Matt Gaetz

In 2013, Gaetz announced that in 2016 he would run for the 1st District state senate seat then held by his father, Don Gaetz, who would be term-limited out of the Senate in 2016.[26] On March 21, 2016, Gaetz withdrew from the race, choosing instead to run for the U.S. House seat representing Florida's 1st congressional district; the incumbent, Jeff Miller, had announced 11 days earlier that he would not seek reelection.[27]

On August 30, 2016, Gaetz won the Republican primary with 35.7% of the vote, defeating Greg Evers (21.5%), Cris Dosev (20.6%), and five other candidates.[28] This virtually assured Gaetz of victory in the general election; with a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+22, the 1st is Florida's most Republican district, and one of the most Republican in the nation.

In the November 8 general election, Gaetz defeated Democratic nominee Steven Specht with 69% of the vote.[29] He is only the seventh person to represent this district since 1933 (the district was numbered the 3rd before 1963).

Though a financial disclosure form Gaetz filed in 2016 showed a net worth of $388,000, he donated $200,000 of his own money to his congressional campaign. He also resigned from two Florida House political action committees he had started and chaired; the PACs closed down and transferred $380,000 to a federal super-PAC, North Florida Neighbors, whose purpose was support Gaetz's congressional campaign.[10]

Matt Gaetz speaking at a celebration for the completion of the US 98 interchange

On September 25, 2016, following the death of Miami Marlins pitcher José Fernández, Gaetz criticized the athletes protesting during the national anthem in a tweet: "To all who will kneel during the anthem today – just remember how José Fernández risked his life just for the chance to stand for it."[30][31]

Gaetz was listed as a member of the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership from at least January to June 2017.[32][33][34]

In 2019, Gaetz told acquaintances that he could run for the Senate in Alabama in 2020; the state borders his district. He later decided against running.[35]

After the 2020 State of the Union Address, Gaetz filed an ethics complaint against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, claiming she had committed a "flagrant violation of decorum" and perhaps broken the law when she ripped up her copy of the speech.[36]

In February 2020, Gaetz announced that he will no longer accept campaign contributions from federal PACs.[37]

• Committee on Armed Services
  • Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
  • Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces
• Committee on the Budget
• Committee on the Judiciary
  • Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet
  • Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law

• Freedom Caucus[38][39]
• Republican Study Committee[40]

Gaetz has introduced legislation to reclassify cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act.[44][45] He has also introduced legislation to loosen federal restrictions on the cultivation of cannabis for research purposes.[46][47] Gaetz has criticized the federal government for having "lied to the American people for a generation" about cannabis's medical benefits.[48] As a member of the Florida House, he sponsored a bill, eventually signed into law,[49] to expand the state's Right to Try Act to include the medical use of cannabis.[50][51] In September 2017, Gaetz keynoted the American Medical Marijuana Physicians Association's annual conference.[52]

In November 2019, Gaetz was one of only two Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee to vote for the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, which among other reforms would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act.[53] He was also the only Republican cosponsor of the bill (of 55 cosponsors) at the time of its passage.[54] Gaetz has introduced the STATES Act to prevent federal interference in states that have legalized cannabis for medical or recreational purposes.[55] Gaetz has said he has had multiple conversations with President Trump about cannabis policy.[56]

Gaetz speaking at a Donald Trump event in June 2020.

On February 23, 2017, worried about protesters disrupting his speaking at his town hall in Pace, Florida, Gaetz prepared what his staffers called a "nonverbal town hall." He printed out part of his speech onto giant boards that he would hold up if he was "unable to get a word in."[57] One of the signs prepared for Gaetz read "Professional Liberal Protestors".[57] Gaetz arrived 30 minutes late to the meeting, where he faced at least 500 constituents crowded into a bowling alley. At the meeting he was grilled about his relationship with Trump, his stance on repealing the Affordable Care Act, and his proposal to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency. He said that Trump should release his tax returns, but stopped short of saying Congress should subpoena them. Gaetz closed his town hall by shouting Trump's 2016 campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again".[58][59][60]

