Matt Gaetz Just Ended Kevin McCarthy's Reign

Gaetz blew up the GOP establishment and Fox News in one short interview

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This should be required viewing for every Republican voter: a short interview between Fox News host Maria Bartiromo and Rep. Matt Gaetz in which (in a mere 8 minutes) Gaetz explains how the GOP establishment betrays its own voters systematically.

It’s one of the greatest interviews you’ll ever see.

Here’s the video.

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Allow me to provide the play-by-play commentary with the transcript.

Maria Bartiromo (00:00): Now joining us: one of the people holding up an agreement to fund the government, Florida, a Republican Congressman, Matt Gates. Uh, congressman, thank you very much for being here this morning.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (00:10): Oh, thank you. I'm glad I get to respond to your monologue because if you're saying that I'm standing in the way of all the Republican wins, I'd love for you to enumerate them. Watching my friend and mentor Jim Jordan, it was quite painful because he started by saying, we should only pick one fight: the border. But then as the interview went on, he said, well, we should pick a second fight: Jack Smith. And by the time the interview rounded out, he was saying that we shouldn't be funding Ukraine without a plan. And yet the very continuing resolution that you and Jim Jordan seemed to be for, continues to have $300 million more for Ukraine. So I think we ought to fight on all fronts. I think the border's very important. And the best way for us to advance the Republican border policies is to pass the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Bill. Do that along with Veterans Defense, and State, Ag and foreign ops. We'll have 73% of the discretionary budget funded. And if, you know, the Department of Labor and Education have to shut down for a few days as we get their appropriations in line, that's certainly not something that is optimal, but I think it's better than continuing on the current path we are on to America's financial ruin.

Maria Bartiromo (01:10): Congressman, I understand. And that is why you are on this program this morning — because I want to give you a fair shot and I wanna get you heard. So tell me why you are threatening Speaker McCarthy and trying to shut down this government, at a time that the Republicans have finally gotten some upper hands here in terms of wins — able to investigate President Biden on what looks like, uh, bribery.

(Emerald: Bartiromo brags that she’s giving Gaetz “a fair shot” and then opens with a loaded and hostile question. Never forget that this interview was a set-up to hurt Gaetz.)

Rep. Matt Gaetz (01:34): Yeah, we don't put our pencils down in the investigation of President Biden during a shutdown. So the premise is false. Second, if Kevin McCarthy was actually serious about pursuing the Bidens, he would've sent Hunter Biden a subpoena by now. That's how you know: this is sort of failure theater that you're observing. During the first year of Democrat control of the Congress, they brought in Donald Trump Jr. three times over nothing — over a nothing burger. And so we seem to be fundamentally unserious in our oversight.

But what is serious is the fact that we are spending more than $7 trillion a year, bringing in around $5 trillion a year. And, I want to to fund the government. I'm not pro-shutdown but the way to fund the government is not the same way we've been doing it since the mid nineties where it's one up or down vote on the entire government all at once. We should have separate single subject spending bills. Kevin McCarthy promised that in January — he is in breach of that promise. So I'm not here to hold the government hostage. I'm here to hold Kevin McCarthy to his word.

(Emerald: Notice that Bartiromo has no interest in asking why McCarthy has not kept his word. Instead, she tries to frame Gaetz as a hostile actor against the GOP —whose agenda is so extreme that not even the Freedom Caucus will support him.)

Maria Bartiromo (02:32): Are there Freedom Caucus members also out of compliance? They were also on the Appropriations Committee. Where is the responsibility for them? Are they also out of compliance?

Rep. Matt Gaetz (02:43): No. I'm not a member of the Freedom Caucus. I'll let them speak for themselves. But take for example, the border. This issue you think has great primacy — and I would agree with you. The Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill was passed out of the appropriations committee in June, and yet Kevin McCarthy hasn’t it put it on the floor in more than a hundred days. That is not serious. You know why Kevin McCarthy didn't move our border appropriations bill? Because the lobbyists and the special interests who own Kevin McCarthy want to put us in this position — where we're backed up against the wall facing shut down politics. And what that does is it centralizes power to the people that they buy off with PAC donations and lobbyist donations. And then the membership doesn't get to make real contributions to that process. I'm trying to democratize it.

(Emerald: Bartiromo again will not touch the bombshell that McCarthy would not move the DHS bill out of committe to the floor for a vote for three months! Instead, she claims that GOP leadership is now suddenly moving the single subject bills forward very soon — without giving credit to Gaetz for forcing McCarthy to do it. The mood of the interview is now ugly. Bartiromo is openly hostile. She tries to interrupt Gaetz throughout the rest of the interview.)

Maria Bartiromo (03:31): The bills are being worked on. You just heard Jim Jordan say that they are offering four bills this week, appropriations bills this week, to get through — that would partially fund the government. The defense bill as well. You wanted the defense bill to move forward, did you not?

Rep. Matt Gaetz 03:49): Yes, that's why I voted for it. And I voted for the rule to proceed onto it. And by the way, don't give Kevin McCarthy credit for the fact that we're moving onto these four appropriations bills. That was the deal that house conservatives foisted upon Kevin McCarthy when he couldn't just move the big spending bills without moving the bills that cut spending. We said, no, no, no. You have to move bills like the state and foreign ops bill — because we don't think we should be borrowing money from China to go fund gay pride parades in Prague or LGBTQ seminars in Indonesia. We don't think that's a good use of our money. And the only way to do this, Maria, is line by line. Kevin wants it in one big up or down vote: keep the government open, shut it down. I'm saying: single subject spending bills. It's the only way to break the fever and liberate ourselves from this out of control spending.

Maria Bartiromo (04:33): He's doing the four bills next week, so …

Rep. Matt Gaetz (04:36): We're making him, because we're making him!

Maria Bartiromo (04:38): But he's doing it. So to push now to blow up all of the wins that you all have had now …

Rep. Matt Gaetz (04:43): Which wins? Please enumerate them.

(Emerald: Do you see the dishonest attack against Gaetz? If he pushes for the single subject bills now, and shuts down government, then it will “blow up” all the great work that McCarthy has supposedly allowed to be done on the Biden investigations. In other words: shut up and fund the entire government along with Democrats — or the investigations will come to a halt! This is the voice of the GOP establishment dictating terms to the conservative wing of the party.)

Maria Bartiromo (04:45): Okay, well, how about the fact that he has set up a weaponization committee to investigate the DOJ: whether they're involved in a coverup? How about the fact that he has set up the China Select Committee to keep China to account? And, of course, he has launched this inquiry into impeachment potentially for President Biden. Is that not what you want?

Rep. Matt Gaetz (05:09): None of those things are deliverables. Those are steps in a process. Setting up a committee is an end unto itself only in Washington DC. But these committees have done nothing to reduce inflation. They've done nothing to actually constrain the Biden government. We can set up committees, and have hearings, and yell at people, but at the end of the day, if we still send the check to fund a weaponized government, having a weaponization subcommittee is little relief to the American people. And if any of this was serious, we would be sending out subpoenas and compelling process the way the January 6th committee did. We should be operating like them. Instead we're playing patty cake with the Bidens. We're allowing them actually to get away with it. And we're funding it. We're sending the money. If we were serious, use the power of the purse.

(Emerald: Gaetz then surprises Bartiromo by escaping from her rhetorical trap by asserting that the investigations are not actually real — they’re theatrical performances that the GOP has not even backed up with subpoenas. This brilliant gambit catches Bartiromo off-guard and so she’s forced to take McCarthy’s side openly — and insist that all of the promises that McCarthy has made and broken recently will actually be fulfilled. An absurd and childish claim — to be sure.)

Maria Bartiromo (05:59): The speaker joined me a week ago and told me that he will, in fact, subpoena Hunter Biden. He said: at the appropriate time. But let's be clear …

Rep. Matt Gaetz (06:07): Well, it's been eight months. When do you think the appropriate time is? How many months should the American people have to wait before that subpoena is sent? You tell me.

