Matt Gaetz Floats Vengeful Plan to Rejoin Congress, Reveal Colleagues’
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) may not yet be done inciting chaos in Congress.
In the wake of Wednesday’s surprising report that the House Ethics Committee had taken a secret vote to release its investigatory report into Gaetz’s conduct, the former congressman first replied with defiance — insisting he had been “FULLY EXONERATED” and his behavior had merely been “embarrassing, though not criminal” — before taking an even more aggressive stance.
In November, Gaetz was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to be the next attorney general and resigned from Congress before dropping his bid. The Florida firebrand’s alleged entanglement in a sprawling series of schemes and crimes — including accusations about illegal drug use, bribes, and allegations he sexually trafficked a 17-year-old girl — brought a lot of noise to his nomination path, already rocky because of the many bridges he burned with his GOP congressional colleagues.
A House Ethics Committee investigation had been opened into the allegations and rumors about the “highly damaging” contents of the committee’s report have been swirling for months. Gaetz denied all wrongdoing but did eventually step aside for Trump to pick another Floridian, the state’s former Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Gaetz did win re-election to his seat in the November elections but announced that he did not intend to return to Congress and instead head to One America News Network for a new gig as an anchor on the pro-Trump cable channel.
A few hours after his original tweet responding to the report’s imminent release, Gaetz posted a new tweet that an unnamed person had “suggested the following plan” to him, detailing how, despite his previously stated intentions to not return to Congress in January, he would nonetheless show up and briefly take his seat to unleash substantial pain and chaos upon his erstwhile colleagues.
Someone suggested the following plan to me:
1. Show up 1/3/2025 to congress
2. Participate in Speaker election (I was elected to the 119th Congress, after all…)
3. Take the oath
4. File a privileged motion to expose every “me too” settlement paid using public funds (even of…— Former Congressman Matt Gaetz (@FmrRepMattGaetz) December 18, 2024
The full text of Gaetz’s tweet, which ended with a thinking emoji:
Someone suggested the following plan to me:
- Show up 1/3/2025 to congress
- Participate in Speaker election (I was elected to the 119th Congress, after all…)
- Take the oath
- File a privileged motion to expose every “me too” settlement paid using public funds (even of former members)
- Resign and start my @OANN program at 9pm EST on January 6, 2025.
Gaetz isn’t the first to suggest that the release of the report regarding him should be accompanied by the release of many other previously secretive congressional investigations and reports.
Natalie Winters, a co-host on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, tweeted that Gaetz’s tweet was “giving ‘chaos’” — along with a heart eyes emoji.
It is the giving season 🤔
— Former Congressman Matt Gaetz (@FmrRepMattGaetz) December 18, 2024
“It is the giving season,” Gaetz replied.