In April 2018, Politico called Gaetz "one of the most enthusiastic defenders of President Trump on cable news" and a "proud Trump protégé".[61] Aaron Blake of The Washington Post called him one of Congress's "most controversial members", and one who has "unabashedly aligned himself with Trump on basically all things."[62]

Appearing on The View shortly before Trump associate Roger Stone was sentenced, Gaetz said he would support a pardon for Stone. Co-host Meghan McCain responded, "Oh, come on, congressman! Come on. Come on. He's the swampiest swamp creature."[63]

Gaetz is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, but not of the Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, or Oversight and Reform Committees, and so was not allowed to join lawmakers' closed-door deposition of former White House Russia aide Fiona Hill in October 2019. He told reporters was that since his committee oversees impeachment, he should have been allowed to be part of depositions related to the Trump impeachment inquiry.[64]

Gaetz voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.[65] He acknowledged that the bill's pass-through tax deduction would benefit Trump, and added, "but so many Americans benefit when commercial real estate becomes easier and more accessible."[66]

In 2016, Gaetz acknowledged global warming but said he disagrees with the scientific consensus on climate change that human activity is the primary cause. He said, "In our fervor to protect the environment, we lose sight of economic and scientific reality."[67] In April 2017, the Center for American Progress and Vice Media said Gaetz was a climate change denier, citing his 2016 statements.[68][69]

In January 2017, Gaetz proposed legislation to "completely abolish" the EPA. He said, "our small businesses cannot afford to cover the costs associated with compliance, too often leading to closed doors and unemployed Americans. It is time to take back our legislative power from the EPA and abolish it permanently."[20][70]

In November 2017, Gaetz joined the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus.[71][72] He said, "I don't think there's a scientific debate left to be had on if it is happening. I also think history is going to judge very harshly climate change deniers, and I don't want to be one of them." He said he advocated technological innovation and economic incentives that address climate change, and increased federal funds for global warming research by NASA, NOAA and universities, but remained opposed to increased environmental regulation.[73]

In 2019, Gaetz introduced the bipartisan Super Pollutants Act, which, according to a press release from his office, "aims to slow climate change by regulating black carbon, hydrofluorocarbons, and methane–some of the most potent greenhouse gases. These short-lived climate pollutants, also called super pollutants, are significantly more potent than carbon dioxide."[74]

Gaetz with Israeli president Reuven Rivlin in May 2018

In December 2017, Gaetz supported Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, saying, "Our nation's embassy is currently in Tel Aviv, which is disrespectful, dismissive, and wrong. Moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem will send the Palestinian Authority a message that their days of denying Israel's existence are over, and that they must become an honest partner in peace."[75]

In April 2019, after the House passed a resolution withdrawing American support for the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen, Gaetz was one of nine lawmakers to sign a letter to Trump requesting a meeting with him and urging him to sign "Senate Joint Resolution 7, which invokes the War Powers Act of 1973 to end unauthorized US military participation in the Saudi-led coalition's armed conflict against" Houthi forces in Yemen, "initiated in 2015 by the Obama administration." The letter said that the "Saudi-led coalition's imposition of an air-land-and-sea blockade as part of its war against Yemen's Houthis has continued to prevent the unimpeded distribution of ... vital commodities, contributing to the suffering and death of vast numbers of civilians throughout the country". It went on to say that Trump's signing of the resolution would give a "powerful signal to the Saudi-led coalition to bring the four-year-old war to a close".[76]

Former National Rifle Association president Marion Hammer called Gaetz "one of the most pro-gun members to have ever served in the Florida Legislature."[77] Gaetz is a lifetime member of the NRA,[77] and has an A+ rating from it.[78]

When Gaetz served in the Florida House of Representatives, he led an unsuccessful effort to allow Floridians with concealed-weapons permits to carry those weapons openly in public.[79] In lobbying for the bill, he said that the open carry of weapons was a right "granted not by government but by God."[80][81] Gaetz supports Florida's stand-your-ground law and supported legislation that strengthened it against legal challenges.[82] He also supports concealed carry reciprocity.[82]

