Military veteran confronts Republican Matt Gaetz for putting Trump ahead of the Constitution

In Florida, there is no more vigorous or strident a defender of President Donald Trump than Rep. Matt Gaetz, who is always more than happy to berate any Republican he considers insufficiently Trumpian and warn that a primary challenge could await GOP members of Congress who dare to step out of line. The 37-year-old Gaetz has been a consistent source of Trumpian talking points during the impeachment efforts against the president, and on Monday, a military veteran called him out in person for being more loyal to Trump than to the U.S. Constitution.

In a video posted on Twitter, the veteran (who is with the anti-Trump group Common Defense) can be seen in Washington, D.C. telling Gaetz why he believes Trump committed impeachable acts. The veteran asked Gaetz if he has a problem with Trump “exploiting military aid” to Ukraine for his own political benefit, and Gaetz responded, “I don’t think that he exploited military aid. You keep asserting these premises that aren’t true.”

The veteran went on to ask Gaetz, “So, you’re going to have the president’s back no matter what?” And after Gaetz replied, “That’s not true,” the veteran asserted, “I think the concern of me and fellow veterans is that we both swore the same oath. If you’re not willing to hold Trump accountable to his oath of office, then you are betraying yours.”

The veteran also asked Gaetz if he considers democracy “sacred,” to which the Trumpian congressman replied, “Sacred implies something like God and faith.” A congressman’s oath of office, Gaetz told the veteran, is “super important, but not necessarily sacred.”

After serving in the Florida House of Representatives from 2010-2016, Gaetz was sworn in for his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2017 and was reelected in the 2018 midterms.