Tag Archive for: Matt Gaetz

Trio of Trump Picks Creates Headaches for GOP

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You know it’s a surreal time in Washington, D.C. when Senator John Fetterman (D-Pa.) is the Democrat making the most sense. While his party has a collective “freakout” over Donald Trump’s potential hires, the Senate’s resident hoodie-wearer was asked if he’s as panicked as his colleagues about the president-elect’s Cabinet choices. “It’s still not even Thanksgiving yet,” he told CNN. “And if we’re having meltdowns, you know, every tweet or every appointment or all of those things, I mean, it’s going to be four years.”

And yes, while Trump probably did have fun “trolling” Democrats with some of these picks, as Fetterman said, they’re not the only ones with reservations. At least three of the president’s nominees are giving both parties heartburn heading into the holidays: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Matt Gaetz, and Pete Hegseth. Welcome to the job, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.). You’ve just been handed a political nightmare.

Philip Wegmann, White House Correspondent for Real Clear Politics, said this all clears up one thing: “This is Donald Trump’s transition and no one else’s.” Wegmann, who joined Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on Saturday’s “This Week on the Hill” thought — like many people — that the president-elect was “playing it safe” with his first string of announcements. “There was a bit of bipartisan consensus behind a pick like, say, Florida Senator Marco Rubio for Secretary of State. That’s someone who is certainly well-qualified for that position. 
 And then came some of these more unconventional picks. Pete Hegseth for Department of Defense Secretary, Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence, and then most recently, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz for Attorney General. What that tells you is that it is Donald Trump, fundamentally, who is making these decisions — and him alone. It’s not an advisor. It’s not any outside group. It’s him.”

The only decision he couldn’t control was Thune’s promotion. While Trump didn’t weigh in personally on the Republican leadership race in the Senate, plenty of his surrogates did. And in the end, the pressure they exerted didn’t sway the more insulated chamber. “The reason why I think that we should still put a pin in this and watch closely,” Wegmann said of Thune and his party, “is that there’s sort of a bubbling frustration among the right flank. 
 With how things are going 
 Republicans are of the opinion that Donald Trump has a mandate after winning the Electoral College and also the popular vote. And so, the question is, when someone like Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has shown that he is ready to move the ball down the field, are Senate Republicans also going to be team players here?”

While Senator Marco Rubio, Lee Zeldon, and others are “no-brainers” for the administration, as Perkins called them, there are other question marks, like South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (R), who, apart from the hysteria her dead puppy created, lost plenty of fans when she caved on popular girls’ sports protections. As Wegmann acknowledged, Noem has had “a bit of a fall from grace certainly.” But, he predicted, “I’m not certain that we’re going to see Republicans abandon ship here.” Heading Homeland Security may seem like a big job, but “I think she is seen sort of as a key piece here who’s going to compliment Tom Homan, the border czar.”

Although Gaetz may lead the pack of controversial picks, equally triggering to Democrats (and many conservatives) is the nod for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head Health and Human Services (HHS). “You want to talk about a realignment?” Wegmann asked. “RFK Jr. represents so much of what is new from Donald Trump, because of Trump’s ability to reach out to Independent voters who are perhaps homeless among the two-party system,” he pointed out. “But let’s not forget RFK Jr. [is] a Catholic individual, but he also supports abortion rights. He’s very skeptical of pharmaceutical companies, but he’s also anti-Big Bank, anti-Big Business. He’s an environmentalist. This is one of these guys who sort of breaks the mold. And Democrats, I don’t think many of them are going to lend their support to RFK Jr. at HHS. I’m curious to see if there will be many Republican defections.”

If former Vice President Mike Pence got a vote, it would be an emphatic no. “The Trump-Pence administration was unapologetically pro-life for our four years in office. There are hundreds of decisions made at HHS every day that either lead our nation toward a respect for life or away from it, and HHS under our administration always stood for life,” Pence insisted on Friday. “I believe the nomination of RFK Jr. to serve as Secretary of HHS is an abrupt departure from the pro-life record of our administration and should be deeply concerning to millions of Pro-Life Americans who have supported the Republican Party and our nominees for decades,” he declared.

Perkins, for his part, said he’d be “willing to sit down and talk” with the moderate but admitted he has “reservations.” “For me, the sanctity of human life and that moral fabric of our nation, that foundation, is absolutely critical. I’d have to have some assurances there for now. Put me in the skeptical column when it comes to RFK.”