In October 2017, Gaetz said that the Medicaid expansion permitted by the Affordable Care Act fueled the opioid crisis.[83] PolitiFact rated the claim "mostly false", noting that "experts were universal in saying that the evidence that Medicaid expansion is somehow fueling the opioid crisis doesn't exist."[83]

Gaetz was the lone no vote on the Combating Human Trafficking in Commercial Vehicles Act, a bill combating human trafficking.[84]

Gaetz opposes sanctuary cities, which opt not to dedicate local law enforcement resources to prosecuting people solely for being undocumented.[85] Upon announcing his run for Congress in 2016, he said that illegal immigrants were "sucking us dry."[86] In January 2018, Gaetz defended a statement by Trump that Haiti and African nations were "shithole" countries, saying that Haiti was covered by "sheet metal and garbage" and in "disgusting" condition.[87]

In October 2018, Gaetz falsely claimed that George Soros paid for a caravan of migrants from Central America to the United States.[88]

As a Florida state representative in 2015, Gaetz and Representative David Richardson sponsored an amendment to repeal Florida's ban on adoptions by same-sex couples.[89] He also persuaded his father in the Florida State Senate, to support the repeal.[90]

In November 2017, Gaetz introduced a congressional resolution calling for Robert Mueller to recuse himself as special counsel because of what were said to be conflicts of interest.[91] He also asked for a special counsel investigation into the Federal Bureau of Investigation's handling of the Hillary Clinton email controversy, undue interference by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch in the investigation, and the Russian state corporation Rosatom's acquisition of Uranium One during Mueller's time as FBI director.[92][93] Gaetz said he did not trust Mueller to lead the investigation because of Mueller's alleged involvement in approval of the Uranium One deal and alleged close relationship with dismissed FBI director James Comey, a probable person of interest in a proposed new investigation.[94][95]

After Ohio congressman Jim Jordan denied that he was aware of the sexual abuse of Ohio State University wrestlers during the period when Jordan was a coach there,[96] Gaetz said that the allegations came from people in the "deep state" and were intended to reduce the credibility of Jordan's criticism of Mueller's investigation of the Trump campaign and Russia.[97][98]

Gaetz said of then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions that "over at the Department of Justice, he's got Stockholm syndrome, he's become sympathetic with his captors over there in the Deep State."[99]

During Mueller's testimony to two congressional committees on July 24, 2019, Gaetz told him, "if Russians were lying to Christopher Steele to undermine our confidence in our newly elected president, that would be precisely in your purview because you stated in your opening that the organizing principle was to fully and thoroughly investigate Russian interference. But you weren't interested in whether the Russians interfered through Steele—and if Steele was lying, then you should have charged him with lying like you charged a variety of other people."[100]

In 2008, Gaetz was arrested for driving under the influence as he was driving back from the Swamp, a nightclub on Okaloosa Island, Florida. Police recorded him driving 13 miles per hour over that area's speed limit[101] and noted that he had shown physical signs of intoxication. Gaetz initially denied that he had drunk alcohol, but later admitted to drinking two beers. He failed an eye test twice, then declined field sobriety tests. After Gaetz was arrested, he refused to take a breathalyzer test.[101]

Shortly after Gaetz's case was referred to state attorney Steve Meadows, Gaetz's driving license was reinstated. Though Florida law requires a year's suspension when a driver refuses a breathalyzer test, Gaetz's suspension was less than a year long. His refusal also did not lead to a criminal prosecution, where it could have been used against him. A Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles officer declared there was no evidence that Gaetz refused a breathalyzer test, despite the arresting police officer having documented it in an affidavit, the arrest report, and Gaetz's own attorney also documenting it. Gaetz's attorney also claimed that an unnamed witness who knew Gaetz "observed no indication of impairment".[101]

Meadows dismissed the charges against Gaetz. Gaetz has cited the dropped charges as proof that he was innocent.[101]

Between 1999 and 2014, Gaetz received 16 speeding tickets in Florida. The Scripps Florida Investigative Team reviewed him and 159 other Florida legislators, noting that 46 legislators had more than 10 driving violations.[102]

