MAGA influencer Steve Bannon cited Jesus Christ to defend former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) after a House Ethics Committee report linked him to alleged sex and drug crimes.
On Monday, just days before Christmas, Bannon responded to an Ethics Committee report which accused Gaetz of purchasing illegal drugs and paying numerous women for sex — including a 17-year-old girl.
Bannon's rant, which lasted over an hour, cited both Christ and "Harper Valley PTA," a song about a woman who exposed school board members' indiscretions after her daughter was accused of wearing short skirts and spending time in the company of men.
"And this is why we need Gaetz back," Bannon opined. "I don't care about the ethics report. He may have done it, maybe, maybe in some of these things are a lot of it's misrepresentation. Maybe there's some bad things. I don't care. He's very imperfect."
"He has to come back. And I use Harper Valley PTA," he continued, "because the hypocrisy, all along, Gaetz is going to be damned."
"What did Jesus say? What did Christ say? I think, I think Christ got this, didn't he?"
Bannon recalled a Bible story about Jesus exposing the sins of men who committed adultery by writing their names in the sand.
"Did Christ himself not understand the Harper PTA, the Harper Valley PTA moment in the Matt Gaetz moment when he wrote in the sand and the betters saw their sins written down on that sand, they backed off, right?" the right-wing host insisted. "And what did Christ say, lady, go and sin no more."
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"That's the moment where if we flinch, if we blink, they're going to have another victory," he said before insisting that President-elect Donald Trump's other nominees would be next after Gaetz stepped down as the pick for attorney general.
"Matt Gaetz must return to Congress as a conquering hero on the shoulders of the people," he argued.