The nomination that has had the most heads spinning is Gaetz’s, which took even his own party by surprise. As Axios tells it, the announcement was met with “audible gasps by House Republicans” in the conference meeting last week. “The reason why this is interesting,” Wegmann believes, “is that if you talk to Gaetz allies, they’ll say that in preparation for this contentious confirmation battle, he’s burning the ships like Cortez. 
 If you talk to folks who are a bit more cynical, the timing here is very curious. The House Ethics Committee was preparing to release a report concerning [the] activity of Mr. Gaetz and an allegedly underage girl,” he explained, “and by leaving Congress that effectively stymies that effort. 
 [T]hat was sort of the speculation that perhaps he was leaving early to avoid that accountability.”

Of course, as both men made clear, once a member leaves Congress, they are no longer under the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee, so the investigation is — for all intents and purposes — dead. But there is the very real possibility that Democrats could leak it out as the nomination advances. What Wegmann has heard is that the report is a “grenade,” and it’s “only a matter of time before it explodes.” Democrats, after all, “have an incentive for this information to get out there, but they don’t want it to go off right now. They want to wait until it’s able to inflict maximum damage. Then there are some Republicans who would rather this information get out earlier, so the president-elect can either reexamine his choice or perhaps Gaetz can bow out.”

The “conference-splitter,” as Axios called him, got a cool reception from senators like Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and others who don’t seem anxious to give Trump a pass on this one. “This shows why the advice and consent process is so important,” Collins said, hinting that she won’t be so quick to let the president-elect bypass the traditional vetting with recess appointments. Murkowski stressed that Gaetz wasn’t even “a serious candidate.” “If I wanted to make a joke, maybe I would say now I’m waiting for [disgraced former Congressman] George Santos to be named.”

Of the three nominees who are most outside the box, Fox News’s Pete Hegseth is probably getting the most movement support. Several columnists are making the argument that the young veteran is plenty experienced, despite the Left’s shrieks to the contrary. The rumblings over his personal life have certainly given his detractors fodder, but others believe he is skilled enough — and determined enough — to overhaul the military and purge the Defense Department of four years of social experimentation.

Still, the thought “makes the Left go crazy,” Wegmann admitted. “But this is someone who was in the Armed Services for 20 years. He has won medals, and his nomination makes sense if you look at his book, if you look at the Shawn Ryan interview. This is someone who is absolutely on fire for reforming the Pentagon and going after sort of the woke excesses there. I think that’s why Donald Trump picked him. And Hegseth will be prepared for that confirmation hearing. You don’t get to be on TV every weekend if you’re not quick on your feet. I think he’s got a good shot.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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Trump Sends His Clearest Message Yet To DOJ Bureaucrats With Unexpected Leadership Picks

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President-elect Donald Trump’s unexpected picks for Department of Justice (DOJ) leadership roles send a clear message to the establishment: this term, his agenda will not be held captive by career bureaucrats.

After being burned by his own choices in his first administration and prosecuted by the Biden-Harris DOJ, his decision to nominate Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general and his defense attorneys for the other top slots reflects Trump’s desire to be surrounded by people who fully support his vision for the department — and who are willing to stand up to bureaucratic forces working to undermine his efforts.

“Gaetz is clearly an outsider and disruptor, and that’s the point,” former federal prosecutor Andrew Cherkasky told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Gaetz is “exactly what President Trump promised for the DOJ during his campaign, namely to end the department’s left-leaning focus on lawfare, censorship, and election interference.” He’s “a loyalist who is often in Trump’s orbit” that won’t put up the same resistance as former Attorney General William Barr, Cherkasky said.

Article III project senior counsel Will Chamberlain wrote on X the Gaetz pick is best understood as “a statement by Trump that it’s not 2016 anymore and there will be no internal coup against the sitting President.”

Trump’s surprise announcement of Gaetz drew its share of criticism — and uncertainty about his viability as a nominee.

Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy wrote in the National Review that Nathan Wade, who worked on Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ case against Trump before a judge’s ruling forced him to step down over the pair’s romantic relationship, would “have a better chance of getting confirmed” as attorney general than Gaetz.

“Trump needs a strong, experienced hand who is widely respected for his or her legal acumen and bureaucratic know-how — specifically in the Justice Department, which is certain to chew up and spit out an outsider who doesn’t know how the place works and how veteran adversaries can sabotage a novice,” McCarthy said, suggesting Gaetz is not qualified for the position because he was “among the leading proponents of the effort to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election.”

Gaetz is the “100,000-volt option” that both shows Trump values an outsider and sets the stage for “one of the most intense confirmation fights in congressional history,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley wrote Thursday.

“The nomination may have a curious effect on the nomination fights,” he said on X. “It will likely draw fire and resources from other nominees. Indeed, other nominees may appear less controversial by comparison.”

Cherkasky told the DCNF Trump’s relative silence in response to Republican South Dakota Sen. John Thune’s election as Senate majority leader indicates he feels “confident he will be able to secure his pick,” noting he probably would have raised more of a “public outcry” if Thune hadn’t promised support.

Trump’s selections for the three positions below attorney general also signal loyalty played a key role in his decision.

The attorneys who spent this year defending Trump from criminal prosecution have now also been named to top positions at the DOJ. Trump nominated Todd Blanch to be deputy attorney general, Emil Bove as principal associate deputy attorney general and Dean John Sauer — who presented oral arguments in Trump’s presidential immunity appeal before the Supreme Court — as solicitor general.

These Trump picks were met with greater enthusiasm from some conservative attorneys.

“John Sauer, who is President-elect Trump’s selection for Solicitor General, is a brilliant lawyer with rich experience,” wrote Ethics and Public Policy center constitutional scholar Ed Whelan, who expressed disapproval of Gaetz’s nomination. “Exactly the caliber of pick we should hope for in every senior DOJ position.”

Sauer also argued a major case challenging the Biden administration’s censorship efforts before the 5th Circuit.

Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who served in Trump’s first administration, celebrated Blanche and Bove but didn’t mention Gaetz.

“Critics of unfit appointees should applaud when the President picks qualified people with integrity,” Rosenstein wrote Friday on X. “As Deputy AG, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove won’t allow partisanship to sway DOJ prosecutions. The rule of law prevails. Qui Pro Domina Justitia Sequitur.”

‘Savvy And Bold’ Leadership

Beyond the top positions, Trump’s allies are concerned about opposition from career prosecutors who are tasked with carrying out leadership directives.

“If the president wants to deport illegal aliens, secure the border, ban race-based ‘affirmative action’ and DEI, investigate antisemitism, halt Big Tech censorship, grant pardons and commutations to Jan 6th defendants, he has every right to expect that these perfectly lawful policies are implemented, and it is absolutely unacceptable for career employees to seek to thwart this policy agenda,” attorney Mark Paoletta, who is helping with Trump’s transition, wrote on X Wednesday.

Article III Project founder Mike Davis wrote on X that DOJ employees’ job is to “carry out his lawful orders.”

Career prosecutors are worried they’ll be driven out of the department, Politico reported on Sunday, days before Trump announced Gaetz’s nomination.

Stacey Young, co-founder of the DOJ Gender Equality Network and civil rights division attorney, told the outlet many federal employees are “terrified that we’ll be replaced with partisan loyalists.”

Another DOJ attorney anonymously told Politico department lawyers are “losing their minds.”

“The fear is that career leadership and career employees everywhere are either going to leave or they’re going to be driven out,” the attorney said.

Along with bringing two criminal cases against Trump, the Biden-Harris DOJ prosecuted hundreds of individuals for their behavior at the Capitol on Jan. 6 using an obstruction statute designed to target financial crimes. The Supreme Court held in June the DOJ interpreted the statute too broadly.

The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has repeatedly used the Freedom of Access to Clinics (FACE) Act to prosecute pro-life activists.

Paoletta noted the constitution invests executive power with the president, not “unelected lawyers who are to assist him in the exercise of that power.”

“Any civil servant who claims their actions to resist these policy initiatives will be doing so to uphold the rule of law is being dishonest,” he wrote. “They are undermining the rule of law and subverting democracy and should be fired.”

John Malcolm, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, told the DCNF career prosecutors dissatisfied with the department’s direction should “consider leaving and joining the private sector.”

“The one thing they should not, and cannot, do is to try to undermine the directives of their superiors within the department,” he said. “After all, they were not elected by the American people or appointed by the President to serve in his administration. Anyone who attempts to sabotage the President’s agenda from within should be severely reprimanded and reassigned or fired for insubordination.”

One reason the department needs “savvy and bold” leadership is because career employees who disagree with leadership sometimes “find quiet ways to undermine the work,” Jesse Panuccio, who previously served as the third-ranking official in Trump’s DOJ, told the DCNF.

“If someone’s not willing to do the job, there’s plenty of meat and potatoes work at the Department of Justice that they can be reassigned to,” Panuccio said.

“If they want to be activists, there are lots of think tanks and 501(c)(3)s and law firms they can go work at in Washington,” he continued. “They do not need to be on the payroll of the taxpayers who just elected this president and endorsed the policies and people he’s going to appoint.”

AUTHOR

Katelynn Richardson

Contributor

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All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Attorney General Matt Gaetz: The Pitbull We Need

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“Anyone who is more concerned with the prospect of Gaetz being Attorney General than the deep state’s behavior, is part of the problem.” — Mollie Hemingway

As a victim of the DOJ, Gaetz is the best person to reform it.

WATCH: Attorney General Matt Gaetz: The Pitbull We Need

We Need To Take A Wrecking Ball To The DOJ. Matt Gaetz Is Just The Man For The Job

By: John Daniel Davidson, The Federalist, November 14, 2024

Gaetz isn’t ‘unqualified’ to lead the Justice Department. As a victim of the DOJ, he might be the best person to reform it.

The collective pearl-clutching by the corporate press and Washington establishment on Wednesday after Trump announced he’d chosen Matt Gaetz to be his attorney general was something to behold. The swamp consensus is that the former Florida congressman is “unqualified” to lead the Justice Department.

Never mind that the people making this claim are themselves deeply unqualified to hold their own positions of power. (Consider Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who dismissed Gaetz as not a “serious” pick. Murkowski is poster-child for unserious and unqualified Beltway drones. She failed the bar exam four times and only got a Senate seat because her corrupt father, Frank Murkowski, appointed her to his seat after he became a one-term governor of Alaska in 2002.)

But how exactly is Gaetz unqualified to lead the Justice Department? Put another way, what does Trump’s incoming attorney general need to be qualified to do?

Mostly, clean house at the DOJ. Going back at least to 2016, the Justice Department has been a viper’s nest of politically motivated prosecutions, sham investigations, coup-plotting, domestic spying and censorship, entrapment schemes, and the terrorization of law-abiding Americans. From illegally spying on Trump to the political persecution of Jan. 6 defendants, the DOJ has become a cancer on our body politic, and we need someone to go in and cut it out.

Above all, we need a Justice Department that will refrain from trying to undermine or remove the duly elected president. As Will Chamberlain noted on X, “The best way to understand the Gaetz pick is that it’s a statement by Trump that it’s not 2016 anymore and there will be no internal coup against the sitting President.”

What we don’t need, after the plots against Trump during his first term and four years of a totally weaponized DOJ under Attorney General Merrick Garland, is business as usual. We don’t need some career GOP prosecutor to be the “adult in the room” and “restrain Trump from his worst impulses.”

No, we need someone who knows firsthand how corrupt and compromised the Justice Department has become under Garland, and couldn’t care less what’s said about him at Georgetown cocktail parties or on MSNBC.

And since Gaetz himself was one of the more prominent victims of Garland’s politicized DOJ, he might just be the perfect person for the job. Beginning in March 2021, Gaetz was subjected to an 18-month sham DOJ investigation based on nothing more than the publication of an anonymously sourced and frankly outlandish report accusing him of possibly being a child sex trafficker.

He was never convicted and never even charged, but that was never the point. The point was to silence him. Prior to March 2021 Gaetz had been an effective and prominent voice in Congress pushing back against the Washington establishment’s worst impulses and abuses of power. He waged a public relations battle against Democrats and the deep state over the Russia collusion hoax, led a group of Republican congressmen protesting Rep. Adam Schiff’s sham Ukraine impeachment hearings, and raised concerns about Washington’s overreaction to the Jan. 6 riot and the politically motivated prosecutions of those involved. Gaetz frequently appeared on cable news to make his case, and he quickly became one of the most influential conservative congressmen.

But all that changed when Garland’s DOJ targeted him after a series of politically motivated leaks to The New York Times by anonymous DOJ lawyers. The Times dutifully published them, tarring Gaetz’s good name. As my colleague Mollie Hemingway wrote in 2022, the goal was to silence the colorful Florida congressmen by destroying his reputation: “Gaetz couldn’t very well critique the Department of Justice for their political prosecutions if he was a pariah who everyone thought was a pedophile.”

And that’s exactly what happened. The Democrat-run Ethics Committee in the House, which usually waits to launch investigations of sitting members of Congress until after the DOJ concludes its own investigation, immediately launched an ethics probe against Gaetz that was still ongoing when he announced his resignation from the House on Wednesday. Never Trump Republicans with an axe to grind, like then-Rep. Liz Cheney, reveled in the accusations against Gaetz and repeated them nearly as often as the corporate press did.

Eighteen months later, after the media had repeated the pedophile and sex trafficker accusations against Gaetz as often as they could, with Gaetz’s reputation and influence in tatters, the DOJ investigation was quietly dropped. Another anonymously sourced story, this time in The Washington Post, simply said senior career prosecutors recommended no charges.

That’s the kind of thing our Justice Department does now. Together with a corrupt and lawless FBI, it viciously attacks its critics through lies, leaks, and unrelenting lawfare. It gins up fake kidnapping plots like the one against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. It looks the other way when assassination plots and violent threats are leveled at Supreme Court justices. It illegally targets members of Congress. Anyone who threatens its power, including the former and soon-to-be president, is fair game.

The last thing Trump needs at DOJ is a Bill Barr-style careerist. The department is rotten to the core and a threat to the American people. Most of the careerists there need to be run out of the place—and then criminally investigated.

That means a willingness, determination, and courage to clean up and reform the Justice Department — or, barring that, dismantle it completely — are the only qualifications necessary to head Trump’s DOJ. So yes, Gaetz is more than qualified for the task at hand. In fact he’s probably just the man for the job.

John Daniel Davidson is a senior editor at The Federalist. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Claremont Review of Books, The New York Post, and elsewhere. He is the author of Pagan America: the Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come. Follow him on Twitter, @johnddavidson.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

EXCLUSIVE: Gaetz To Campaign With Rosendale In Montana Ahead Of Potential Senate Bid

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Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz will campaign alongside Montana GOP Rep. Matt Rosendale in the state next week ahead of his potential Senate bid, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

The two will attend campaign events together in Bozeman, Townsend and Helena on Friday and Saturday as Rosendale continues to weigh a challenge to Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, according to the congressman’s team. Rosendale commended Gaetz for helping him “battle the uniparty” in Congress, telling the DCNF in an exclusive statement “it is an honor” that he’s campaigning with him in Montana.

“Matt Gaetz has been my reliable ally as we battle the uniparty in Washington,” Rosendale told the DCNF. “Whether it’s fighting out-of-control spending, securing our border, or restoring regular order to Congress, Matt Gaetz has always been with me in the fight for our nation. It is an honor to have him join me in the Treasure State next week.”

If Rosendale runs, he’ll have to face former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy in the Republican primary. Sheehy was recruited to run by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, which has cited Rosendale’s 2018 loss to Tester as their reasoning for not tapping the congressman.

“Matt Rosendale is among the most reliable and determined conservatives I’ve ever met at any level of government,” Gaetz told the DCNF in a statement. “The Swamp doesn’t want Rosendale because they know Tim Sheehy will be their pawn. Montana can defeat the corrupt big spenders and open borders politicians. I’ll be there to help, often.”

Early polling on the GOP primary suggested Rosendale would beat Sheehy overwhelmingly. However, two surveys released in November found the former Navy SEAL winning, with one poll being commissioned by a pro-Sheehy super PAC.

Rosendale has until March 11 to file his candidacy for the Senate, and the Republican primary will take place on June 4.

Rosendale has been telling colleagues that he plans on launching a Senate campaign just before the filing deadline, the Washington Examiner reported on Thursday, though his team insists he has yet to make a decision.

“Rep. Rosendale has not made a decision yet,” Aashka Varma, spokesperson for Rosendale, told the DCNF in a statement. “He is focused on serving the people of Montana and spent the week fighting to fund government in a transparent and responsible manner.”

The Cook Political Report recently switched Tester’s seat from the “Lean D” category to “Toss Up” alongside other contentious races in Ohio and Arizona. The senator has been serving in the upper chamber since 2007.

The few public polls for the general election against Tester indicate he is vulnerable against both Republicans, with some suggesting he’d lose by several points to Rosendale and Sheehy, according to FiveThirtyEight’s survey compilation. The most recent survey, conducted by Emerson College, found the Democrat winning against Sheehy by 4 points.

Sheehy’s campaign did not immediately responded to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

AUTHOR

MARY LOU MASTERS

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Matt Gaetz Blasts Kevin McCarthy For Paving Dems’ ‘Yellow Brick Road,’ Reveals His ‘Number Two’ Choice For Speaker

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Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz blasted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy while making remarks to the press on Monday.

Gaetz filed a motion to vacate McCarthy from his house leadership position on Monday. The move could lead to the house voting on whether McCarthy retains his speakership role. Gaetz has been critical of McCarthy’s deal with the Biden White House to raise the debt limit. He also claims that McCarthy has failed to reduce government spending levels.

A reporter suggested to Gaetz that McCarthy could simply run for the speakership again if his attempt to remove him is successful. That scenario could result in no one having the necessary votes. Gaetz brushed off this potentiality, pointing out that McCarthy needed 15 rounds of votes to become the speaker, and saying he should “take a hint” that he is no longer wanted in the role.

Another reporter asked Gaetz who his ideal replacement for McCarthy would be.

“Look, our number two is Steve Scalise. I think very highly of Steve Scalise. I would vote for Steve Scalise,” Gaetz said.

Gaetz outlined McCarthy’s supposed failures as speaker, including his inability to pass appropriations bills in an efficient manner. He said that it took a “political gun to the speaker’s head” to get appropriations bills passed.

“We’d only passed one of our appropriations bills, the veterans bill,” Gaetz said after slamming the apparent lack of work put in by lawmakers.

“The American people are tired of Washington, D.C., not having a budget, running $2 trillion annual deficits, sitting atop a $33 trillion debt,” Gaetz added.

Another reporter asked him if it is hypocritical to criticize McCarthy for working with Democrats when he will need Democratic votes to oust the speaker. Gaetz stated that the “yellow brick road of working with Democrats has been paved, constructed, engineered, and architected by Kevin McCarthy.”

“Look no further than the debt limit deal, a deal he passed with Democrats. Look no further than the last continuing resolution, which he passed with Democrats. And by the way, if he’s able to stay in power, it will be him working for the Democrats, continuing to do their bidding. So this is a revealing exercise, and I think it will show the country who’s really in charge,” Gaetz said.

McCarthy brushed off Gaetz’s announcement of his attempt to remove him from the speakership, saying that the Florida representative has tried similar stunts before.

“That’s nothing new. 
 He’s tried to do that from the moment I ran for office. 
 Yes, I’ll survive. You know, this is personal with Matt,” McCarthy said on ABC News’ “This Week.”

AUTHOR

COREY WALKER

Reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Rep. Matt Gaetz announces plans to oust Speaker McCarthy

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Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz announced his plan Sunday to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from leadership on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Gaetz told CNN’s Jake Tapper he will file a motion this week to remove McCarthy from his seat over a lack of trust. The motion would force a House vote on whether to vacate McCarthy’s seat.

“Speaker McCarthy made an agreement with House conservatives in January and since then he’s been in brazen, repeated material breach of that agreement,” Gaetz said Sunday. “This agreement that he made with Democrats to really blow past a lot of the spending guardrails we’d set up is a last straw.”

The Florida representative said there will be enough Republican votes to oust McCarthy, which will lead the speaker to strike a deal with the Democrats in Congress. He vowed to refuse to cut any deals with Democratic members of Congress.

“The only way Kevin McCarthy is Speaker of the House at the end of this coming week is if Democrats bail him out. Now, they probably will. I actually think that when you believe in nothing, as Kevin McCarthy does, everything’s negotiable and I think he’ll cut a deal with the Democrats,” he said.

If McCarthy does strike a deal with Democrats, Gaetz said, the current Republican leader “will be serving at the pleasure of the Democrats.”

“I’m done owning Kevin McCarthy,” Gaetz continued. “We made a deal in January to allow him to assume the speakership, and I’m not owning him anymore because he doesn’t tell the truth. And so if Democrats want to own Kevin McCarthy by bailing him out, I can’t stop them, but then he’ll be their speaker, not mine.”

Gaetz has reportedly been approaching Democrats about potential replacements if he files the motion to vacate, CNN reported. The tension between Gaetz and McCarthy escalated after President Joe Biden signed a short-term, McCarthy-supported bill Saturday to keep the government open until mid-November. The bill was signed into law just minutes before the federal government’s funding for fiscal year 2023 was slated to expire by midnight.

Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a separate Sunday interview with Tapper she would “absolutely” vote in favor of vacating McCarthy’s seat, according to CNN.

“I think Kevin McCarthy is a very weak speaker. He clearly has lost control of his caucus. He has brought the United States and millions of Americans to the brink, waiting until the final hour to keep the government open, and even then only issuing a 45-day extension,” she said.

AUTHOR

NICOLE SILVERIO

Media reporter. Follow Nicole Silverio on Twitter @NicoleMSilverio.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

‘Would Have Sent Hunter Biden A Subpoena By Now’: Matt Gaetz Blasts McCarthy On Impeachment, Says He’s ‘Not Serious’

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Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz blasted Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy about the Joe Biden impeachment inquiry in an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”

“We don’t put our pencils down in the investigation of President Biden during a shutdown, so the premise is false,” Gaetz said. “Second, if Kevin McCarthy was actually serious about pursuing the Bidens, he would have sent Hunter Biden a subpoena by now.”

The congressman referred to House Republicans as “fundamentally unserious,” comparing their progress on the Biden investigation to House Democrats who “brought in Donald Trump Jr. three times over nothing” when they had the majority.

Despite Gaetz’s dissatisfaction, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said that the investigation is “following the money” in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. He told Hannity that they will “continue to follow the money” and “if that leads to Joe Biden, or Hunter Biden, or to Jim Biden,” subpoenas will be issued.

On government spending, Gaetz said he is “not pro-shutdown,” proposing “separate, single-subject spending bills” instead of “one up or down vote on the entire government all at once.” The congressman claimed Kevin McCarthy “promised that in January” and is “in breach of that promise.”

“I’m not here to hold the government hostage,” Gaetz told Bartiromo. “I’m here to hold Kevin McCarthy to his word.”

AUTHOR

JULIANNA FRIEMAN

Contributor

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Kevin McCarthy Announces House GOP To Launch Impeachment Inquiry Into President Biden

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Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy announced Tuesday that the Republican Party will move forward with an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.

Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and other House Republicans have continued to pressure McCarthy to move forward with an impeachment inquiry. The speaker said he now believes there is enough evidence stemming from the House Judiciary Committee and House Oversight Committee to move forward with an impeachment inquiry into the president.

He made the announcement outside the Speaker’s office in the U.S. Capitol.

“Today, I am directing our House Committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden,” McCarthy said. “This logical next step will give our committees the full power to gather all the facts and answers for the American public. That’s exactly what we want to know: the answers.”

The House GOP was expected to vote on an impeachment inquiry; however, McCarthy did not mention holding a vote to move forward with the inquiry during Tuesday’s statement.

WATCH: 

Citing the testimony of two Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblowers, McCarthy said in July that an impeachment inquiry would help Republicans better access documents detailing alleged misconduct from government officials benefiting Hunter Biden. Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik has endorsed McCarthy’s’ position, which Democrats adopted in 2019 during former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment.

In May, Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced articles of impeachment against Biden during a press conference.

White House spokesperson Ian Sams said Tuesday morning that “[t]he House GOP investigations have turned up no evidence of wrongdoing by POTUS [President Biden]. In fact, their own witnesses have testified to that, and their own documents have showed no link to POTUS.”

(This is a developing story. More information will be added as it becomes available.)

AUTHOR

HENRY RODGERS

Chief national correspondent. Follow Henry Rodgers On Twitter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Matt Gaetz Responds To Jerry Nadler Objecting His Request To Recite Pledge Of Allegiance Before Judiciary Hearings

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Democratic New York Rep. Jerry Nadler shut down Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz’s request to recite the Pledge of Allegiance before the House Judiciary Committee during a Wednesday hearing.

During the first Judiciary hearing with the new GOP-led Congress, Gaetz put forward an amendment to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of each hearing, to which Nadler responded, saying, “I would oppose it simply on the grounds that, as members know, we pledge allegiance every day on the floor and I don’t know why we should pledge allegiance twice in the same day, to show how patriotic we are.” Gaetz mentioned he thought it would be a unifying and patriotic act.

Gaetz responded to Nadler’s opposition exclusively to the Daily Caller, saying, “Standing for the American flag isn’t controversial. Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance isn’t a waste of time. Democrats are so outraged at the idea of a daily dose of patriotism that they spent 30 minutes ranting and raving in opposition. Congress cannot expect the American people to believe they are fighting for their values when they don’t even care to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.”

WATCH: 

“It’s absurd that Democrats on the committee don’t even want to say the pledge of allegiance. You would think it would be a simple request – not so for the Judiciary Democrats, who almost seemed allergic to reciting the pledge,” Republican North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop told the Daily Caller.

In 2021, House Judiciary Democrats appeared to make fun of Gaetz’s request to have the committee recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of hearings on a hot mic.

At the time, the Daily Caller obtained a video file from the hearing which included audio of a group of Democrats joking about Republicans’ request to have the Pledge of Allegiance recited before committee hearings. In the video, Tennessee Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen and an unidentified House Democrat can be heard appearing to joke about the request. They were reminded by a staffer that their microphones were hot, according to the audio.

The Caller contacted Nadler’s office about his opposition to Gaetz’s move to say the Pledge of Allegiance before Judiciary Committee meetings, to which they did not immediately respond.

AUTHOR

HENRY RODGERS

Chief national correspondent.

RELATED TWEET:

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Matt Gaetz To Introduce ‘PENCIL Act,’ Blocking Adam Schiff From Reviewing Classified Information

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As Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy blocked Adam Schiff from sitting on the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz introduced legislation Thursday that would call on the House to vote on if Schiff should be banned from accessing and viewing any and all classified information.

The Daily Caller first obtained the legislation, which is titled the PENCIL Act after former President Donald Trump’s nickname of Schiff, “Pencil-Neck.” PENCIL stands for “Preventing Extreme Negligence with Classified Information Licenses” Resolution.