Maria Bartiromo (06:14): We would not know anything that we know about the Biden family — 176 suspicious activity reports, 20 shell companies set up while he was vice president, the whistleblower testimony — we would not know any of this if not for those committees that he set up exposing all of this …

(Emerald: Bartiromo has now exposed herself and her agenda. In fact, the reason that we know about all this Biden family “activity” is because of the work of independent journalists and whistleblowers. People like Jack Maxey, Garrett Ziegler, Chanel Rion, and others did a lot of this work. Giving credit to GOP committees is a disgustng lie. Giving credit to Kevin McCarthy is a moral abomination.)

Rep. Matt Gaetz (06:32): But you have to follow that to its natural conclusion. It's not enough to expose facts that get people angry and animated. You then have to follow those facts to a conclusion — and to accountability. You see, that's what Republicans are bad at. We're great at having the hearings and putting on the performances. But if you're still gonna underwrite Biden's debt — which is what Kevin McCarthy did, joining with Democrats on the debt limit deal — and if you're gonna join up with Democrats to still fund his government, Merrick Garland will sit there and he'll answer my tough questions and he'll smirk at me or he'll obfuscate. And then guess what? He goes back to the Justice Department — and the coffers are full with money from the American taxpayer. That [money] gets turned against the brave patriots in this country.

What about the January 6th tapes? Kevin promised he was gonna release those.

Maria Bartiromo (07:15): Well, the January 6th tapes are available to anybody who wants to see them. He gave them and allowed Tucker Carlson and his team to see them.

Rep. Matt Gaetz: That's not true!

Maria Bartiromo: Congressman. It is true.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (07:24): No, Maria, they're not available to anyone who wants to see them. That is a factual misstatement. They have been curated for some people in the media and some defense attorneys. But any American cannot see any of the January 16th tapes. That’s a false statement.

(Emerald: The January 6th tapes are not available even to conservative media outlets. I know because I have contacted Speaker McCarthy’s office directly on several occasions and we have never been granted access! Gaetz is right again.Now listen as Bartiromo really panics and tries a really dishonest attack against him as she sees that she’s losing the argument.)

Maria Bartiromo (07:38): Are you not, right now, indirectly working with Democrats because you are going to allow Chuck Schumer to come up with a continuing resolution next week to fund the government? That's what your actions are doing. That's why some people feel this is a personal vendetta you have against the speaker.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (07:54): No, my vendetta is against a Washington system that allows corruption to put the interests of lobbyists and PACS above the interest of the American people. Kevin McCarthy facilitates that system and I do deeply resent that. But I'm not working with Chuck Schumer or any other Democrat. I am the one working with House conservatives to require single subject spending bills.

Maria Bartiromo: You're enabling them.

No, no, no. You guys criticize me for forcing single subject spending bills. Then you give Kevin McCarthy the credit for doing it.

(Emerald: Gaetz has exposed Bartiromo’s dishonesty and bad faith. The GOP wants to frame its conservative holdouts as being “in league with Democrats” to force them back into line when the truth is really the reverse: it’s the GOP establishment working with Democrats to force an omnibus budget bill on everyone. Bartiromo is no longer a journalist — she’s a shill for the uniparty in Washington. She’s now forced to openly disavow here previous position to save face.)

Maria Bartiromo: No, I actually agree. I actually agree you should do the single bills.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (08:26): Then why hasn't he done them? It's September. We knew September 30th was coming all year and Kevin McCarthy has been dilatory. He's been fiddling like Nero as Rome burns.

Maria Bartiromo (08:35): As we understand it, they're doing this, this upcoming week.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (08:39): Because we are making them. They're doing it with a political gun to their head. You are welcome, America — and we're going to keep making them do it.

(Emerald: Bartiromo’s interview was an attempted ambush of Gaetz — but she didn’t count on her guest being able to shoot his way out of the room. Do GOP voters ultimately believe Gaetz or McCarthy? That’s easy to answer after this interview. The House Speaker can only deliver a bunch of defeats for GOP voters and then hope to dress them up as victories. McCarthy is not going to keep any of his promises — he never has in his entire political career! — and so he’s going to be forced to vacate the chair.)

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