Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) lost his cool with Professor Pamela S. Karlan during Wednesday's hearing, attacking her for her political donations and for her comparison of corruption and nepotism.
Gaetz began by citing the money Karlan donated to presidential candidates and demanded to know why she was giving less money this year than in 2016. It's unknown why he thinks the question matters, but Karlan answered she was giving more to charities that cares for poor people than candidates.
He then cited a podcast, which reported on a panel discussion Karlan appeared on.
"Do you remember saying the following, 'liberals tend to cluster more. Conservatives, very conservative people, tend to spread out more. Perhaps because they don't even want to be around themselves.' Did you say that?" Gaetz asked.
"Yes, I did," she replied.
"Do you understand how that reflects contempt on people who are conservative?" he asked.
"No. What I was talking about there was the natural tendency, if you put the quote in context, the natural tendency of a compactness requirement to favor a party whose voters are more spread out," she said. "And I do not have contempt for conservatives and I do not --"
Gaetz interrupted her, saying he didn't have time for her answer.
"When you say how liberals want to be around each other in cluster and conservatives have to spread out, you may not see this from like the ivory towers of your law school but it makes actual people in this country --"
Karlan interjected, "When the president calls --"
Gaetz snapped at her, "You don't get to interrupt me on this time! And when you suggest that you invoke the president's son's name here and try to make a joke at referencing Barron Trump that does not lend credibility to your argument, it makes you look mean and attacking someone's family."
The Trump campaign has decided that the example Karlan gave to describe corruption was an effort at bullying the president's son. In fact, the comment was, "The president can name his son Barron, but he can't make him a baron." The same would have been true if she had said, "The president can name his son Prince, he can't make him a prince."
Watch the video below:
