Posted on 01/23/2020 10:49:45 AM PST by conservative98
One of President Donald Trump’s strongest supporters on cable news and Capitol Hill was surprisingly excluded from his impeachment defense team — and he has suspicions as to why.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) was widely believed to have been a frontrunner to join a select group of House Republicans to defend the president through media outreach and providing consultation to his legal team, but he was snubbed.
In an interview with Politico, Gaetz said he wasn’t entirely sure why he was kept off the team, but he has been told by someone in the White House that Eric Ueland, the legislative affairs director, was “responsible for the brush back.”
“I don’t know why it would serve someone in the White House to manufacture a divide between the president and one of his best communicators during impeachment,” Gaetz told the outlet.
When reached by Politico, Ueland wouldn’t comment directly on the Florida Republican’s allegation. He did, however, mention Gaetz’s support for the House’s war powers resolution, which would limit the president’s ability to wage further military action against Iran without congressional approval.
Rep. Gaetz: Trump suspended Ukraine military aid over corruption concerns The resolution did not signify a shift in policy or position for Gaetz, who began courting fellow House Republicans to support the measure after Democrats added one of his amendments to it, but Trump loyalists dragged him for the move nonetheless.
“While the Trump administration was disappointed in Mr. Gaetz’s [Iran war powers] vote, the president’s successful policy to reduce Iranian terror and misbehavior proves the path laid out by the president is working,” Ueland said in a statement to Politico. “We look forward to working with Mr. Gaetz in the future.”
Gaetz responded, “He knows it’s House Democrats, not Iran, who are impeaching the president, right?”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
He voted against his own president on a big one. Screw him.
All good points naps. These highly charged times get me worked up and it’s frustrating to see the Democrat cohesion and for the Republicans to constantly have people leaving the reservation. I simply wish that the party could come together and show complete unity in this crucial time.
Me too. I guess I am really frustrated right now because of the stupid Impeachment which wouldn’t be happening if conservatives would have gone to vote in 2018. I would imagine that some were mad at their representative for saying or voting something unremarkable, but that is all it takes with some voters especially conservatives it appears. Ugh.
He didn’t get thrown for a Democrat, he got thrown out for a more loyal Republican.
Do you live in a Blue District? It could explain your screwed up thinking.
Good. Loyalty is rewarded, and he wasn’t loyal.
“He said he spoke to trump explaining the vote before he did it and trump agreed with him.”
I thought Gaetz said Trump “understood” why he was voting that way. Maybe he said Trump “agreed” with him, but I didn’t hear that.
What makes it worse and makes Gaetz look even stupider is that it was a non-binding vote. It meant nothing and he still did it.
Many of these multi-generational political families are screwed - up in many ways. This guy sounds like quite the cretin .
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