'Matt Gaetz should shut the hell up': former GOPer unloads on lawmaker for ugly smear of women

During an appearance on MSNBC's "The Sunday Show," former Republican campaign consultant Tara Setmayer expressed her disgust with embattled Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) over tweets he made attacking pro-choice women reacting to news Roe v Wade will likely be overturned.

MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart put up the tweet from the Florida lawmaker, who is under investigation for possible sex trafficking, where Gaetz proclaimed, "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?" Setmayer said that it is people like Gaetz who drove her from the party.

"Matt Gaetz, of all people, should shut the hell up, okay?" she began. "This is a guy who is under investigation for sex trafficking underage girls, so he needs to really stop."

"But this is indicative of the people who are given a platform in today's Republican Party. This is part of the reason why I left the party," she continued. "This amount of performative extremism, this hypocrisy, this idea of rigid morality, this neo-fascist theology, and religious audacity here that is so extreme that it feels authoritarian. It is an attack on human rights in this country and not just for women. We're seeing the attacks on voting rights, we're seeing the attacks on basic human decency and fundamental aspects of our democracy and individual freedom."

"This is the antithesis to what liberalism is, classic liberalism, this is illiberalism," she added as host Capehart let her go on. "People like Matt Gaetz, people like some of these governors who are using the veneer of states' rights to hide behind the cruelty of overturning Roe v. Wade after 50 years of precedent, they're hiding behind states' rights just like they did in the civil rights movement. Just like they did back in the Civil War days when Black people didn't have rights."

"Republicans need to decide," she told the panel. "They are pro-life when it comes to this issue but they're not pro-life when it comes to basic medical care and behavior to protect life when it came to Covid. We have 1 million people dead in this country because of the irresponsibility of the Republicans and [Donald] Trump and that MAGA group trying to say 'it's my body, don't tell me what to do, I don't have to wear a mask. Don't tell me what to do about getting a vaccination to protect other people.'"

"But here they are, with this idea of abortion and putting that burden on women to make an anguishing decision in their lives," she elaborated. "It is up to them, it is between them and their doctor. It shouldn't be between these politicians who are using this as a performative political expedient issue. It's disgusting."

Watch below:

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