Days before Rep. Matt Gaetz led an effort to oust Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, Gaetz and Rep. Matt Rosendale, a fellow Freedom Caucus member, denounced as a political stunt Republicans’ high-stakes effort to impeach President Joe Biden, according to a video obtained by NBC News.

At an invitation-only fundraiser held over Zoom last week, Gaetz, R-Fla., and Rosendale, who is said to be plotting another Senate run next year, heaped skepticism on the probe.

“I don’t believe that we are endeavoring upon a legitimate impeachment of Joe Biden,” Gaetz told Steve Bannon, a podcaster and onetime political adviser to former President Donald Trump, who was moderating the discussion.

“They’re trying to engage in a, like, ‘forever war’ of impeachment,” Gaetz said. “And like many of our forever wars, it will drag on forever and end in a bloody draw.”

  • paddirn@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    They’re just trying to delegitimize the whole process, cheapen it by turning it into just a political stunt, so that the next time Democrats go to impeach somebody, it will be such a trivial affair that the American public just won’t even care. That Trump was previously impeached twice will just be like, “Oh, who hasn’t been impeached yet?” That Gaetz is calling it out is a little strange, I’m assuming there’s some sort of angle in it for him, like it makes it sound like he’s just “telling it like it is” or whatever.

    • HopeOfTheGunblade@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Gaetz wants them to actually do an impeachment and is saying that the current Hunter Biden dipshit show won’t lead to one. He’s not calling it out, he’s calling for them to do it harder.

    • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Impeachment is already a political joke. If it meant anything, Trump would have been disqualified literally years ago.

      • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        The impeachment investigations of trump found documents and testimony that has led directly to his indictment.

        Its currently useless as a “trial”, as the senate will never reach 66 votes for a conviction, but the house investigation is useful if our DOJ isnt chickenshit (i.e there is a democrat in office).

        • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I mean, unfortunately, that last ‘if’ has proved to be VERY hit and miss, even without Barr protecting anyone.

  • anon_8675309@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    And yet the far right will listen to all his political stunts but they have deaf ears when it comes to him telling the truth.

  • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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    1 year ago

    I think context is important for Gaetz. Because the way I read it, it is more that Gaetz doesn’t see the process providing an actual impeachment of Biden, but just political theatre.

  • carl_dungeon@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Well yeah, I mean right? That’s like when the playground bully is being dragged away for hitting some kid and yells “but he hit me too!” and expecting the teacher to care/take it seriously.

  • ATDA@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Does Gaetz know the meaning of the word “draw” or is that as close to “getting fucking destroyed” an ‘alpha’ male can utter?

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    “I don’t believe that we are endeavoring upon a legitimate impeachment of Joe Biden,” Gaetz told Steve Bannon, a podcaster and onetime political adviser to former President Donald Trump, who was moderating the discussion.

    As they fielded questions from high-dollar conservative donors, Gaetz and Rosendale were just days away from moving to end McCarthy’s speakership — and tipping the Republican caucus into its own protracted battle over who will lead the conference.

    While Republicans have largely united behind the effort, some misgivings have emerged despite Rep. James Comer’s declaration that the probe had “uncovered a mountain of evidence” that Joe Biden had leveraged his position in office for his family’s gain.

    Still, in the video, Gaetz told the attendees he meant no offense to Jordan or Comer, R-Ky., the chair of the Oversight Committee, who are overseeing the closely watched probes.

    NBC News obtained the full video of the event, which Bannon hosted alongside Caroline Wren, a Republican fundraiser who helped organize Trump’s rally near the White House on Jan. 6, 2021.

    During the event, Wren detailed a conversation in which she advised a wealthy donor to leverage a campaign donation to pressure a Gaetz ally who appeared to be wavering about whether to oppose a stopgap funding measure to keep the government open, The Daily Beast reported.


    The original article contains 833 words, the summary contains 218 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!