Tag Archives: Representative Matt Gaetz

Losing The Majority One Representative At A Time

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The Washington, D.C., Republicans have turned snatching defeat from the jaws of victory into an art form. After winning a slim majority in the House of Representatives, they have ousted George Santos for crimes less serious than those committed by their Democrat colleagues, and now Keven McCarthy has decided not to finish his term, opening up another opportunity for Democrats to gain a seat. Meanwhile, the Democrats in the House of Representatives routinely lie, make anti-Semitic statements, pull fire alarms to stop votes, and sleep with Chinese spies–all with very minor consequences.

On Thursday, The Gateway Pundit posted an article about Kevin McCarthy’s decision to leave Congress.

The article includes the following statement by Matt Gaetz:

Gaetz: You’ll remember back in January, Kevin McCarthy said, “It’s not how you start; it’s how you finish,” and it appears he is indeed finished. This announcement from Speaker McCarthy coming the day after his top Lieutenant, Patrick McHenry, announced his retirement from the Congress. The key difference is that McHenry seems to be indicating a willingness to serve out the entire term that his voters elected him to. Kevin McCarthy, in turn, saying if he cannot run the place and be Speaker, then he will leave. So, there is an establishment exodus from the United States Republican Conference, and it’s my hope that we backfill these establishment, lobbyist-drawn entities with folks who are willing to fight for the America First agenda, to reduce wars, to get out of these bad trade deals, and to stop the illegal immigration that is overrunning our country.

And we have to provide a check on the Biden administration that continues to spend us into oblivion, into more debt, and to defang this weaponized government that’s been turned against our fellow Americans. Kevin McCarthy was not useful in that fight. In many ways, he inhibited it, and now he is leaving. But there is a very real math problem that we are confronted with for this departure. For all of the self-congratulatory videos that Kevin McCarthy may make, him leaving—his unwillingness to stay and vote for even the most basic of Republican priorities—may imperil our ability to get the job done. So, here’s the math: We have a four-seat majority that we were elected to. Errantly, foolishly in violation of precedent, and due process, we made the decision to expel George Santos. Now, most Republicans in the conference voted against expelling Santos but enough voted with the errant ethics committee that he is now gone. That takes four down to three. Now McCarthy is saying he’s leaving at the end of the year; takes us down to two. And then Bill Johnson, the Republican from Ohio, has indicated that he is taking the University Presidency at Youngstown State; that will leave us with a one seat majority. I Sure hope everyone eats their veggies stays healthy over the break, otherwise, this thing could tip the balance to the Democrats.

Now there has been some commentary on social media that I am to blame, that it’s my fault that Kevin McCarthy is quitting and leaving early. I don’t know anyone else who would just say, well, if I can’t run the place, I’m gonna leave. Nancy Pelosi, for all her flaws, and there are many, at least stuck around. She didn’t hurt her team by saying, well, if I can’t be the quarterback, I’m just gonna take the ball and go home. That seems to be what we’re getting from Kevin McCarthy. This is not an act of patriotism or moving on to the next fight. It is an act of abject selfishness, and it is revealing that if Kevin McCarthy can’t swing the gavel and be in charge and make the decisions, he’s not willing to be a team player. For all the criticism I’ve received about not being a team player, I’m here, I’m doing the work, I’m taking votes. And the Republican establishment might not like how I vote all the time, but I’m not facilitating a path to hand power to the Democrats. That would be more in line with what we see from the former Speaker, who is on his way out the door.

I am really having a hard time remaining a Republican. The Republican ‘leadership’ keeps showing us that they really don’t care about the American people–they have their own agenda.

Confirmation Of An Earlier Article

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Yesterday I posted an article that included an interview of Representative Matt Gaetz. The interview included claims that former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy had undermined the selection of a new speaker in the quest for regaining the speakership. Yesterday The Gateway Pundit posted an article with similar claims by Representative Nancy Mace. If nothing else, the two articles illustrate that the Washington swamp is deep and wide and if the American people want to take back their government, it will not be easy.

The Gateway Pundit reports:

It took several votes by House Republicans before a Speaker was chosen and agreed to by the caucus.

Now we know why. According to Matt Gaetz and Nancy Mace, McCarthy was working behind the scenes to derail any potential candidate for Speaker including Jim Jordan, arguably the most popular Republican in Congress.

