The House Judiciary Committee is meeting on Thursday to discuss the impeachment of Donald Trump over his Ukraine bribery and extortion. The Republican Party has decided to use this time not to defend the facts of the case, but to continue doing Donald Trump’s personal dirty work—the same reason he is being impeached as we speak.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, a particularly despicable figure, decided to throw in a reference to Hunter Biden’s previous substance abuse issues—something that has been well-documented and discussed by the Bidens themselves, and something that has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not Donald Trump should or should not be impeached.
Whether Trump used his position of power to withhold earmarked aid to Ukraine in return for the foreign state helping to at least cast doubt about one of Trump’s political opponents, and whether or not one of those political opponents’ children had issues with drugs or alcohol are not related. At all. But, then again, we are talking about Matt Gaetz here. Rep. Matt Gaetz is a man that produces so much manure every time he opens his mouth, it is shocking that our entire country isn’t filled with fertilized soil.
Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia wasn’t going to allow this ludicrous bit of hypocrisy to go unchallenged. He opened his statement to the committee by saying, “I would say that the pot calling the kettle black is not something we should do.” Rep. Johnson took a long pause here that elicited laughter from the audience. He used pregnant pauses throughout his statement to great effect, but also decided to put Gaetz on notice that if the Congress member wants to be dirty about being full of Trump-branded dung, Johnson was going to be there to call him out.
I don't know what members, if any have, had any problems with substance abuse. Been busted in DUI. I don't know. But if I did I wouldn't raise it against anyone on this committee. I don't think it's proper and, you know, I think we got to get back down to what is most important here.
CSPAN’s cameras knew exactly “what members” shouldn’t be casting their stones in glass houses, and cut to Rep. Gaetz and his strangely frenetic countenance before cutting back to Johnson.
Johnson was referring to
Matt Gaetz’s 2008 DUI and well-circulated mugshot. Rep. Gaetz is someone who, according to reports, received zero consequences—besides the somewhat embarrassing mugshot—from his substance abuse mistakes. That, in and of itself, is fine. In fact, more people should probably be allowed to get their act together and get help with less punitive damages to themselves, so that they too can move on with their lives. But Matt Gaetz is full of manure, as we have already established, and it is this maddening level of hypocrisy that should not be hidden under faux “civility.”
Johnson went on to lay out, once again, the simple facts of the case against Trump, in terms that really anyone could and should understand.
He also told Rep. Gaetz he hoped that Gaetz would move to strike Johnson’s statement so that Johnson could hear Rep. Gaetz’s response to the question of whether or not it is ever okay for a sitting president to use his position of power to have a foreign government intercede against one of his personal political opponents. I suspect Gaetz won’t answer that question.