CNN anchor throws Matt Gaetz's words back in his face on Biden impeachment
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was reminded of his own words from only months ago when he tried to push for impeaching President Joe Biden.
During an appearance on CNN's "News Night" with Abby Phillip, the Florida pol responded to words he had expressed casting doubt on pursuing impeachment as a successful strategy.
"Here's what you said, Congressman," Phillip told Gaetz before reading back his words.
The moment came from an early October interview where Gaetz had been chatting with the moderator and former White House strategist Steve Bannon at an invitation-only fundraiser held over Zoom where he expressed reticence on pushing for a Biden inquiry.
“I don’t believe that we are endeavoring upon a legitimate impeachment of Joe Biden,” he said that the time. “They’re trying to engage in a, like, ‘forever war’ of impeachment. And like many of our forever wars, it will drag on forever and end in a bloody draw.“
Phillip told Gaetz: "Honestly, it seems like maybe you were right the first time."
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And he responded: "When you've heard me speak about issues important to me, I haven't led with impeachment," he said, attempting to right the record. "I talked about the budget and single subject spending bills and term limits and things like that."
And Phillip pressed further, explaining to him about how much weight his fellow Republicans had placed on the witness testimony of Alexander Smirnov, who has since been criminally charged for lying to investigators about the Bidens receiving multimillion-dollar bribes.
"Your colleagues, given that, according to Jim Jordan, this was the most corroborating piece of evidence that they had should they drop this impeachment at this?" she asked.
Gaetz responded: "I disagree with Jordan that this is what's most corroborating."
In fact, he believes that there is a money trail that goes from not only Hunter Biden but also Biden's brother James.
"I was deposing James Biden and the way that they took money from the Chinese government would make your skin crawl," he said. "Now, that's admittedly James Biden, not Joe Biden. But I do believe when these foreign governments are loading up the entire Biden family apparatus with cash, they're not doing so to to extract some sort of skill or service from these ne'er-do-well Bidens; They're doing it to influence Joe Biden."