Category: Matt Gaetz

Matt Gaetz And Liz Cheney Trade Barbs In Battle For Future Of The Republican Party

Posted on by Becky Noble

Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Liz Cheney (R-WY) traded jabs with each other on Monday in what could be illustrative the battle for the heart and soul of the GOP and its opposing wings.

Cheney has been in the hot seat, most recently for her vote to impeach Donald Trump, who Democrats accuse of being responsible for the violent protests at the Capitol building on Jan. 6.

As a result, Trump supporting Rep. Matt Gaetz announced on Monday that he would be traveling to Wyoming to “inspire” Wyoming voters to remove Cheney from her seat in Congress.

Cheney’s office shot back saying, “Rep. Gaetz can leave his beauty bag at home. In Wyoming the men don’t wear make up.”

Gaetz has reportedly been looking to defeat Cheney ever since she backed a primary challenge against popular Republican and Gaetz ally Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

Back in July, Cheney’s PAC had donated money, the maximum amount to fellow Republican Thomas Massie’s primary opponent, Todd McMurtry.

“In an interview with Breitbart News on Monday, Gaetz described Cheney’s attacks on Massie and himself as representing “her vindictive style” of politics.

Gaetz says Cheney wants the Republican Party to share her “America Last” vision.

“In the wake of the Biden presidency, the Republican party establishment is trying to wrangle the conservative movement back under their control. They want the GOP to look and sound like Liz Cheney. 

“I have a competing vision for Republicanism and I intend to showcase it by going after the America Last politicians in both parties,” Gaetz said.

RELATED: Liz Cheney Squirms As She Twice Refuses To Say If Senate Should Hold Impeachment Trial For Trump

Besides the back and forth with Gaetz, Cheney has plenty of trouble on Capitol Hill.

More than half of the House Republican Conference has signed on to support a resolution calling for the removal of Cheney as the House GOP Chair in light of her “yes” vote on impeachment.  

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy also told Breitbart News that he “has concerns” about Cheney’s impeachment vote:

“Look, I support her, but I also have concerns. She took a position as a number three member in conference.

She never told me ahead of time. One thing about leadership: if we’re going to work together on that as a whole conference, we should understand. We know that this is going to become a difficulty.

She can have a difference of opinion, but the one thing if we’re going to lead within the conference, we should work together on that as a whole conference because we’re representative of that conference. So I support her, but I do think she has a lot of questions she has to answer to the conference.” 

RELATED: House Republicans Call For Cheney’s Removal From GOP Conference Chair After Impeachment Vote  

Cheney In Trouble At Home

In addition to her troubles in Washington, Liz Cheney is in some trouble at home. She has already garnered a primary opponent for 2022. Wyoming State Senator Anthony Bouchard plans to challenge Cheney for her Congressional seat. 

She has also been censured at home. On Jan 17, the Carbon County Wyoming Republican Central Committee announced it had voted to censure Cheney for her impeachment vote.

A Change.org petition has already collected almost 50,000 signatures calling for Cheney to be recalled. 

RELATED: If Republicans Put America First, They’ll Remove Liz Cheney, Not Donald Trump

Two Visions Of The Republican Party

Matt Gaetz and Liz Cheney represent two very different visions for the Republican Party going forward.

Matt Gaetz has long been a Trump supporter and on board with Trump’s America First agenda.

Liz Cheney is still a backer of the Bush era, especially on foreign policy. She is in agreement with her dad, former Vice President Dick Cheney who says, “I was right about Iraq.” 

While new faces like Gaetz and others staunchly oppose getting involved in needless conflicts, Cheney and the Democrats recently blocked Trump’s attempt to remove troops from Afghanistan where troops have been stagnating for twenty years.

The GOP will have to make a decision on which way to go.     

The post Matt Gaetz And Liz Cheney Trade Barbs In Battle For Future Of The Republican Party appeared first on The Political Insider.

If Republicans Put America First, They’ll Remove Liz Cheney, Not Donald Trump

Posted on by John Hanson

As the House voted to impeach President Donald Trump on Wednesday, much praise was given to Congresswoman Liz Cheney for being one of the ten Republicans who voted to impeach.

