Bloglander

Rep. Matt Shea doesn't like to talk with the local media. He's even blocked us and deleted our questions on occasion. 

To his credit, last week he gave the Inlander a half-hour phone interview for this week's story about the 4th District campaign — though never called back for his promised followup interview. 

Shea has gone on the record a hell of a lot more elsewhere. He's given speech after speech to group after group and has over 150 podcasts to his name.  He's a speaker prone to parallel construction, to applause lines and rhetorical climaxes. 

He's also a speaker who says things that drive some crazy and make others say, "Amen, brother." 

I've tried to pick out some of his more interesting, controversial, and applauded statements, straight from Shea's mouth. When possible, I've provided links to the full speech and to the occasional bit of extra information, so you can check out the context surrounding the quote. I've bolded key words to make skimming easier.

Share your favorite, or add your own in the comments. 


1. “I am aware of what you’re talking about with FEMA camps. What is particularly disturbing about that is they are going to be on former military bases. A ton of people have expressed their concerns that what they’re building are prison camps.” (Read Shea's explanation for these comments here.)


2. “It’s great to be with you gun-toting, 10ther, pro-life, Austrian-economics, home-schooling, redoubt-living, Constitutionalist patriots this evening. I think that covers the SPLC's list.” 

3. “Where have we come as a country, when loving the Constitution, being a patriot, loving Jesus is extremist? Let me tell you what I think is extreme, is a president who was raised by communists, taught by communists, who was supported by communists, and whose self-appointed, self-admitted heroes are communists. And that, I think, is un-American.”

4. “You know, we’ve been right on everything, haven’t we? We told people about drones five years ago, didn’t we? We told people about the NSA five years ago, didn’t we? We told them about indefinite detention. We told them you can’t come after the internet, that’s unconstitutional. You can’t do warrantless searches, that’s unconstitutional."

5. “We need to prepare for the inevitable collapse that’s going to happen. Yes, I say that as a politician on stage. It’s going to happen. We should look it at as an opportunity, not as something to be afraid of."

6. “Number one, we need to get in shape, number two we need to shoot, number three, we need to learn self-defense, and number four, we need to study small-unit tactics... If you do not have 5,000 rounds of .223, 5,000 rounds of .22 and 1,000 rounds of handgun ammo, as a MINIMUM, you’re wrong. We need to train our families how to shoot as well. We need to get food. We need to have a year's supply of food, two years supply of seeds, we need to have a year's supply of sundry items. That's what it means to be an American. We prepare for the worst but hope for the best."

7. “We had pastors testifying in favor of gun control. And they were quoting the Bible, too, for it. And there were no pastors on the other side testifying against gun control... I had to literally open up my Bible and read scripture to these pastors in a hearing in Olympia. A politician had to read scripture to pastors.”

8. We need to understand that being an accomplice or accessory to those who seek to enslave our posterity, is no better than being the folks that are locking the chains themselves."

9. "We need to ask ourselves a question: Do we trust God? Is he not the same yesterday, today, and forever? And if he is, then how is compromise a strategy? It's not a strategy, it's wholesale surrender."


10. "No one that has ever been in combat ever wants to see war anywhere in the world. It is horrible. It's horrible looking at the pock-marked walls. It's horrible looking at the flesh embedded on walls in Bosnia. It was horrible looking and interviewing and talking to the kids who lost their parents, because Saddam Hussein decided to feed their parents to the lions in downtown Baghdad. To characterize particularly myself, but other groups, as wanting to advocate a war I think is not only disingenuous, I think it's a patent falsehood intentionally created to stigmatize a group of people. "

11. "Is the economy going to collapse if we continue down this road? Yes. Should Americans be self-reliant? Yes. Absolutely. ... I think loving our neighbors is being prepared to give them food. Loving our neighbors is being prepared to protect them."

12. "I would turn the question around to people, especially those reporters who wrote some of those articles. Are you advocating our daughters shouldn't learn self-defense? Because that's what was taught at that rally."

