a Democrat and you vote that way, at this point, there's nothing I can say to you that's going to help you.
But I was digging into these Republican politicians, because I suspected there was also some corruption coming from the people that I feel I align with.
And there was a whole lot.
And specifically from my Republican state senator.
And there were a bunch of things I found out about this guy that were straight up lies.
He lied to me, to my face.
And I won't go into those details.
But so anyway, I decided, OK, Roger that, I'll run.
And I asked everybody: I said, hey, what seat do you need me to run for?
You know, school board, president of the United States, where do you need me?
And the ironic thing is the vast majority of people said, we want you to run for state Senate against this guy, the same guy that I uncovered all of these things about.
So that's what I did.
I jumped in and I ran against this state senator.
And not even a week after it became known that I was going to jump in this race to run against him, a guy came into my restaurant who I had known because he had came in there previously.
And he asked, can you sit down and talk to me?
So I did. And he said: hey, I heard you're going to be running against this guy.
Why are you doing so?
And I said, well, because he's absolutely corrupt.
And I showed him proof of the corruption.
And he said, OK.
At that point, he knew he wasn't going to convince me not to run against him.
But he said: you know, if he can guarantee you a seat as a delegate instead of a state senator, would you not run against him?
And when he figured out that I wasn't going to fall for it, it turned into threats.
He said, well, listen, if you run against this guy, he's going to dig up every piece of dirt on you.
I said, listen, man, I joined the Army at 17 years old. I've been overseas more than I've been in America since I've been an adult.
And I've got a TSSCI clearance, man.
So, there's nothing to dig up on me.
Dig away.
And he said, he'll have you followed.
He'll have your family followed.
And at that point, you know, I started to piss me off, you know, because I started to realize he's threatening me.
I said listen you let him know that the first time anybody follows me or anybody in my family, it will be the last time they follow somebody, and you can let them know that, and you can let them know that all these things you're telling me is the reason why I'm coming for a seat, and I will win.
And not more than a week after that redistricting happened here in Virginia and this state senator had a guy on the the committee that redrew the lines and, I know the guy very well and I was redrawn out of his district by less than a mile.
If you look at my neighbourhood it was carved out of his district I mean I could throw a rock into his district.
So absolutely corrupt, anyways so I'm in this new district which is an open seat, there's no state senator filling.
So I ran in this district right here and I started heavily going after the Republican establishment while I was campaigning.
I started calling out all of the corruption from the lowest level to the top level to the governor here in Virginia.
And the reason I was doing that is because when Governor Glenn Youngkin here in Virginia and the Attorney General Jason Meares were campaigning for their seats, they came to my restaurant.
And they came to my restaurant because they wanted to garner the support of the support that I had for fighting COVID mandates.
They knew that the community supported me and trusted me.
So, they wanted to garner that support.
And, you know, being naïve, I hosted them at my restaurant.
I supported them, and they told me the same thing.
They said: hey, listen, if we win, not only are COVID mandates gone, but we're going to ensure that no other businesses are prosecuted for these COVID mandates.
I mean, these guys, I got a voicemail from Glenn Young and praising me for fighting these COVID mandates that I still have on my phone today.
Jason Meares made a video that's still on social media right now saying how unconstitutional it was, what was happening to me at my restaurant.
So anyway, these guys win, and guess what happens?
They continue to prosecute me for those COVID mandates.
And Jason Meares, the guy that made a video saying how unconstitutional these things were, not even a year after that he made that video, was in court prosecuting me for those same COVID mandates.
So, I started blasting these guys on social media.
And as a Republican candidate, when you're coming after the Republican party, they're going to fight back hard.
And that's what they did.
And so I started uncovering and unravelling and screaming from a mountaintop, all of the corruption that was going on.
And I'll give you one quick example.
There was a guy that came to my restaurant who lives in my district and he was on dialysis on a daily basis at this point, right after Glenn Young had took over.
So, this guy tells me that UVA called him and said, we've got kidneys for you.
Come on down.
We just need your COVID vaccine card.
And he tells them, hey, listen, I didn't take the vaccine because my immune system is already compromised and I'm just not comfortable with the vaccine.
Plus, I've already had COVID, so I'm good to go.
I got the best vaccine there is.
And UVA Medical Center told him, if you don't take this vaccine, you don't get these kidneys.
So, they were going to let a man die for not taking a vaccine.
It's just counterintuitive, isn't it?