Cheney is the #3 Republican in the House, which added weight to her stance. 

But it was her father Dick Cheney and his legacy – a legacy she clearly plans to continue – that is arguably the most impeachable offense in American history.

RELATED: Jim Jordan Calls Out Dems’ ‘Double Standards’ – They ‘Objected To More States In 2017 Than Republicans Did Last Week’

President Trump: Iraq War Was The ‘Worst Single Mistake Ever Made’

President Trump has been at war with the Bush faction of the GOP since he announced his campaign for President in 2015.

Trump was right when he called President George W. Bush and Dick Cheney’s war in Iraq the “worst single mistake” in U.S. history.

“The worst single mistake ever made in the history of our country: going into the Middle East, by President Bush,” Trump told The Hill in 2018. 

Trump added, “Obama may have gotten (U.S. soldiers) out wrong, but going in is, to me, the biggest single mistake made in the history of our country.”

Why was it such a colossal mistake? President Trump had an answer for that too.

Cheney Unapologetic About Iraq War, Bush Foreign Policy

“Because we spent $7 trillion in the Middle East,” Trump said. “Now if you wanna fix a window some place they say, ‘oh gee, let’s not do it.’ Seven trillion, and millions of lives — you know, ‘cause I like to count both sides. Millions of lives,” Trump explained.

“To me, it’s the worst single mistake made in the history of our country,” Trump reiterated. 

This is a charge President Trump would repeat throughout both presidential campaigns and during his time in the White House.

Today, a majority of Americans agree with Trump on the wrongness of the Iraq War, including military veterans.

But what does Liz Cheney think? She agrees with her father who still says “I was right about Iraq.”

Unbelievable.

But Trump’s radical break with the Establishment’s foreign policy isn’t limited to Iraq. 

Just weeks ago, Cheney and the Democrats worked hand-in-hand to block President Trump from removing troops from Afghanistan, where we have been mired for 20 years. 

In October of 2019, Democrats (and many Republicans) voted overwhelmingly to condemn President Trump’s effort to withdraw troops from Barack Obama’s war in Syria. 

Remember when Democrats at least pretended to be anti-war, when Bush was President?

RELATED: Ben Sasse And The GOP Aim To Purge Trumpism, Return To Bush-Era

‘America First’ vs. Neoconservative Ideology

But despite all the establishment praise being given to Cheney and a handful of anti-Trump Republicans this week, it is the “America First” foreign policy of Donald Trump that has completely flipped the script on this front in the GOP.

Republican members of Congress like Rand Paul, Matt Gaetz, Thomas Massie, and many others are staunchly opposed to needlessly starting another war like Iraq, and Trump’s position on this issue has largely helped solidify this sentiment among Republican voters.

Donald Trump Jr. has helped too.

RELATED: AOC Goes Wild On Instagram Live Video: Republicans Only Care About ‘White Supremacy,’ Trump Cabinet Has ‘Blood’ On Their Hands

Liz Cheney Deserves To Be Removed More Than President Trump

Congresswoman Cheney will continue to pursue a foreign policy agenda like her father’s – one that puts America and our soldiers last.

She will find a more willing partner in a President Biden than she did with President Trump.

If there was an administration that deserved impeachment, it was Bush-Cheney for the disastrous foreign policy they foisted upon America – one that was continued by Barack Obama.

We are still dealing with the repercussions of Obama (and Hillary Clinton’s) disasters in Libya and Syria. 

President Trump set a new course for America. Along the way, he secured four Middle East peace deals. 

The Republican Party and Congress would do well to remove those who would take us back to the disastrous foreign policy of the past, and continue to build upon the Trump path to peace.

The post If Republicans Put America First, They’ll Remove Liz Cheney, Not Donald Trump appeared first on The Political Insider.

Calls Mount For Republican Liz Cheney To Resign Leadership Post After Calling For Trump’s Impeachment

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

A growing number of GOP lawmakers are calling on Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) to resign from her leadership post following a statement indicating she would vote to impeach President Trump.

Cheney, the House GOP Conference chairwoman, came out as the No. 3 Republican Representative to say she would vote in favor of impeachment.