13. "We allow folks to divide us. I don't like this Republican/Democrat, left/right, radical/not radical division that is created by folks, particularly and unfortunately in the media. What happened to being a self-reliant, God-fearing American, that loved freedom and the constitution? That's the way I want to be labeled."


14. “The ability to defend yourself is a basic necessity like food and water. We exempt food and water from the sales tax.”

15. “It is absolutely beyond a shadow of a doubt that more firearms in a society actually cuts the amount of crime in that same society.”


16. "Make no mistake. This is a war on rural America. … It is chilling to watch people who joined the military to defend American citizens point rifles on American soil at American citizens and women and children. A sniper rifle is not due process.” 

15. "'An order is an order' was not an excuse to do the wrong thing. You couldn't just blindly follow a government order ... This whole issue of should the Supreme Court be the final arbiter of what is or isn't constitutional, was settled at Nuremberg. People everywhere need to understand and need to follow that."

17. "While I've been asked to run for Congress, I really believe we need to defend freedom locally. And by doing that, by just standing at the local level we can make a massive difference." 

18. "The law, in this country, is dead. The Supreme Court doesn't follow the Constitution, Congress doesn't follow the Constitution. The President doesn't even want to follow the Constitution. And yet we're the ones called radical."

19. “The forces of immorality and Marxism and evil count on one thing: Us not showing up. And often, they’re justified in that. And I think if you look at some of the things that have happened this year with the Freedom Agenda, it should encourage you, that when you show up, we actually win.”

20. "People who won't sign the taxpayer protection pledge, people who won't sign the property-rights protection pledge, people who won't sign the state-sovereignty pledge, who won't put their beliefs in writing, who won't endorse the Freedom Agenda, we should be asking them some very very hard questions. Very hard questions. Because you know what, they get away with it. We hear what goes on in closed doors in Olympia. We hear them say the opposite of what they say publicly."

21. "A duplicitous country with a duplicitous leadership is going to give us more duplicity. And that duplicity is going lead us off an abyss. That's going to happen."

22. "The easy road in Olympia is a yes vote. That's the easy road in Olympia. The easy road in Olympia is not carrying the banner for freedom and liberty. The easy road in Olympia is worrying about getting reelected. The easy road in Olympia is going along to get along."

23. "We had a lot of people say, you guys are the most ineffective legislators in Olympia and your bills never go anywhere ... They can't say that anymore, can they?"

24. “We’ve got some Democrats who are actually Tea Partiers right now. We need to build coalitions with them.”

25. “We had a majority in 1990, 1994, 1996, we lost it every time. You know why? Because we compromised... We don’t need a majority. We need an irate, tireless minority. We need people who are just going to stand for the truth.” 

26. "We have to deal with a lot of things. One of them is we have to deal with fake conservatives that are bought-and-paid for by the Karl Rove establishment. Unfortunately, some in my area have recruited a primary opponent against me." 


27. "Is there any media here? A couple? Excellent. I want to ask you, I don't know what persuasion you are, but would you like to go outside to a 1st Amendment zone? No! So did it make sense to have a 1st Amendment zone in Nevada? No, of course not. That's ridiculous. If we're talking about one of the most egregious things that happened down there, it was the 1st Amendment zone in Nevada. "

28. “Are you a Loyalist or a Patriot? Why, because being a God-fearing, self-reliant, freedom-loving American is a choice. Or we could be one of those government-dependent, Constitution-fearing socialists. That’s the question, actually, the Founding Fathers asked. Are you a Loyalist or a Patriot?”

29. “I find it absolutely absurd that people in the media and the Southern Poverty Law Center think the Constitution is extreme. Who’s the extremist? Seriously. And they try to threaten and they try to intimidate people, and they end up prompting somebody to go into the Family Research Council and shoot the place up, and then say ‘Oh, it’s not our fault, but all those other guys on the Constitutionalist side, they’re the ones really prompting violence’ and yet the guy who went in and shot said, hey, Southern Poverty Law Center is why I went in. Right is wrong, wrong is right, the world is upside down.”

