[181] PolitiFact rated the claim "mostly false", noting that "experts were universal in saying that the evidence that Medicaid expansion is somehow fueling the opioid crisis doesn't exist."[181]. [203][204], On February 27, 2018, Gaetz voted against the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, which had by then been combined with the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act. "[152], In 2016, Gaetz acknowledged global warming but said he disagrees with the scientific consensus on climate change that human activity is the primary cause. Just some time with our familyand our dignity. Gaetz, who represents a large swath of Florida's panhandle, has tried to distance himself from Greenberg, despite an avalanche of evidence that the pair were close. [176] He also supports concealed carry reciprocity. "[137] A day later, Jordan appeared on Fox News to justify the intrusion, saying of the chair of the committee: "Adam Schiff is doing this unfair, partisan process in secret and our members finally said, 'Enough'. The district includes portions of Walton County and all of Escambia, Okaloosa, and Santa Rosa counties. [179][180], In October 2017, Gaetz claimed that the Medicaid expansion permitted by the Affordable Care Act fueled the opioid crisis. In one of the darkest scandals in Special Forces history, the Green Beret Affair of 1969 lives in infamy in U.S. Army history. [126][127] Gaetz said he did not trust Mueller to lead the investigation because of Mueller's alleged involvement in approval of the Uranium One deal and alleged close relationship with dismissed FBI director James Comey, a probable person of interest in a proposed new investigation. He also said his father agreed to wear a "wire" to help the FBI record the alleged extortionists. The G.O.P.'s Matt Gaetz Problem. He said each state should have the right to decide for itself whether to allow same-sex marriage. He was reelected unopposed in 2012[21] and 2014. [276] A public-relations firm hired by Gaetz issued a denial statement regarding The Daily Beast's reporting on Greenberg's correspondence implicating him and Gaetz. Gaetz, 38, a conservative firebrand and close ally of former President Donald Trump, denied the reported allegations against him. By. "[196], Gaetz opposes abortion. As a result, Gaetz was accused of inciting violence against Silicon Valley employees, which he denied. Their withholding of votes prevented McCarthy earning a majority of votes needed for the speakership. [16], In March 2010, after Republican state representative Ray Sansom's resignation on corruption charges in February 2010,[17] Gaetz ran in the special election to succeed Sansom in the 4th district, which included southern Santa Rosa County and Okaloosa County. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) walks with his fiance Ginger Luckey on Jan. 28, 2021, in Cheyenne, Wyoming . Gaetz, who is being investigated by federal authorities for potential child sex trafficking charges and could reportedly be indicted as soon as next month, launched a Twitter attack on Milley. January 17, 2023 Press Release. Both are Republicans from Florida. Matt Gaetz is NOT a Green Beret or a Freedom Fighter Michele Dotson 54 subscribers Subscribe 650 Share 71K views 1 year ago Brian Williams claps back HARD at Matt Gaetz for trolling. But the move alarmed some experts, who were worried the outgoing defense secretary was tinkering with Pentagon bureaucracy on his way out the door. The . "[134], In October 2019, Gaetz organized a "storming" of a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility on Capitol Hill by about two dozen Republican congressmen, including House minority whip Steve Scalise, in an effort to sit in on and hear the deposition of a Pentagon official during the impeachment inquiry against Trump. [38] He is only the seventh person to represent this district since 1933 (the district was numbered the 3rd before 1963). Both had begun working for Gaetz when he joined Congress in 2017. [209], In October 2018, Gaetz falsely claimed that George Soros paid for a caravan of migrants from Central America to the United States. [161], In June 2021, Gaetz was one of 49 House Republicans to vote to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002.[162][163]. After Rep. Matt Gaetz accused a Florida lawyer of a $25 million extortion scheme to make sex trafficking allegations disappear, . Matthew Louis Gaetz II was born on May 7, 1982, in Hollywood, Florida, to Victoria (ne Quertermous) and Don Gaetz, who later became a prominent local politician. That's why Republicans are igniting demands for asylum reforms, protecting the Remain In Mexico policy, finishing the Wall, and unleashing the capabilities of our Border Patrol. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Army Gen. Mark Milley on Wednesday said it was important for service members to understand critical race theory, shooting down assertions by Republican lawmakers . A political ally of U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz who in May pleaded guilty to child sex-trafficking and wire fraud won a three-month delay to his sentencing because he is still cooperating with . [7][8] He graduated from Florida State University in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in interdisciplinary sciences, and from the William & Mary Law School in 2007 with a Juris Doctor. [20] In 2012, following the reconfiguration of Florida House of Representatives districts, Gaetz's district no longer contained any of Santa Rosa County. "[172] Gaetz is a lifetime member of the NRA,[172] and has an A+ rating from it. ", "Fear distracts, divides and dehumanizes us. ", "Orange County venue cancels Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene's planned America First rally", "21 Republicans vote no on bill to award Congressional Gold Medal for January 6 police officers", "Accused murderer leads pledge before House Judiciary Committee", "Man Accused of Murder in Mason County Honored by Rep. Matt Gaetz, House Judiciary Committee", "Matt Gaetz Honors Accused Murderer at Committee Hearing", "Family of murdered man thankful for US Congressman's apology", "Rep. Matt Gaetz's very witness-tamper-y Michael Cohen tweet", "Trump ally threatens Cohen with unsubstantiated allegation of womanizing", "A high-profile Trump ally in Congress just straight-up threatened Michael Cohen", "GOP lawmaker says tweet about Cohen is 'witness testing, not witness tampering', "GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz apologizes for tweet targeting Michael Cohen", "Trump ally Gaetz apologizes for threatening Michael Cohen ahead of hearing", "Rep. Matt Gaetz facing investigation over tweet about Michael Cohen", "Rep. Matt Gaetz tweets cryptic warning to Michael Cohen ahead of hearing", "The winners and losers of Michael Cohen's House hearing", "Michael Cohen testifies before Congress: Live updates", "Gaetz sent apology text to Cohen after House testimony: report", "Rep. Matt Gaetz insists he didn't threaten Michael Cohen. [148] He expressed the belief that many Republicans in Congress were hesitant to impeach Biden, but that Republican voters would feel "betrayed" if they did not. Rep. Matt Gaetz. [47], Gaetz attended political rallies alongside members of the Proud Boys in 2018 and 2020. He said that he is being threatened in a $25 million "organized . Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) announced Thursday, on the first anniversary of the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, that he was "ashamed of nothing" and that he and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) planned to retrace the steps of the rioters as if leading the faithful through the Holy Land. [72] The Florida Bar opened an investigation into Gaetz for the tweet,[73][74] as did the House Ethics Committee. [109], On February 23, 2017, worried about protesters disrupting his appearance at his town hall in Pace, Florida, Gaetz prepared what his staffers called a nonverbal town hall. [80] Gaetz's office acknowledged that he spent $28,000 on speech-writing services, which is prohibited by House rules except in special circumstances and with prior approval from congressional officials, but said that it was a clerical error that it would fix. [193], On December 4, 2020, Gaetz attended an indoor New York Young Republicans Club conference in Jersey City, New Jersey, during a period of surging COVID-19 cases throughout the state and the country. [247] Gaetz's phone was also seized, and he changed his phone number in late December. Gaetz's grandfather, Jerry Gaetz, was the mayor of Rugby, North Dakota, and a candidate for lieutenant governor of North Dakota at the 1964 North Dakota Republican Party state convention, where he died of a heart attack. [228] Also on March 30, he tweeted that he and his family were "victims of an organized criminal extortion involving a former DOJ official seeking $25 million". Now he's attacking the accusers", "Representative Jim Jordan returns to Washington as scrutiny over alleged sexual abuse at Ohio State intensifies", "GOP lawmaker: Accusations against Jim Jordan come from 'deep state', "Tapper presses lawmaker: Who is the deep state? Matt Gaetz's Colleagues Drop the Dirt on Him. [210], Gaetz voted against the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 which authorizes DHS to nearly double the available H-2B visas for the remainder of FY 2020. The Florida congressman has been under investigation for months amid a sex trafficking probe . After graduating from the William & Mary Law School, he briefly worked in private practice before running for state representative. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) At the end of his comments, Milley directly addressed Waltz, a combat veteran. [293] The sentencing judge, Gregory A. Presnell, said, "He has provided substantial cooperation to the governmentmore than I've seen in 22 years. He is the first Green Beret to be elected to Congress. [111][112][113], In April 2018, Politico called Gaetz "one of the most enthusiastic defenders of President Trump on cable news" and a "proud Trump protg". We're so frustrated. [52], In 2021, Gaetz and Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene began a nationwide "America First Tour" on May 7, in The Villages, Florida. "I. He also argued that "Providing for flights and hotel rooms for people that you're dating who are of legal age is not a crime. 5. "[138][139] House Homeland Security Committee chairman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi wrote to the House sergeant-at-arms about Gaetz and others, requesting that he take action regarding their "unprecedented breach of security". [3] In 2016, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and was reelected in 2018, 2020, and 2022. Master Sgt. After Gaetz was arrested, he refused to take a breathalyzer test. [182] The full title of the bill is "To prohibit Federal funds from being used to implement, administer, enforce, or carry out programs with respect to digital health passes, and for other purposes. Asked to clarify, he said his "tweet speaks for itself". Gutierrez, who died Feb. 8 of last year in Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province during what appeared to be an insider attack by someone wearing an Afghan uniform, was posthumously awarded the Purple. [79], In July 2020, Politico reported that its investigation had found expenditures by Gaetz that appeared to violate the House ethics rules: spending tens of thousands of dollars for a speech-writing consultant and having a private company install a television studio in his father's home in Niceville, Florida, which Gaetz uses when he appears on television. In both, he criticizes former House Speaker Paul Ryan for joining the board of Fox News's parent company and blames him for canceling Lou Dobbs Tonight. [106] He was also the only Republican cosponsor of the bill (of 55 cosponsors) at the time of its passage. Reactions: pioneerlion83 , RoyalT12 , Osprey Lion and 2 others [76], In April 2020, Politico reported that Gaetz had spent nearly $200,000 of taxpayer funds renting an office from Collier Merrill, a Pensacola real estate developer and restaurateur and longtime friend, adviser, campaign donor, and legal client. [65][66] After sharp criticism from other members of Congress and an implicit rebuke by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi,[67][68] Gaetz deleted the tweet and posted a tweet in which he apologized. [289] Later in January 2022, Joseph Ellicott confessed that in 2017, he witnessed Greenberg telling Gaetz over the phone that the woman they had both had sex with was underage. [78] House rules explicitly disallow below-market rentals, and require that parties to such leases "have [not] had, [n]or continue to have, a professional or legal relationship (except as a landlord and tenant)". [62] Other members of Congress saw the tweet as an attempt to intimidate a witness. "I respect your. I got the Florida variant. On April 7, Trump denied that Gaetz had asked him for a pardon and noted that Gaetz "totally denied the accusations against him". [236][237], According to the 2021 reports, federal investigators were looking into Gaetz's September 2018 trip to the Bahamas. Gaetz closed his town hall by shouting Trump's 2016 campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again". Matt Gaetz, a member of the 117th Congress, is currently serving his third term in the U.S. House of Representatives. [194], After a contentious House committee hearing on June 10, 2021, Gaetz claimed a Chinese whistleblower possessed text messages and documents concerning COVID-19's origins that U.S government investigators had failed to pursue. Since he arrived in Washington, D.C., in 2017, Representative Matt Gaetz has prided himself on making very few friends at the Capitol. [105], In November 2019, Gaetz was one of only two Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee to vote for the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, which among other reforms would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act. "[294], In June 2020, following an argument with then-Representative Cedric Richmond, Gaetz said he had been living with a 19-year-old immigrant from Cuba, Nestor Galbn, since Galbn was 12, and considered Galbn his son. 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