The following quote is from Representative Mace:

…This thing didn’t need to last through three weeks. So the first thing that McCarthy and his allies did was prolong it and delay it and recess us and adjourn us every time they possibly could to drag this thing out and make it as painful as possible. For the eight of us who held the line and kicked McCarthy out of the speakership, that’s number one. Number two, there was a concerted and orchestrated effort at the hand of McCarthy that every time someone ascended, they got knifed in the back, including America’s favorite Republican congressman in Jim Jordan. I mean, our conference couldn’t even elect the best and favorite congressman in this country, Jim Jordan, because of what McCarthy and his allies were doing behind the scenes and orchestrating his failure.

This is another example of a Washington insider putting his own ambition ahead of the needs of America.

The House Of Representatives Has A Speaker

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On Wednesday, The Conservative Treehouse reported that Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson has been elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. That is good news. On the same day, The Conservative Treehouse also posted an interview of Representative Matt Gaetz by Steve Bannon. During that interview, Representative Gaetz explains the backroom deals attempted by Representative Kevin McCarthy to regain the speakership.

This is the video of that interview:

I realize that this is a long video, but there is a lot of insight in it about how the  Washington swamp works.

We are about to find out if Republicans are capable of governing according to their platform and principles. They only have one branch of government, but they have the power of the purse!

 

As The Establishment Republicans Wring Their Hands…

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What happens when a political party loses touch with its base? What happens when a political party no longer listens to the wishes of its voters? One thing that happens is that their Speaker of the House gets removed from office. The mainstream media is very concerned about the ousting of Kevin McCarthy. They are convinced that it represents an inability of the Republicans to govern. They wish. What it does represent is Republicans who are fed up with business as usual.

On October 3rd, Sundance at The Conservative Treehouse noted:

According to multiple DC media sources, a quiet effort is underway by members of the professionally republican mindset to kick Matt Gaetz out of the House Republican caucus. However, the advocates worry they will be primaried by voters in their district, as the population of Republican voters supports Gaetz. It is a duplicitous dynamic.

…No one is quite sure what comes next; what is clear is that Gaetz has channeled the frustration of the Republican/MAGA base into an actionable result. This should not come as a surprise to the GOPe, although many of the cloistered clan continue pretending not to understand the dynamic at play.

Here are only a few examples of why Republicans are fed up with the leadership in the House of Representatives:

♦ In 2012, the professional Republicans campaigned on retaining the House and asked to begin a process of taking down the Democrat control of the Senate. Remember, it was a 60/40 Senate when the Obamacare boondoggle was begun.  Keep the House, help us take Senate seats, and we will repeal Obamacare and balance the budget.  That was the call of the 2012 professional Republicans.  The voters delivered.  The GOPe kept the house, took 6 seats in the Senate and introduced a wave of fresh Republican blood.

The Republicans did nothing.

♦ In the 2014 midterm election, the professional Republicans campaigned on retaining the House and now flipping the Senate with more GOP seats.  Keep the House, give us the Senate majority, and we will repeal Obamacare and deliver a balanced budget.  The voters again delivered.  Beginning in January 2015, the Republicans controlled the House and the Senate majorities for Obama’s last two years.

The Republicans did nothing.

Worse still, even with professional Republican control of both chambers of congress, President Obama never had to use his veto pen.

♦ In the 2016 election, after the professional Republicans could no longer stop/block candidate Donald Trump, they said if we get the White House, retain the House and retain the Senate, we will repeal Obamacare, return to regular budgetary order, and balance the budget.   Stunningly, against all the odds, the voters yet again delivered.  President Trump won the election; Republicans now held the White House, the House and the Senate – as requested.

The Republicans did nothing.

Worse still, the professional Republicans acted as if they were the dog that just caught the car.  Now they had no excuses, and as a result there was an exodus of retirements announced from the caucus of the professionally Republican to begin in 2018.

Simultaneously, the professional Republicans passively allowed the targeting of Donald Trump by a fully weaponized intelligence apparatus and justice system to commence.  To say the professionally Republican were willfully blind would be polite and generously honest.

In the background the RNC did nothing.  The California ballot harvesting operation of 2018 reflected a complete lack of action by the RNC or CA GOP.  We all well remember how that operation expanded nationwide in 2020, again with the RNC doing nothing.

This is the reality of what took place between the elections of 2010 and 2020.   Every ask of the professionally rRpublican apparatus was delivered by voters. Every ask of the voters in return was ignored.  Effective January 2021, Obamacare still exists, no budget was ever produced, the borders were unsecured, the economy tanked due to Biden policy, energy and printing presses.  Crises, along with insufferable government mandates, amplified and expanded from coast to coast.