30. "We need to call what is happening out of Washington, D.C., what it is: Bureaucratic terrorism: If you want a list of stories, I could go through a bunch of them, and I could highlight a few: One of them was the IRS audit of my good friend Phil Hart, he's sitting in the audience today. That was bureaucratic terrorism." 

31. "Nevada involved cattle, right? First of all, I thought the Lord owned the cattle on the thousand hills. What about the fact that even in early Scripture, the issue of water and forage rights is actually talked about by Abraham?"

32. "When we got down there were some agent provocateurs, if you've never heard of them, these are people sent in intentionally into a group to create chaos and dissension ... There were two we identified down there that were trying to foment violence on either side, trying to really create a confrontation. Any time this stuff happens there's going to be agent provocateurs come in." 

33. "We had Americans gather together in prayer, before they went to stand before the federal government ... that prayed for peace, that there wouldn't be confrontation." 

34. "There are organizations like Southern Poverty Law Center, there are some private investigators that work for the Republican Establishment, that actually use technology to hack into your phone. ...  Secure your phone. Black Phone by the makers of Silent Circle is probably the most secure phone out there."


35. "Josh, my question to you is why you ran against a Republican and spent $100,000, wasted $100,000, that could have been spent on the west side of the state getting us a majority in the House of Representatives, especially since, at least in two of those swing districts we probably could win with that $100,000."

36. "I meet with virtually everybody that comes down to Olympia, that Facebook messages me or emails me or calls me on the telephone. And, in particular, last year I was very proud to go speak before a group that I was invited to by a lesbian anarchist, I mean, my goodness gracious! I can listen and work with anybody."

37. "I make it a policy every election to only debate once, Democrats and Progressives. And I will say that the way that you have acted, very candidly, has been dishonorable in this entire campaign."

38. "I've been demonized as a racist and an extremist. Now, no matter what I say, I mean, I've served in the military with people of all ethnicities and all races but it doesn't matter what  I say, I still get demonized and implied to be a racist. So if anybody has any questions on where I stand on that they can ask my good friend Doug Taft who is sitting here on the side and ask him what he thinks about me being a racist."

39. "The correct answer is the University Titans, the West Valley Eagles, the Central Valley Bears, the East Valley Knights, the Riverside Rams. The fact you don't even know an answer to the question like [naming all the Spokane Valley High School Mascots] means you don't even know the district. How can you represent the district if you don't even know it?" 

40. "We don't attack any veteran, at all, ever, for their service record. We thank them. And the fact that somebody wanted to do that for political gain, shows the desperation of which some people unfortunately in the Republican Party want to keep and seize power."


41. “If you’re wanting me to besmirch somebody’s reputation so that there would be some sort of division created out of it, I’m not going to do that … If you’re asking if I believe my opponent is a fake conservative, the answer to that question is yes, 100 percent.” (When asked who the fake conservatives in Olympia he has referenced are.)

42. “Sheriff Knezovich’s bill was poorly-written and not constitutional, according to many attorneys, including myself, that reviewed it. We want to go forward with something that’s going to stand up to the scrutiny that all bills go under once they’ve been passed into law.”

43. "Are you saying we shouldn't be prepared? And I'm asking you that right now, Daniel. ... Why would you be against people being able not only to be prepared to have food and water for their friends, but to defend themselves from looters and some of these degradation of society that happen in these crises?"

44. My mistrust, particularly of the Spokesman-Review, and to some extent the Inlander, not necessarily you personally... The question is why haven't you guys done the research on my opponent? Why haven't you done the research on how this recruitment happened? Why did it take a national media outlet World Net Daily to bring out in the public light, the issues of my former opponent, Amy Biviano ...? It always seems like the investigation goes one way and doesn't really expose the truth in some of those other matters."


45. "I am saddened by the release by a national media outlet of my opponent’s involvement in pornography. I strongly condemn the release of this information. Our campaign was aware of this information several months ago, and made a very determined decision to not use or disperse this information in any way, shape,or form."