So, he reaches out to every elected official here in the state of Virginia, including Glenn Youngkin, and he shows me the emails where he's getting no response from them.
So I told him, I said, hey, listen, I'm actually holding an event here at my restaurant for a congressional candidate.
And supposedly Youngkin is showing up in support of her.
I said, let's ask him to his face.
Let's bring this to him to his face so he can't deny lie that he didn't see these emails.
And so we did so.
He met him in person at my restaurant, told him his story.
And Glenn Youngkin's response was, had no idea, didn't get those emails, but I'll get right on it.
Anyways, long story short, man, he ignored him once again, never reached back out to him.
He allowed this man to be kicked off of UVA Medical Center's kidney transplant list, which is a state-funded hospital, to die because he wouldn't take the COVID-19 vaccine.
I was wondering, it just blew my mind. I
wondered why.
So, I started looking into Glenn Youngkin and who actually funds his campaign and who actually funds his PAC, Spirit of Virginia.
And hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars from Pfizer and other big pharmaceutical companies.
So, it made sense.
So, I started blasting that from a mountaintop.
And as soon as I did so, Glenn Youngkin, his PAC, Spirit of Virginia, and the rest of the so-called, quote unquote, quote, conservative organizations, they spent over a million dollars to beat me in my primary.
Republicans spent over a million dollars to beat a Republican candidate in a Republican primary.
Totally unheard of, It's never happened in the state of Virginia before.
But they did it for a reason, and they did it because they knew I was not going to be a shill for the establishment.
And I was actually going to come represent the people.
And that is not what they want in a political candidate.
They want somebody that can be controlled.
So once they realized that I couldn't, they made sure I didn't get across that finish line.
They took that billion dollars and they put commercials on TV that said, I'm in support of transgender ideology in schools, and I want to over-sexualize children.
And I'm actually a Democrat.
And obviously, total BS, total lies.
I'm the one that's at these school board meetings fighting against transgender ideology in schools.
But what they know is that majority of voters are uninformed.
They don't do their homework.
If they see a commercial on Fox News that says things like that, they're going to believe it like it's gospel.
And Glenn Youngkin put his face on every single one of my opponent's campaign signs.
It was like I was running against Glenn Youngkin.
He was sending mailers to my people in my district's house saying Glenn Youngkin needs your vote on June 20th, Glenn Youngkin needs your vote.
I didn't know I was running against Glenn Youngkin.
So anyway, I ended up, even though, and I only accepted campaign contributions from people, and I beat every candidate in the state of Virginia, delegate and state senate candidates, in the number of low-dollar donations, so donations from people.
And I raised $180,000, but $180,000 versus over a million, you're going to lose every time, and that's just how it is.
So I did, so I lost.
And they kept coming at me from all different ways when I did lose.
So, I told you that my health department license was suspended at my restaurant.
My ABC license was suspended.
Well, I went to court first for my health department license and I won.
I was able to prove in court that those COVID mandates were indeed unconstitutional.
So, then I went before the ABC board to get my liquor license back, because the only reason they took my liquor license was because the health department took my health department license and those two are connected.
So, we went before the ABC board and we said, hey, listen, I won my health department license back in court, proved it was unconstitutional for them to take it from me.
So in turn, now you have to give me my ABC license back.
And they said, no, actually, we're not going to give it back to you because you continue to operate without it.
And I said, yes, I did.
But I only had to because you unconstitutionally took it from me.
And they said, well, we don't care.
We're means nothing to you.
Your license means nothing to me.
And I continue to operate without an ABC license.
So, at this time I had a health department license.
I can sell food, but still no ABC license.
And Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, is my governor.
Jason Meares, a Republican, is my attorney general.
And so what happened is one day out of the blue, 25 Virginia state police raid my restaurant, And they take every drop of alcohol that was in my restaurant, take all of my kegs, all of my liquor bottles, tried to take my POS system so I couldn't even operate.
I stopped them from doing that.
And I live streamed that when it happened.
And that live stream went absolutely viral.
And people were asking me, hey, Matt, was this two years ago, you know, during the height of COVID?
And I said, no, this was yesterday.
And they said, how?
Glenn Youngkin's your governor.
How do you allow this to happen?
And of course, I knew the answer was because I was exposing him.
But I said, great question.
Why don't you ask him?
Because I can't get an answer from his office.
So at that point, people from across the nation just started pounding his office with emails and phone calls and social media posts.
And they were asking him, what's going on with this?