The Green New Deal was passed by Republicans and Democrats, and the collapse of the economy came with it.

Promises made, promises not kept.

Some Basic Comments On The Removal Of Kevin McCarthy

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Don Surber at Substack reminds us of a few reasons Kevin McCarthy is no longer Speaker of the House. When you begin to look at the history of Republican leadership in the House of Representatives, it is amazing that Kevin McCarthy lasted as long as he did. He acted as his predecessors did– he supported the Washington establishment and the uni-party. The agreement he made with his peers that got him elected was not worth the paper it was written on. If you listened to his press conference last night, you realize that either he still doesn’t get it or he lies as easily as he speaks.

Don Surber notes:

By a vote of 216-210, the House ended Kevin McCarthy’s two-faced, double-dealing speakership, as he became the first and only person booted out as Speaker of the House. A bipartisan majority decided enough was enough with McCarthy who had promised to allow congressmen to read an appropriations bill and wait 72 hours before holding a vote. He broke that promise this weekend. Matt Gaetz moved to remove him. Gaetz and 7 other Republicans joined 208 Democrats to vote McCarthy out.

This is a payback. McCarthy and his loyalists joined Democrats to pass the Democrat budget. Gaetz used Democrats to oust McCarthy. Democrats wisely go by the Benedict Arnold Rule: never trust a turncoat.

…Rank-and-file Republicans are as happy to see McCarthy leave as Taylor Swift is writing a song about the boyfriend she just dumped. Washington lifers are as sad as Travis Kelce will be when she dumps him.

The lifers are so mad that they are writing mean things about Gaetz.

The article concludes:

Gallup said, “Republicans’ 14-percentage-point lead in public preferences for keeping the country prosperous is up from a 10-point margin last year and is its widest advantage on this measure since mid-1991.”

Republicans blew that opportunity in 1991 when George H.W. Bush said, “Read my lips: no new taxes” — and then agreed to new taxes. You can put Peggy Noonan’s words in a Bush but you cannot make him Reagan.

Look for McCarthy to join Newt and Ryan at the Fox News henhouse, where he will talk a big game and do nothing.

Just as he did as speaker.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. Mr. Surber reminds us of the history of the uni-party and its unwillingness to listen to its voters. It is possible that this action might cause some Republicans to hear what their constituents are saying about the budget and the war in Ukraine.

It’s Time To Let FISA Die–It Is Being Misused

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On Friday, Just the News posted an article about the misuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to spy on Americans.

The article reports:

The FBI improperly used a controversial surveillance tool on a United States senator, as well as multiple state officials, court documents released Friday have revealed.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) secured an opinion from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) determined that the bureau made improper use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s Section 702, a tool allowing for the warrantless surveillance of foreigners abroad.

The FISC opinion, according to The Hill, states that “[i]n June 2022, an analyst conducted four queries of Section 702 information using the last names of a U.S. Senator and a state senator, without further limitation.” The FISC opinion does not name the individuals in question.

It further stated that in October 2022, “a Staff Operations Specialist ran a query using the Social Security number of a state judge who “had complained to [the] FBI about alleged civil right violations perpetrated by a municipal chief of police.”

Section 702 of the Act was adopted in 2008 and grants the Intelligence Community considerable powers to surveil foreign actors, though critics have contended that the tool has enabled improper surveillance of Americans.

The article notes:

“The FBI continues to break the rules put in place to protect Americans, running illegal searches on public officials including a U.S. senator, and it’s long past time for Congress to step in,” he continued. “As Congress debates reauthorizing Section 702, these opinions make clear why fundamental reforms are urgently needed.”

The article concludes:

Section 702 is set to expire at the end of the year and Intelligence Community leaders have urged Congress to renew it, though the revelations of misuse have led some lawmakers to adopt a hostile stance on such an action.

Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz in July introduced a resolution to support allowing the measure to expire on time.

“The persistent abuse of Section 702 of FISA underscores the disturbing trend of our federal government being weaponized against its people. The blatant misuse of warrantless surveillance powers targeting Americans’ communications should not be accepted or reauthorized. We must uphold national security without sacrificing the constitutional rights of our fellow Americans,” he said at the time.

I agree.

An Odd Couple Introduces Common Sense

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On Tuesday, Just the News reported that Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz and New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have introduced a bill banning lawmakers, their spouses, or dependents from trading stocks. If that bill is ever passed, it will seriously diminish the incomes of the people who serve in Congress.

