During a weekend appearance on the Fox program Sunday Morning Futures with host Maria Bartiromo, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) insisted that ongoing security precautions in place in Washington, D.C., in the wake of January’s deadly rioting at the U.S. Capitol are part of a plot to “reduce the beautiful splendor” of the capital and country and transform the United States into a Communist country. His allegations are totally wild, even by Republican standards.
Does Gaetz even understand what Communism means? Democrats aren’t Communist, in any regard. Does he seriously expect observers to take him seriously when he claims that there’s an ongoing secret Communist plot to “reduce the beautiful splendor” of the country? How would that even relate to the imaginary plot to turn the country into a Communist dystopia? Can Gaetz even explain his own wild allegations, let alone provide any meaningful evidence at all for them?
As part of the discussion, Gaetz claimed that the FBI is unfairly targeting members of Congress as part of some kind of covert effort to target right-wingers. This claim is baseless. People died — what does Gaetz expect federal authorities to do? Say “too bad” and walk away? He’s a clown.
As Gaetz angrily put it:
‘It’s Donald Trump one day, members of Congress the next, but it won’t be long before the FBI becomes more and more like every other agency of government: targeting their opponents, helping their friends.’
Then, he added as follows:
‘What we have to do is go out and tell the American people that these exercises have no credibility. They are not about law enforcement. They are not about some upcoming renewed attack on the Capitol. Remember when we were told that March 4 would be this cataclysmic, apocalyptic day, and it turned out to be nothing, but they are trying to create a constructed threat to justify the continued occupation of our capital city, because if you want to replace America, you want to do away with America, you would want to reduce the beautiful splendor of our capital and our country and our republic, and that is the slow march to socialism and communism that this Democratic Party is taking us down.’
So, while Democrats in Congress work on efforts like securing additional assistance for the American people to help deal with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, Gaetz is occupying himself with paranoid rambling about an imaginary secret Communist plot to make D.C. look ugly… or something. Again, he’s a clown.
Check out Gaetz’s comments below:
Gaetz has never taken the Capitol rioting particularly seriously. After the rioting, he literally yelled on the floor of the U.S. House that Democratic leaders “lit actual flames,” which is just false. Gaetz made his accusation in connection to anti-police brutality protests that unfolded across the country in 2020, when isolated instances of rioting sprung up. Republicans claimed that Democrats fueled the rioting, which is disconnected from basic truth. Democrats repeatedly and publicly condemned violence in all forms over and over again — unlike Trump, who publicly justified the Capitol rioting after the violence unfolded.