In its July–August 2017 issue, Foreign Policy reported that Devin Murphy, a Gaetz legislative aide, had written a resolution that Gaetz brought to the House Judiciary Committee, and that the resolution primarily used content from r/The_Donald, "a pro-Trump subreddit notorious for both its embrace of conspiracy theories and its gleeful offensiveness."[103] The r/The_Donald posters' suggestions are represented in "roughly two-thirds of the total finished amendment."[104]

One of the allegations was that James Comey had leaked investigative matters to New York Times reporter Michael S. Schmidt, beginning when Schmidt was around 10 years old.[103] In an email to Wired magazine, Gaetz said, "It is the responsibility of our staff to gather as much information as possible when researching a subject and provide that information for consideration. We pride ourselves on seeking as much citizen input as possible."[104]

In January 2018, Gaetz invited alt-right Holocaust denier[105] Charles C. Johnson to attend Trump's State of the Union address. Gaetz said that he had no preexisting relationship with Johnson and invited him to attend only when Johnson showed up at his office, giving him the ticket that Gaetz's father could not use due to an illness. According to Johnson, he was invited by several members of Congress but took Gaetz's invitation because "he's into stuff on the issues that I care about."[106] Johnson previously raised money for the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer.[107] Gaetz said in an interview that Johnson was "not a Holocaust denier, he's not a white supremacist".[105]

On February 26, 2019, the night before the scheduled public hearing of Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney, before the House Oversight Committee, Gaetz directed a tweet to Cohen that implied without evidence that Cohen had had multiple extramarital affairs and also suggested his wife might be unfaithful while he was imprisoned due to new information disclosed to her.[62] Other members of Congress saw the tweet as an attempt to intimidate a witness.[108][62][109][110] Gaetz initially defended his tweet, saying it was part of "witness testing, not witness tampering" and "I don't threaten anybody." Asked to clarify, he said his "tweet speaks for itself".[111][112] After sharp criticism from other members of Congress and an implicit rebuke by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi,[113][114] Gaetz deleted the tweet and posted a tweet in which he apologized.[112][110][115]

Despite not being a member of the House Oversight Committee,[112] Gaetz appeared at Cohen's hearing, stating that he wanted to observe and ask questions.[116] During the hearing, U.S. Virgin Islands Delegate Stacey Plaskett, a member of the Oversight Committee, recommended that Gaetz be referred to both the House Ethics Committee and criminal prosecutors for witness intimidation and tampering.[114][117] After the hearing, Gaetz reportedly texted an apology to Cohen, who thanked him for the apology.[118]

The Florida Bar opened an investigation into Gaetz for the tweet,[108][119] as did the House Ethics Committee.[120] In August 2019, the Florida Bar announced it had found no probable cause that Gaetz had violated its rules.[121]

In October 2019, Gaetz organized a "storming" of a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility on Capitol Hill by about two dozen Republican congressmen, including House minority whip Steve Scalise, in an effort to sit in on and hear the deposition of a Pentagon official during the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump. The congressmen's cell phones and other devices put the secure facility, and U.S. national security, at risk.[122][123][124]

One committee member said, "It was the closest thing I've seen around here to mass civil unrest as a member of Congress."[125][126] House Homeland Security Committee chairman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi wrote to the House sergeant-at-arms about Gaetz and others, requesting that he take action regarding their "unprecedented breach of security". South Carolina's senior U.S. senator, Lindsey Graham, admonished the House members, calling them "nuts" for having made a "run on the SCIF."[127][124] Jim Jordan said, "The members have just had it, and they want to be able to see and represent their constituents and find out what's going on."[124] A day later, Jordan appeared on Fox News to justify the intrusion, saying of the chair of the committee: "Adam Schiff is doing this unfair, partisan process in secret and our members finally said, 'Enough'. We're so frustrated. They reached a boiling point and these guys marched in and said we want to know what's going on."[127] In the 116th Congress, Pelosi, who is a committee member ex officio, appointed Schiff and 12 Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee.[128] House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, also an ex officio member, appointed the ranking member, Devin Nunes, and eight other Republicans to the committee.[129] Each side got equal time to question witnesses.[125] The disruption delayed Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Laura Cooper's testimony by many hours.[123][124]