The article reports:

House Problem Solvers Caucus co-chair Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., and Democratic Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi joined the pair in introducing the Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act on Tuesday.

The bill further grants lawmakers a 90-day window during which they must divest themselves of their existing stocks. Moreover, should the spouse of a lawmaker receive “any financial instrument” as compensation for their main employment, they will have 90 days to sell it from the date they are contractually permitted to do so.

Covered individuals may still invest in “widely held investment funds” or government bonds.

The article concludes:

“As long as concerns about insider trading hang over the legislative process, Congress will never regain the trust of the American people. Our responsibility in Congress is to serve the people, not hedge bets on the stock market,” Gaetz warned.

AOC, meanwhile, echoed his remarks, saying “[t]he ability to individually trade stock erodes the public’s trust in government.”

“Members of Congress must be focused on their constituents, not their stock portfolios,” Krishnamoorthi added.

That is bipartisan legislation that most Americans can support. Unfortunately, I rather doubt it will become law.

The Seeds Were Planted For The Destruction Of The Republic In 2012

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On Tuesday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article that explains a lot of the initial and ongoing attacks on the Trump administration and President Trump. It also offers a possible explanation as to why so few in the Washington swamp have been willing to fight the seemingly endless corruption.

The article reports:

There is very little that surprises me, but this is completely stunning.  An FBI whistleblower came forth to inform Rep Jim Jordan and Rep Matt Gaetz that the FBI maintains a workspace inside the law firm of Perkins Coie.  {Direct Rumble Link}

In response to a letter sent by Rep. Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan, Perkins Coie, the legal arm of the DNC and Hillary Clinton, admitted they have been operating an FBI workspace in their Washington D.C. office since 2012.  Pay attention to that date, it matters.

This is a huge development.  Essentially, what is being admitted in this claim is that a portal existed into FBI databases within the law firm that represents democrats.  This means access to FBI database searches exists inside the office of the DNC and Clinton legal group.  Think about the ramifications here.

CTH has long claimed there was some kind of direct portal link between the Clinton campaign team and the FBI databases.  There were too many trails of extracted non-minimized research evidence in the hands of the Clinton team that CTH could not trace to a transferring FBI official.  If Perkins Coie operated a portal in their office that allowed them to conduct search queries of American citizens, then everything would make sense.  That access portal is exactly what is being claimed and admitted in this report.

The start date of 2012 is important for several reasons, not the least of which is FISA presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer criticizing the scale and scope of unlawful FBI database access going back to exactly 2012.  Keep in mind a FISA-702 search, is simply an unlawful FBI warrantless electronic search of an American (“702” represents the American citizen) into the central database -maintained by the NSA- that contains all electronic data and communication.

I have been in the deep hole of the FISA-702 database search query violations for so long I don’t even need a flashlight.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. It includes some of Rosemary Collyer’s prior report on FBI abuses of the database.

There were some people who warned us when the Patriot Act was passed after 9/11 that it would lead to government abuses and illegal spying on Americans. Evidently they were right.

Incompetent Or Political?

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On Tuesday, America got a chance to see how badly the FBI has handled the Hunter Biden laptop case. This article is based on two articles–one posted by The New York Post on Tuesday and one posted by The U.K. Daily Mail on Tuesday and updated on Wednesday. At this point, I would like to note that The U.K. Daily Mail does a better job of reporting on politics in America than most of the American media.

The U.K. Daily Mail reports:

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) got into a heated spat over the whereabouts of Hunter Biden‘s laptop during a House Judiciary hearing on oversight of the FBI‘s Cyber Division on Tuesday. 

The Republican firebrand used his allotted time to grill the division’s assistant director Bryan Vorndran, who repeatedly told Gaetz he didn’t have any information on where the hard drive belonging to President Joe Biden‘s son is currently located.

At one point Gaetz tried to enter the hard drive into the Congressional record but was blocked by House Judiciary Chair Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), who changed his mind a short while later.

The New York Post reports:

Material from Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop was entered into the Congressional Record on Tuesday at the request of Rep. Matt Gaetz.

The Florida Republican made the move during a hearing on oversight of the FBI’s Cyber Division after its assistant director, Bryan Vorndran, testified that he didn’t “have any information about the Hunter Biden laptop,” which the bureau seized from a Delaware repair shop in December 2019.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) initially blocked Gaetz’s request but relented a short time later.