Why are you allowing a man's livelihood to be stripped from him for not following COVID mandates that were already proven unconstitutional?
So, long story short with that one is the only thing that these politicians respond to is political pressure.
So, he finally responded and and I won.
They had to give me my ABC license back and they brought all of my alcohol back and that fight was over with, but they still weren't finished with me.
I want to take you up to where you are today, because that that fight has continued, think actually it's gone away you've won in court, you've got Glenn Youngkin, but he's lost that, But it seems though you're being hounded by officials for being pro-Trump, pro-America First against these anti-government imposed mandates.
And I've seen your tweets about having to go and answer for your crime of loving freedom.
Tell us about that, about that quasi-court that you have to go and answer for people promoting your campaign.
What is that?
Yeah, you're absolutely right about that, Peter.
If you align with President Trump, if you align with the MAGA movement, with the America First movement, these establishment politicians, the globalists, whatever you want to call them, they will come down on you and use all of the resources you pay for against you.
And that's what happens.
And people think that this is only happening to Trump, but this is happening at the lowest levels.
There's stories like mine across the nation that you'll never hear about because how will you?
The media will give us no attention.
So, I appreciate shows like yours that do, but they're politically persecuting us at all levels.
It's not just happening to Trump.
So, what happened with me and what my latest political persecution story is, is once I lost that primary, I had a lot of people who supported me in that primary race that came to me and they said: hey, Matt, we saw the corruption that happened to you in that race.
And it awakened us to who these Republicans really are.
And no longer will we just vote for somebody because they have an R behind their name.
We want to write your name in on that ballot, because we can't in good conscience vote for somebody we know is corrupt and that's going to work against us.
So I said, well, you have my blessing if that's what you're asking for, go ahead and vote, write my name in.
And a couple of folks started a write-in campaign for me.
Now, I knew there was going to be some kind of blowback and they were going to try to come after me in some way for that, because I knew it would gain some steam.
So, I intentionally stayed away from the rioting campaign for those reasons.
And there were no doors knocked.
There was not one penny spent on the rioting campaign.
There were no mailers sent.
Nothing.
It was just a word of mouth.
People were telling people, hey, write in Matt Strickland's name for state Senate in the general election.
Don't vote for the Republican candidate, and I received a lot of write-in votes.
I received a ton of write-in votes without even actually running a campaign.
So, that scared these politicians here in the state of Virginia. And actually, they just submitted legislation that says now in the state of Virginia, if you run as a primary candidate, the citizens, and you lose, the citizens are no longer allowed to write your name in in the general election.
They're trying to make that a law here in Virginia.
Isn't that crazy?
So, this latest political persecution that I'm dealing with is, because citizens said that they can no longer support somebody just because they're a Republican and they saw the corruption that happened in my primary and they cannot in good conscience vote for the Republican candidate.
In it, they came to me and said they wanted to run a writing campaign for me.
And I gave them my blessing to do so.
But, I intentionally stayed away from that writing campaign, because I knew the state of Virginia would somehow come after me for that.
So I intentionally stayed away from that writing campaign.
I didn't get involved in it whatsoever.
And for that writing campaign, not one door was knocked, not one mailer was sent out, not one penny was spent on it.
The only money that was spent on it was people spent their own money to buy their own signs to put in their yards that said, vote for, write in Matt Strickland for state Senate.
That's it.
So, this is basically a groundswell of public desire for you Matt Strickland to be elected to a position that what this is, this is not your campaign, this is the public saying we want this person and rising up and saying we want him putting up yard signs.
So this is pure grassroots.
Exactly. 100. And that's what people did. They bought their own signs, they put them in their yard that said right in Matt Strickland for state senate and there was a Groundswell of support and we got a ton of votes And is scared the establishment. So the establishment actually submitted legislation that says If you run as a candidate in a primary and you lose that primary, Then citizens are no longer allowed to write
Your name in in the general election.
They actually are trying to pass a law that says that right now.
But because people bought signs with my name on it and put it in their yard, the state of Virginia, led by Glenn Youngkin.
Tried to fine me $75,000 for those signs.
$75,000.
$75,000.
And the reasoning they said was because, they said that those signs didn't have a disclaimer on it that said paid for by my campaign.
Well, they shouldn't have had a disclaimer on it because one, my campaign was over, I lost.
But two, they weren't paid for by my campaign.
They were bought by individuals with their own money.
And three, I had nothing to do with it.
And so and they knew that.
