Matt Gaetz 'fools the dumbest people' among GOP voters: conservative activist

Erick Erickson, a right-wing activist and talk show host, is accusing Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) of pulling a fast one on Republican voters.

Writing on Twitter, Erickson argued that Gaetz was blaming House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for his failure in the standoff over government funding despite the fact that Gaetz himself was more responsible than anyone else for that failure.

"Here's the trick Matt Gaetz knows that fools the dumbest people," he wrote. "He arranges an outcome (e.g. McCarthy had to rely on Democrats to get the CR passed), he talks loudly about the outcome he worked to arrange, then he declares he saw it coming, he was right, so trust him."

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

In fact, Gaetz had worked openly to sabotage every single effort McCarthy made to pass a bill to keep the government open, going so far as to oppose bills even when many of his fellow House Freedom Caucus members were onboard with them.

Then, when McCarthy finally caved to pressure from moderates in his caucus on Saturday night and pushed through a clean bill to keep the government open for another month and a half, Gaetz took the opportunity to push a motion to vacate McCarthy's chair.

McCarthy now faces long odds to keep his position as no Democrats have so far signaled a willingness to bail him out.