Tag: Matt Gaetz

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Congress Donald Trump GOP January 6

The Seditious 6: The Republicans Who Begged Trump To Pardon Them For Their Role In The Jan. 6 Coup Plot

When the history books are written, they will likely be known as the Seditious Six, the six members of Congress who wanted failed, one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump to issue them a pardon for their role in the January 6, 2021 coup attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

As House Select Committee member Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) noted during Thursday’s hearing, the only reason someone would ask for a presidential pardon is because he or she knows they’re guilty.

These are the six Republicans named by the committee:

Videotaped testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows made the name names public.

Former White House senior adviser Eric Herschmann said it was his understanding that Gaetz wanted a pardon that would have included everything illegal he had done during his life, which likely would have included allegations that he sexually trafficked an underage girl, a crime that could potentially send him to prison for the rest of his life if he’s charged, tried, and found guilty in federal court.

Herschmann explained:

“The general tone was, we may get prosecuted because we were defensive of you know, the president’s positions on these things. The pardon that he was discussing, or that he was requesting as broad as you could describe from the beginning of, I remember he said, from the beginning of time up until today, for any and all things.”

If the Justice Department does decide to indict the six members of Congress named today prior to the November midterm election, that could sink their chances of reelection, especially for Greene, who is serving her first term and could potentially be vulnerable, especially with a high voter turnout expected in Georgia, which also has high-profile gubernatorial and Senate races on ballot.

 

Categories
Capitol Insurrection Congress GOP

WATCH The Look On Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Face When Matt Gaetz Brings Up Rumors She’s The 1/6 Pipe Bomber

Everything is falling apart for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

Last Friday, she had to testify under oath as part of a hearing that will decide whether or not she’s allowed on the November midterm ballot.

On Monday, thousands of text messages related to the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection were released, and some of them showed that Greene was actively engaged in trying to carry out a coup that would have kept failed, one-term former President Donald Trump in office.

In one of the texts, Greene told then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows:

“In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall (sic) law. I don’t know on those things. I just wanted you to tell him. They stole this election. We all know. They will destroy our country next. Please tell him to declassify as much as possible so we can go after Biden and anyone else!”

On Tuesday, Greene sought refuge from the storm surrounding her by appearing on her good friend Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) “Firebrand” podcast, but that too wound up backfiring on her.

During in the interview, Gaetz remarked:

“People were accusing like Lauren Boebert of leading reconnaissance tours.”

Greene interjected:

“What? With her children and her husband?”

Gaetz continued:

“They were accusing you of like pipebombs, and here’s what people don’t know. The reason why Marjorie Taylor Greene has a total alibi from the pipebomb thing is that I have never seen this woman in a hoodie.”

Be sure and note the expression on Greene’s face when Gaetz makes that “joke” about the pipe bombs planted in Washington, D.C. on the day of the Capitol riots. The perpetrator of that crime has yet to be taken into custody, as the Washington Post reported on January 29, 2021:

The explosive devices, which were placed blocks from one another at the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national committees, have been largely overshadowed by the violent attempted insurrection at the Capitol. But finding the person suspected of planting both bombs remains a priority for federal authorities, who last week boosted the reward for tips leading to the person’s arrest from $50,000 to $75,000.

That one look from Greene set off a torrent of reaction on Twitter.

 

Categories
Congress GOP Military

WATCH Matt Gaetz Make An A*s Of Himself During A House Hearing With Secy. Of Defense Austin

During a House hearing on Tuesday with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) made a fool of himself by suggesting that the Defense Department is wasting taxpayer money on teaching “socialism” and diversity to U.S. troops.

When Gaetz made the bogus socialism claim, Austin immediately pushed back, remarking:

“Well, I certainly don’t agree with embracing socialism.”

Rather than let the Defense Secretary finish his remarks, Gaetz interrupted and went off on a rambling, fact-free rant:

“My follow-up question, if we don’t embrace it, why did the National Defense University put out a statement saying in this talk he will argue that the right answer lies in ending Western arrogance and promoting a new egalitarian horizon on a global scale, a new form of ecological and post-colonial socialism? So why would we invite people we don’t agree with to evangelize views and values that we don’t share at the National Defense University when we should be learning strategy about how to combat our enemies and make assessments that are accurate?”

Austin attempted to explain that the military often studies possible new strategies and better ways to prepare members of the armed forces, but yet again Gaetz refused to let Austin finish his remarks:

“Mr. Secretary, I’ve shared with you the context. The context wasn’t to better understand socialism so we can defeat it, the context wasn’t learn about it so that we can offer countermeasures. The concept was that it’s time for socialism, and the reason I know that’s the context is because the lecture was pulled from a book written entitled Time for Socialism.”

When Austin tried to get more information about what Gaetz was referring to, the congressman refused to let him speak:

“I control the time. You guys have been blowing a lot of calls lately on matters of strategy, Mr. Secretary. You guys told us that Russia couldn’t lose, that the Taliban couldn’t immediately win. I guess I’m wondering, what about the $773 billion that you’re requesting today is going to help you make assessments that are accurate in the face of so many blown calls?”

The Defense chief did manage to get a barb in at Gaetz, telling him:

“The fact that you’re embarrassed by your country. That’s what you’re saying.”

That led Gaetz to accuse Austin of being too interested in diversity:

“Maybe we would be better at home if the National Defense University actually worked a little more on strategy and a little less on woke-ism. That was baked into your flawed assessment. I saw that the Obama administration tried to starve our military and it seems the Biden administration is trying to starve our military by force-feeding it woke-ism.”

“Woke-ism” is not a thing. It’s a buzzword created by right-wingers who are looking for ways to attack the men and women of the U.S. military while simultaneously claiming they support the troops.

They also claim that anyone who disagrees with them hates the United States. But the real hatred is theirs, and they cannot stand when someone dares to disagree with their bigoted, narrow-minded view of the world.

Here’s the video:

Categories
Congress Crime GOP

Former Prosecutor: New Court Filings In Florida Are ‘Not Good’ For Matt Gaetz

New court filings in the state of Florida are bad news for Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who is accused of sexually trafficking an underage girl and could potentially be facing a sentence of life in prison.

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance ran across a reference to a status report on the case of Florida tax official, Joel Greenberg, who is cooperating with prosecutors.

Here’s the tweet Vance was referring to:

Vance noted that, “This can mean other things, but most often, it means work with a cooperating witness is proceeding & it is productive. Not good for Gaetz.”

Gaetz has denied that he broke any laws, but financial records seem to indicate that he used a Venmo account to pay at least one young girl for sex and took her across state lines, which puts the investigation under the purview of federal authorities.

Vance’s tweet drew comments from others who noted that it certainly seems that Gaetz is indeed in very hot water.

 

Categories
Elections GOP

WATCH Matt Gaetz Get Fact Checked To His Face When He Says Trump Won The 2020 Election

During an interview with a local TV reporter in Pensacola, Florida, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) repeated the right-wing lie that Donald Trump won the 2020 election, and he immediately got slapped down with a brutal fact-check from the interviewer.

HuffPost notes that Gaetz was eager to try and recirculate all of the debunked conspiracy theories about the last presidential election:

Gaetz, during an interview with anchor Bob Solarski on northwest Florida ABC-affiliate WEAR-TV, echoed Trump’s baseless claims of stolen votes and electoral corruption with his declaration that Trump was the actual victor over Democratic rival Joe Biden.

“So, you’re still maintaining the 2020 election was stolen? Are we still going with that?” Solarski asked Gaetz.

“Listen, I believe that Donald Trump won the 2020 election. I believe that he won the Electoral College,” Gaetz replied, even though Trump clearly did not win either the popular vote or the Electoral College.

Solarski countered: “You can’t say that without saying there was a gigantic conspiracy across this country and supervisors and election offices to make this happen and we haven’t still seen any evidence that proves that.”

Twitter users had a few thoughts about Gaetz’s continued refusal to accept reality.