And so I had to go before this another administrative board, the Board of Elections here in the state of Virginia.
And I explained to him, I laid out exactly what sections, what articles of the Constitution they were violating by trying to prosecute me and fine me for this.
You must have pissed them off.
Oh, I pissed them off.
And actually, so there were like maybe like 15 other people there that were there for campaign violations.
And each of them all begged for mercy.
Each of them apologized.
And they all got like $25 fines.
And then I was up and I handed their ass to them.
And I explained to him how they were violating the Constitution.
And the representative from Jason Meares' attorney general's office that was there, one of the assistant attorney generals, he didn't even know if I was right or wrong in how I was saying they were violating my constitutional rights.
They had to research it.
So, what they did is, they kicked the can down the road and they continued my case until the next month.
So, I had to come back before them the following month.
And the following month, they reconvened and they dismissed those charges against me.
And I won once again.
I've been dragged in front of countless administrative bureaucratic boards into the court system here in Virginia.
I can't even tell you how many times throughout this fight.
And I've won every single time.
The punishment is in the process, Peter.
So they don't give a damn if I was found guilty or if the fines were handed down to me, or they don't care if I won or lost before these boards are in court.
The punishment is in the process.
The fact that I had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to clear my name, and I had to spend countless hours, days, weeks, months in courtrooms, in front of boards defending myself.
That is the punishment.
And that is exactly what they're doing to President Trump.
It's happening to many other people across the nation.
Especially when you have a political candidate, especially when you have a Republican candidate that's running, that is anti-establishment, that is willing to fight against these globalists that are actually running this country now.
And it's actually the administrative bureaucratic system that runs this country.
So, when you have a candidate that's willing to fight against that, then the establishment will put as much money as necessary in that race to beat you.
And I mean they're doing it right now to a congressional candidate down in Florida, her name is Mara Macy.
She's running down in Florida and I hope like hell that she wins, because we need at least one person that loves this country that is in DC, you know, that's really going to fight for for us and there's another candidate here in my congressional district his name's Cameron Hamilton and I truly believe that he'll go up to DC and he'll fight for us as well.
So, when you find these candidates that are willing to fight the establishment and take all the arrows that will be slung at them for doing so, we got to get out and support these people, Peter.
We have to.
We have to get off the couch, man, because people are, they're just content with living in the comforts that we have in today's day and age.
And that's the biggest problem with this country in particular, but throughout the world as well.
I mean, you guys over there in the UK as well.
The problem with the UK, the problem with the US is people are comfortable.
They're not willing to give up a little bit of comfort in the near term, you know, for prosperity in the long term.
And one of the I think one of the one of the most strategic things that the government has done is they have employed so many people and they have so many people dependent on them.
The majority of people here in the U.S. are either they're dependent on the government in some way, whether they're dependent on them for government assistance or they work for the government, either directly or indirectly.
The government was very strategic in that, because they know that those people will not dissent.
Because they don't want to lose that pay check every two weeks and they don't want to lose those benefits.
You'd be surprised how many times I've heard, man, I would love to fight back and do what you do, Matt.
But, you know, I don't want to lose my job.
I've heard that so many times.
And it was very strategic.
My hat's off to them.
They, you know, they're very good at what they do.
That's for sure.
But Americans need to stop being scared, because if you continue to be scared and live for those creature comforts today, all you're doing is handing this fight off to your children tomorrow.
And by the time your children are old enough to fight this fight, it's going to be too far down the road.
We need to fight this fight right now, today, and give up whatever comforts we have to in the short term to do so.
Matt, tell me, you're obviously very high profile.
You've stood up for freedoms.
After fighting abroad for freedoms.
You've come back, you've realised you don't have the freedoms you thought you had and you've been vocal, you've stood for elected office, you've got involved in your community, you're fighting for your local business in your community.
What about others who actually have been abroad with you?
What about that, I guess, range of veterans who come back and find the country is not Is their appetite to push back?
Are you unique?
Are there others?
I mean, give us an insight into that.
I think a lot of people that I fought next to have the mentality now that the systems have just been too corrupted at every level and that it's not a winnable fight.
So, I think a lot of their mentality now is I'm just going to make sure my household and my family is protected.
And, you know, I'll be honest, I get it, but we can't take on that mentality.
It is winnable.
This fight here for America is absolutely winnable, because we are the majority, the vast majority.
I mean, we're allowing a group of people that can't even fight their way out of a wet paper bag to rule over us in a tyrannical manner.