In March 2020, Gaetz wore a gas mask during a House debate on funds to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.[130] Gaetz has claimed that wearing the gas mask was not an act of mockery but a way of "demonstrating his concern."[131] Several journalists characterized the decision as a stunt.[132][133][134] A few days later, on March 9, his office reported that Gaetz had been in contact with a Conservative Political Action Conference attendee who tested positive for COVID-19. As a result, Gaetz was placed under self-quarantine for 14 days.[131] On March 10, he said his test was negative, but that he would stay under self-quarantine until the 14-day period ended on March 12.[135]

On April 14, Gaetz said the Wuhan Institute of Virology "birthed a monster", a reference to the unsubstantiated theory that Chinese scientists engineered COVID-19 as a bioweapon.[136] He also falsely claimed that the National Institutes of Health gave the Institute a $3.7 million grant. The U.S.-based EcoHealth Alliance that worked with the Institute under a grant the Trump administration approved eventually had that funding withdrawn.[136]

After Politico reported on November 7 that Gaetz had tested positive for COVID-19, he texted Politico "I have tested positive for antibodies" and "I have no live virus". He said he had no symptoms and was not sure when he had contracted the disease.[137]

On December 4, Gaetz attended an indoor New York Young Republicans Club conference in Jersey City, New Jersey, during a period of surging COVID-19 cases throughout the state and the country. He was seen posing for photos in a crowd of unmasked attendees, prompting New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop to publicly condemn him. Gaetz and other GOP members mocked Democrats and their COVID-19 regulations on social media. Murphy also said state officials were investigating whether the event violated the state's COVID-19 regulations.[138]

On June 1, 2020, during the nationwide George Floyd protests, Gaetz tweeted, "Now that we clearly see antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East?" In response, Twitter hid the tweet and labeled it as "[violating] the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence". Gaetz called the label a "badge of honor", accused Twitter of enabling Antifa, and again said that "[o]ur government should hunt [Antifa] down".[139]

On August 26, 2020, Gaetz posted: "The mob wants to destroy America. We need PATRIOTS who will defend her" in support of Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old from Antioch, Illinois, who traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he shot and killed two people and injured another during the protests of the Jacob Blake shooting. Rittenhouse was arrested and charged with first-degree intentional homicide.[140][141][142]

In April 2020, Politico reported that Gaetz had spent nearly $200,000 in taxpayer funds renting an office from Collier Merrill, a Pensacola real estate developer and restaurateur and longtime friend, adviser, campaign donor, and legal client.[143] Gaetz and Merrill separately told Politico that Gaetz paid below-market rent for the space, but Gaetz later said that the rent was "at or below market rate."[144] House rules explicitly disallow below-market rentals, and require that parties to such leases "have [not] had, [n]or continue to have, a professional or legal relationship (except as a landlord and tenant)."[143] On July 1, 2020, the Office of Congressional Ethics notified Gaetz it had terminated its review of the lease arrangements.[145]

In July 2020, Politico reported that its investigation had found expenditures by Gaetz that appeared to violate the House ethics rules: spending tens of thousands of dollars for a speechwriting consultant, and having a private company install a television studio in his father's home in Niceville, Florida, which Gaetz uses when he appears on television.[146]

Gaetz's office acknowledged that he spent $28,000 for speechwriting services, which is prohibited by House rules except in special circumstances and with prior approval from congressional officials. but said that it was a clerical error that it would fix.[147][148] Of the television studio, Gaetz said that the company received $100 per month from his office, an amount not reported in his Congressional spending records, and also charged television networks each time a network connected to the studio.[146] A statement from Gaetz's office said the arrangement complied with House rules, and that during the setup process, his office consulted with the House Ethics Committee and the House Administration Committee.[148]

On January 7, 2021, following the attack on the Capitol, Gaetz falsely said there was "pretty compelling evidence from a facial recognition company showing that some of the people who breached the Capitol today were not Trump supporters. They were masquerading as Trump supporters, and in fact were members of the violent terrorist group antifa". Gaetz later admitted he did not know "if the reports are true." The Washington Post called the claims "baseless".[149][150]