“The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” Cheney said in a statement.

“Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President.”

Cheney added, “The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not.”

“There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution,” she concluded in some of the harshest rhetoric yet seen by a Republican lawmaker.

RELATED: Hillary Clinton Calls Capitol Riots ‘Result Of White-Supremacist Grievances,’ Wants Trump Impeached

Calls Mount For Liz Cheney to Resign After Impeachment Statement

Showing a divide in the Republican party over the impeachment issue, some lawmakers called on Liz Cheney to resign from her leadership post after the comments.

“I don’t think she should be the chair of the Republican conference anymore,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), the head of the House Freedom Caucus, told Fox News.

“The reality is she’s not representing the conference – she’s not representing the Republican ideals.”

Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) also joined calls for Conference Chair Liz Cheney to resign from leadership after her call to impeach President Trump.

“When Representative Cheney came out for impeachment today, she failed to consult with the Conference, failed to abide by the spirit of the rules of the Republican Conference, and ignored the preferences of Republican voters,” Rosendale said in a statement.

“She is weakening our conference at a key moment for personal political gain and is unfit to lead. She must step down as Conference Chair.”

RELATED: Nancy Pelosi Accuses Capitol Rioters Of Choosing ‘Their Whiteness’ Over Democracy

Cheney Working Against President Trump

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) called for Cheney’s resignation over the summer, suggesting she had been working behind the scenes to squash the President’s agenda.

“Liz Cheney has worked behind the scenes (and now in public) against @realDonaldTrump and his agenda,” Gaetz tweeted. “House Republicans deserve better as our Conference Chair. Liz Cheney should step down or be removed.”

President Trump referred to Cheney and Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) as part of a “surrender caucus” after both went on record to state they would not object to the electoral vote count.

Trump has long portrayed her as a war hawk in opposition to his administration because he refuses to engage in “endless wars.”

“Liz Cheney is only upset because I have been actively getting our great and beautiful Country out of the ridiculous and costly Endless Wars,” Trump tweeted amidst Gaetz’s calls for her to step down.

“I am also making our so-called allies pay tens of billions of dollars in delinquent military costs,” he added. “They must, at least, treat us fairly!”

Biggs, according to Fox News, said if Cheney weren’t as high-ranking a Republican on the Conference her comments would likely be dismissed.

But her leadership role is why she must step down.

The post Calls Mount For Republican Liz Cheney To Resign Leadership Post After Calling For Trump’s Impeachment appeared first on The Political Insider.

Congressman Matt Gaetz: Trump Should Pardon Himself

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Congressman Matt Gaetz believes President Trump should consider a pardon for himself and others in his administration as a means to fend off the radical left.

Gaetz made the comments during an appearance with Fox News personality Laura Ingraham earlier this week.

“President Trump should pardon Michael Flynn. He should pardon the Thanksgiving turkey,” he said. “He should pardon everyone from himself to his administration officials to Joe Exotic if he has to.”

While those comments were seemingly lighthearted, what lies on the horizon when President Trump leaves office – whether in 2021 or 2025 – is anything but.

“You see from the radical left a bloodlust that will only be quenched if they come after the people who worked so hard to animate the Trump administration with the policies and the vigor and the effectiveness that delivered for the American people,” Gaetz explained.

RELATED: Trump Snaps At ‘Lightweight’ Reporter: ‘Don’t Ever Talk to the President That Way’

Matt Gaetz Says Trump Should Pardon Himself

Despite a media and resistance party heavily invested in portraying President Trump as a criminal, it is important to note he has never been charged with a crime.

That said, there is actually legal precedence for granting such pardons.

The Washington Post reports:

In Ex parte Garland, the Supreme Court settled the question of preemptive pardons. The justices in that 1866 case decided that while pardons could reach only past acts, the pardon “may be exercised at any time after [the act’s] commission, either before legal proceedings are taken or during their pendency or after conviction and judgment.”

They go on to note that Abraham Lincoln pardoned dozens of people preemptively.

Perhaps most famously, President Gerald Ford pardoned President Richard Nixon, who had not been charged with anything at the time.