That is not the American spirit.
That is not what we do.
But, I think that a lot of them are just waiting for the right signal, the right time to get them motivated once again to realize, 'oh, this is winnable,' and I do need to jump back in the fight in this way.
I think they're just waiting for that.
But not enough of them are fighting.
I mean, there's more than me, obviously, you know, veteran-wise that are fighting against this, that have, you know, risked a lot of their livelihood and put it on the line, but not enough.
Tell us, I guess, who's behind the witch hunt?
I've kind of learned a little bit about Virginia politics, but is that the Uni-party, the rhinos in Virginia that are opposed to anyone who is pro-Trump?
I mean just end on on that, because that doesn't just affect those who have served abroad affects every single person in the state and wider because this is not just a Virginia battle.
I am sure that there are individuals who are just like yourself actually who are in other states and are fighting a similar battle with the Uni-party that seeks to actually restrict freedoms and seeks to oppose the MAGA agenda and how dare you have America first.
So, what you're facing, I am guessing, is replicated across many states, across the U.S.
It is, it absolutely is.
And what people have to understand is that this fight to you and me, us realizing what's really going on, seems like it's overnight.
But this is decades in the making for these people.
They have taken over the government from the local level on up to the White House.
So that's why here, even at the state level there's so many hard fights going on between the establishment and those that have the MAGA mentality and the MAGA spirit and the America First agenda at the forefront.
And so, I mean, they have these institutions in place, these administrative bureaucracies that are very well funded and ironically funded by us.
You know, they're using our own money to fight against us.
And they make sure that these establishment politicians, even at the local levels, are protected and installed into these seats.
And, I mean, for example, Glenn Youngkin.
I mean, this guy, you know, his background is he was a CEO of the Carlyle Group, another private equity firm that is just as corrupt as Vanguard and BlackRock and all those other ones, one and the same.
And that's where this guy came from out of nowhere.
And he's proven to us that he's willing to accept publicly all of this corrupt money.
And what has he done as the governor of Virginia? He's done nothing.
He has the power right now today, just as every other Republican governor in the United States, to declare an invasion against illegal immigration and send all of his National Guard troops down to the border and close it without any federal permission or federal involvement.
He can do that today.
So, why won't he and every other Republican governor do so?
Because they don't want to, because their donors and the people that control them don't want them to.
And that's it.
Of course, it's Biden and the Biden administration's fault that the border's wide open, but it's also these Republican governors' fault as well.
They can stop it today, but they won't because the same people that installed them installed Biden and the rest of them.
The Uni-party is absolutely real.
And the reason why the fight is so strong against folks like me and you and the rest of the people in the MAGA movement and the rest of the people that support President Trump and support an America First agenda is because we're derailing their train that's on the track to global dominance.
And they know that there is a very strong chance that we win this fight.
And that's why they have to fight so hard, even on the local levels, but it's up to us.
I mean, the only way we lose this fight as the MAGA movement and as the America First movement, and even you guys in the UK to take your country back, the only way we lose this fight, Peter, is if we allow them to win.
They can't beat us.
They cannot beat us.
The only way they win is if we allow them to win.
And I'm doing my part to make sure that they don't.
And I just hope many, many more people step up like you are, you know, like Steve Bannon is and like so many other America First patriots are and fight with us.
Matt, thank you for coming on.
I know you've used your restaurant.
I know you had Robert Malone there recently and you've used your restaurant as an area for like-minded people who love freedom to meet.
And I think you talk about faith, family and flag.
I think you could add freedom, firearms, fitness and food onto that and many other.
But Matt, I really appreciate what you do.
Obviously, I will not even touch on about your viral tweet about the immigration issue with Afghan immigration and what that means for actually culture and freedom and people accepting what it means to be American there.
We're having the same issue here.
But people can obviously follow you @Matt4VA and track that, follow that, and see your many posts.
So, I do appreciate you coming along, Matt, Gourmeltz is the place to be for anyone in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
And yeah, thanks for giving us your time today.
Well, thank you, Peter.
Just like these globalists have a movement for a one world dominance, you know, our brothers and sisters over there in the UK, we're actually in a global fight together as well for our sovereign nations.
We want the same thing as well for our specific countries.
We want our countries to, you know, to be preserved and our values, the values that these countries were built on to be preserved and brought back once again.
So you guys over there across the pond, man, we're in the fight with you, brother.
And I appreciate you.