Nadler’s change of heart came after what Gaetz described as “consultation with majority staff.”

“I seek unanimous consent to enter into the record of this committee, content from, files from and copies from the Hunter Biden laptop,” Gaetz said.

Nadler responded, “Without objection.”

Now that the information from the laptop has been entered into the Congressional Record, is it public information? If it is, does anyone want to wager how many of the American news media outlets will cover the story?

Congress Needs To Make Some Serious Noise About This

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Yesterday PJ Media posted an article about an incident at the federal lockup facility in Washington, D.C.

The article reports:

Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Louis Gohmert and Paul Gosar showed up at the federal lockup facility currently housing roughly 50 January 6 detainees in order to inspect the conditions of the political prisoners. They were looking into accusations of mistreatment, including being denied access to lawyers, beatings, and solitary confinement. They were denied.

…The same four reps attempted to meet Attorney General Merrick Garland to discuss the treatment of the January 6 detainees last Tuesday, but they were not allowed in the building. They held a brief presser, which was shut down by commies after about 20 minutes.

The GOP reps have sent a combined six letters to Garland asking to meet with him. When all letters went unanswered, they took matters into their own hands and stopped by the DOJ for a visit. Today, they decided to stop by the hoosegow.

…The GOPers and an entourage of staffers and media attempted to gain access but didn’t get past the lobby. One guard accused them of trespassing and “obstructing” the entrance, to which Gohmert replied, “We are the people that vote on whether or not to fund you, and at what level, and we are trespassing? My gosh, the government is upside down.”

He continued, “We are cleared for top secret, and we do inspect facilities and I’ve never, ever, in the years I’ve been in Congress, ever run into an issue like this, until this administration took over, and this speaker took over.”

The article notes:

Gohmert compared the treatment of BLM and Antifa to the January 6 prisoners.

“It is so egregious to think about the people that have burned looted, destroyed–being immediately released,” Gohmert stated. “Whereas here we are understanding they [January 6 detainees] aren’t being shown the evidence against them, the specific charges. We’d like to see the conditions, how people are being treated here.”

This is banana-republic stuff. People need to be removed from office for preventing Congressional oversight. If after the Congressional oversight, unacceptable conditions are found, more people need to be removed from office.

Everyone Needs To Be Screaming About This

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The Epoch Times posted an article yesterday about a protest in Washington. This protest didn’t get a lot of news coverage because leftists were doing the protesting.

The article reports:

A small cadre of Republican lawmakers gathered outside the Department of Justice on Tuesday afternoon to air concerns about the treatment of prisoners arrested for allegedly participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riots.

“We weren’t even let in the lobby,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said, standing at the DOJ’s doorstep.

They weren’t left alone outside of the lobby, either. After about 15 minutes, a group of what appeared to be leftist protestors swarmed Greene’s podium and the surrounding area.

As Greene was speaking, protestors appeared to be circling behind her and the other Republicans—much to the concern of the staffers and security.

“We have to wrap it up,” a man near Greene could be heard saying, before more urgently repeating, “We have to go. We need to break.”

“The left is interrupting the press conference,” the man then announced to the crowd.

Seconds later, the group of protestors walked through the podium area as the Republican lawmakers and others scattered.

The article notes:

According to numerous reports, Jan. 6 inmates have been beaten, held in solitary confinement, and denied access to evidence about their own cases.

The Republican lawmakers said that they have attempted to investigate these reports, but have been stonewalled by the DOJ, as well as the Washington DC Department of Corrections and Capitol Police. A joint letter from Reps Greene, Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) lists six unanswered inquiries Republicans have sent to federal authorities.

“Are we housing political prisoners?” Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said at Tuesday’s press conference. “We need to know the answers.”

A former defense attorney and Texas district judge, Gohmert said he’s spent his career fighting for due process for all defendants, including those on death row. During his time as judge, Gohmert said he would make unannounced visits to jails and prisons to make sure the conditions weren’t abusive.

“No matter whom you are in this country, you have the right to a fair trial and the right to see the evidence against you, including all potentially exculpatory or exonerating evidence. A plea agreement should not even be offered until these requirements are met,” Gohmert said.

“These are basic, fundamental requirements of our law that are ingrained in the justice system of these United States. Disregarding these procedures is a violation of any American citizen’s civil rights.”

We need to have hearings on the mistreatment of these Americans. Their civil rights are being violated, and the majority of Congress is silent.