Matt Gaetz

Matt Gaetz in 2020

Matthew Louis Gaetz II (born May 7, 1982) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Florida's 1st congressional district from 2017 to 2024. A member of the Republican Party, he is widely regarded as a staunch proponent of far-right politics as well as an ally of Donald Trump. In 2023, he filed a motion which led to the dismissal of Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy. As president-elect in November 2024, Donald Trump intended to nominate Gaetz as attorney general in his new administration, but Gaetz soon withdrew over multiple accusations concerning his past behavior.

Quotes

• Kyle: if you want an internship, reach out to me.
  • 19 November 2021 Instagram post regarding Kyle Rittenhouse

• Jimmy Kimmel is a total jerk. It seems that his trend is to attack women.
  • Marjorie Taylor Greene & Matt Gaetz NOT HAPPY with Jimmy & Trump FINALLY Admits Defeat (Apr 11, 2022) (Youtube video)

• How many of the women rallying against overturning Roe are over-educated, under-loved millennials who sadly return from protests to a lonely microwave dinner with their cats, and no bumble matches?
  • Gaetz faces backlash for ‘over-educated’ women remark (05/04/22 2:12 PM ET)

• Why is it that the women with the least likelihood of getting pregnant are the ones most worried about having abortions? Nobody wants to impregnate you if you look like a thumb.
• These people are odious on the inside and out. They're like 5'2, 350 pounds and they're like 'give me my abortions or I'll get up and march and protest' and I'm thinking: 'March? You look like you got ankles weaker than the legal reasoning behind Roe vs. Wade.' A few of them need to get up and march. They need to get up and march for like an hour a day, swing those arms, get the blood pumping, maybe mix in a salad.
  • "Florida congressman Matt Gaetz to abortion rights protesters: 'Nobody wants to impregnate you'", Tallahassee Democrat, 23 July 2022

• Illegal aliens have destroyed some of the most critical monarch butterfly habitats in the world. I bet you didn’t know that.
  • "Matt Gaetz’s Claim That Migrants Are Killing Monarch Butterflies Is Utter Bullsh*t", The Daily Beast, 26 July 2022

• Be offended.
• I find these people who go out on these pro-abortion and pro-murder rallies odious and just ugly on the inside and out and I make no apology for it.
  • "Matt Gaetz doubles down on claim that only unattractive women are worried about abortion rights: ‘Be offended’", Yahoo News, 26 July 2022

• I don’t care if it takes every second of our time and every ounce of our energy. We either get this government back on our side or we defund and get rid of, abolish the FBI, the CDC, ATF, DOJ, every last one of them if they do not come to heel.
  • March 1, 2023 addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). (At CPAC, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz calls for abolishing FBI, CDC, other federal agencies, Quarshie, Mabinty USA Today, March 3, 2023)

• [the 42-year-old said that the controversy over his potential nomination] was unfairly becoming a distraction [to the work of the incoming Trump administration]
  • On X, formerly Twitter according to Matt Gaetz withdraws as Trump's nominee for attorney general (BBC News 1 hour ago)

About Gaetz

• Matt Gaetz hopes Kyle Rittenhouse has friends who are underage girls.
  • 17 November 2021 tweet by Riley Singh, a Twitter accounted registered April 2018
    • David Covucci (Senior Politics and Technology Editor at The Daily Dot) on 18 November 2021 used this as his lede in a Daily Dot article which mirrored on MSN.com

• I will arm wrestle @mattgaetz to get dibs for Kyle as an intern.
  • 19 November 2021 tweet by Paul Gosar threatening violence against Gaetz

• Since "The Times" published the story, Congressman Gaetz has put out a public statement denying all the allegations. He is now just in the last hour or so done an interview on the Fox News Channel in which he claims he is not only innocent, but this is part of an elaborate extortion plot targeting his father and trying to get money from his very wealthy family. Also something about a plot to get him a pardon from President Biden.
  • Rachel Maddow MSNBC Transcript: The Rachel Maddow Show, 3/30/21 (March 30, 2021)

• I don't know if Mike Pence will run for president in 2024, but I don't think Matt Gaetz will have an impact on that — in fact, I'd be surprised if he's still voting. It's more likely that he'll be in prison for child sex trafficking by 2024, and I'm actually surprised that Florida law enforcement still allows him to speak to teenage conferences like that.
  • Marc Short, former Chief of Staff for ex-Vice Presidet Mike Pence, quoted in "Pence's former chief of staff hits back at Matt Gaetz, saying he'll likely be 'in prison for child sex trafficking' — in what looks like a growing schism in Trumpworld", Business Insider, 26 July 2022