Would Joe Biden be willing to tamp down the fires of controversy in America by doing the same for Trump? 

Self-pardons have been an issue of much debate during President Trump’s tenure.

Law scholar Jonathan Turley has argued that the President has the right to do so.

“There is no language specifying who may or may not be the subject of a pardon,” he wrote in a USA Today column. “The president is simply given the power to pardon any federal crime.”

“As a textual matter, there is nothing to prevent Trump from adding his own name to the list of pardoned individuals.”

RELATED: Media’s Biased Coverage of the Election May Have Handed the Presidency to Biden

The Radical Left Will Never Stop

Signs of the ‘bloodlust’ Gaetz references have already been seen as Biden has been declared President-elect.

Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ) demanded a thorough investigation and prosecution of the President and members of his administration.

Despite mentioning the phrase “many crimes,” Pascrell’s statement references none, instead making vague allusions to ‘profiting from his office’ and ‘endangering national security.’

Which, incidentally, he may want to draft a statement about the President-elect since evidence regarding his son Hunter’s business dealings with China seem to indicate actual guilt in such accusations.

Additionally, actor Rob Reiner says that a “non-partisan commission” should be created to investigate Trump after he leaves office to “restore faith in our Constitution and the Rule of Law.”

As for the pardon power – federal pardons issued by the president apply only to federal law; they do not apply to civil, state, or local offenses. And New York prosecutors have been harassing the Trump family for years now.

Ivanka Trump, the President’s daughter, recently called them “ruthless” and accused them of “harassment, pure and simple.”

It is harassment and the harassment, quite clearly, is never going to stop.

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Matt Gaetz Confronts Joy Behar – Asks If She’s In Mourning Over Death Of Democratic Party As ‘Venezuela Wing’ Takes Over

Posted on by LifeZette

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-FL., appeared on the ABC talk show “The View” on Thursday morning, and chaos quickly ensued when he got into a verbal altercation with liberal cohost Joy Behar.

“I was just wondering if you were wearing black as a consequence of, like, the death of the political left in the debate last night,” Gaetz asked Behar, who fired back by telling the congressman not to “count the dead yet.”

This came after Behar had predicted that former Vice President Joe Biden would be the nominee, saying that former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg killed his own chances at last night’s debate. Gaetz disagreed with her, however, saying that Biden should be counted out of the race as well.

MORE NEWS: Buttigieg invokes scripture to slam Trump, but nobody is buying it

“What states is he going to win?” Gaetz asked, adding that the whole “premise of the Biden campaign” was his electability, yet he didn’t win in New Hampshire or Iowa.

“So, now you have socialist Bernie Sanders against billionaire Michael Bloomberg,” he said, going on to argue that Democrats will not nominate an actual Democrat.

“They’re either going to nominate a socialist or someone who some time ago was a Republican,” Gaetz continued.

Later on, the Florida congressman slammed what he described as the “Venezuela wing of the Democratic Party.”

“Oh, c’mon, the Venezuela wing!” an exacerbated Behar exclaimed.

One of the best moments of the show came when the panel talked about President Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Ambassador Richard Grenell to serve as acting director of national intelligence. When Behar claimed that Germany sees Grennel as “thin-skinned,” Gaetz fired back by insulting the talk show.

MORE NEWS: What if Biden drops out?

“Well, this is ‘The View,’ aren’t we all?” he asked, as Behar vehemently denied his statement.

Behar and her fellow liberals on “The View” are typically only challenged by Meghan McCain, the sole conservative on the show, so it was satisfying to see another conservative step in to show them who’s boss. In the end, Gaetz exposed Behar as the ignorant liberal sheep that she is, and viewers of “The View” won’t be forgetting that anytime soon.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

Read more at LifeZette:
Trump and Barr pull a classic con on Democrats
Cher comes unglued—claims Trump is going to shoot someone in New York City
Nancy Pelosi interrupts CNN’s Christiane Amanpour to claim Trump was never acquitted in impeachment trial

The post Matt Gaetz Confronts Joy Behar – Asks If She’s In Mourning Over Death Of Democratic Party As ‘Venezuela Wing’ Takes Over appeared first on The Political Insider.