Rep. Matt Gaetz must be thrilled to be in the headlines for something other than the alleged trafficking of a 17-year-old girl. The Florida Republican congressman was on a high Thursday night, appearing on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show to talk about his devout commitment to opposing Rep. Kevin McCarthy as House speaker and making yet another fake promise to the American people.
The words were fleeting and sweet as Gaetz offered to “resign” if Democrats joined up to elect a “moderate” Republican—even if they were, like the congressman, totally disingenuous.
“These 212 Democrats are going to vote for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) every single time. He is an historic candidate for them. They’re not going to cleave off,” Gaetz said. “If Democrats join up to elect a moderate Republican, I will resign from the House of Representatives. That is how certain I am. I can assure your viewers that won’t happen.”
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Of course, Gaetz is right. Democrats are unified and are not going to be divided.
The congressman was gleeful during his interview, explaining that the times the camera has caught him shmoozing with his Democratic colleagues have usually been in an effort to make sure they never miss a vote and give his nemesis McCarthy a much-needed majority.
“My conversations with Democrats have largely been about making sure that they don’t leave the floor for dinner or fundraisers or whatnot. We need them to stay there so that the denominator in the equation on the election of the speaker allows us to have leverage to push for many of the things we’ve been discussing,” Gaetz said.
Gaetz has been all over the place during the last 11 votes for speaker. He’s gone from supporting Florida Rep. Byron Donalds to Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona to Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, and then nominating and voting for former President Donald Trump—with some caveats.
“I love President Trump. I defended him a great deal in Congress,” Gaetz said before ripping into some of Trump’s administration. “But HR wasn’t always his strong suit. President Trump got us folks like Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr and Jim Mattis and Mark Esper—people who didn’t always advance an America-first policy.”
When Ingraham told Gaetz that Trump himself had criticized House Republicans for not unifying on a nomination, the congressman said simply that Trump was “wrong” to support McCarthy. He added that if McCarthy left the race that Jordan would win and if McCarthy doesn’t bow out, “he’d have to live the entire speakership in a ‘straight jacket’ constructed by these rules we’re working on now.”
The Daily Show did offer a few suggestions for concessions McCarthy could make to help ensure that he gets his votes.
But, alas, all of Gaetz’s threats to leave the job are too good to be true. Like shit on your shoe, the Florida rep will always be there to stink up your sole.
