In a brutally blunt look at Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), the New Republic’s Jacob Bacharach paints a portrait of a publicity-seeking Washington newcomer storming the nation’s capital with an eye on mirroring the actions and rhetoric of the blustery president that he slavishly defends.
Following Gaetz’s “drama queen” performances while serving on the House Judiciary Committee, Bacharach recalls, “On October 23, a gaggle of House Republicans, led by Matt Gaetz of Florida, stormed the Capitol’s Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. Gaetz had hoped to expose the supposedly secretive nature of the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump. “Stormed” was his own overly dramatic word (though Gaetz soon topped it by comparing his crew to the 300 glorious, nearly naked Spartans who, as you may recall, lost to a numerically superior force during the Battle of Thermopylae). A more accurate description would be to say they barged into a committee room like a bunch of entitled fussbudgets, argued with the committee chairman, took selfies, and then trundled off to hold a press conference.”
According to the author, this was just a taste of what can be expected from Gaetz, who he also described as a “selfie-seeking frat boy,” with Bacharach writing, “Even before he, ahem, ‘stormed”’the SCIF, though, Gaetz was a regular on Fox News, confidently regurgitating conservative talking points and jumping at every opportunity to trash the Green New Deal with his own half-baked legislative riposte, a.k.a. the Green Real Deal.”