“Congressman Adam Schiff led the effort for years to weaponize lies from the Clinton campaign and a corrupt Department of Justice to smear President Trump while destroying any trust the country had left in America’s intelligence agencies” Gaetz told the Caller before introducing the legislation.

“Speaker McCarthy kept his promise to remove Rep. Schiff from the Intelligence Committee, and with the PENCIL Resolution, we will express the sense of Congress that he should be barred from accessing any classified information at all. He can no longer be trusted by his colleagues in Congress or the American people,” Gaetz added.

Schiff announced Thursday that he will be running for U.S. Senate., the same day Gaetz introduced the bill.

READ THE LEGISLATION HERE: 

(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — 
 by Henry Rodgers

Gaetz first introduced the PENCIL Act in 2019, when Republicans did not have control of the House.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy recently confirmed that Schiff and Democratic California Rep. Eric Swalwell will be removed from the House Intelligence Committee and the House will vote on the removal of Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Schiff took to the Chinese-owned TikTok app shortly after McCarthy removed him from the House Intelligence Committee, saying McCarthy removed him “for doing my job, for holding Trump accountable and standing up to the extreme MAGA Republicans.” He then asked for donations.

AUTHOR

HENRY RODGERS

Chief national correspondent. Follow Henry Rodgers On Twitter

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Matt Gaetz Calls To Abolish The ATF After Agency Issues Rule Allegedly Making It Harder For Certain People To Buy Guns

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Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz introduced legislation Wednesday that would abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) after they enacted a rule that would make pistol stabilizing braces illegal for anyone without a certain license.

The legislation, titled the “Abolish the ATF Act,” would totally eliminate the ATF immediately after the bill is enacted. Gaetz introduced the bill after the ATF announced they would make gun owners face the possibility of being charged with a felony if they do not register their firearms with the stabilizing braces.

Gaetz said that the House GOP has the ATF in their “crosshairs.”

“House Republicans have the ATF in our crosshairs. The continued existence of the ATF is increasingly unwarranted based on their repeated actions to convert law-abiding citizens into felons. They must be stopped. My bill today would abolish the ATF once and for all,” Gaetz said in a statement.

READ THE LEGISLATION HERE: 

(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — 
 by Henry Rodgers

In June of 2021, Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene also introduced legislation that would abolish ATF if signed into law, which Gaetz was a co-sponsor of. The Daily Caller first obtained that legislation, titled the “Brian A. Terry Memorial Eliminate the ATF Act.” The bill was named after Marine and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who was killed in a gunfight after a group of armed men attempted to rob smugglers who were transporting drugs from Mexico to the U.S.

The Caller also broke the news of legislation introduced by Republican Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall in the Senate that would protect Americans’ second amendment rights from the ATF-proposed registry for firearms with stabilizing braces.

Democrats have been focused on passing legislation that would stop gun trafficking, ban the import, sale, manufacture, transfer or possession of high-capacity magazines, raise the purchase age for certain rifles from 18 to 21 and promote safer storage of guns.

AUTHOR

HENRY RODGERS

Chief national correspondent. Follow Henry Rodgers On Twitter

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EDITORS NOTE:

Kevin McCarthy Loses 12th Bid Despite Flipping 14 Votes

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Republican California Rep. Kevin McCarthy failed to garner enough support to win the Speakership on Friday after the twelfth vote despite several opponents flipping their votes.

McCarthy won 213 votes while Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan won four and Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Kern gaining three votes. Democratic New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries once again secured all Democratic votes.

North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop, who was outspoken against McCarthy, flipped his vote in favor of McCarthy along with Oklahoma Rep. Josh Brecheen, Texas Rep. Michael Cloud. Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, Illinois Rep. Mary Miller, South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman, Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, Texas Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Rep. Keith Self, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles and Indiana Rep. Victoria Spartz.

The House adjourned yet again Thursday after failing to elect a speaker. McCarthy received 200 votes for the second straight ballot, putting him 17 votes short of getting the gavel. Meanwhile, Donalds received 12 votes while Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern won seven votes.

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who has been firm in his opposition to McCarthy, voted for former President Donald Trump. Spartz voted “present” for the seventh straight ballot while Colorado Rep. Ken Buck missed the vote after leaving for a medical procedure.

Republicans continue to negotiation a rules package between the holdouts and McCarthy’s team.

The longest vote for Speaker occurred in 1855, which went to 133 ballots. The current race is tied for the fifth-longest in American history with the 1821 vote.

AUTHOR

BRIANNA LYMAN

News and commentary writer. Follow Brianna on Twitter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Rep. Matt Gaetz Votes For Trump For House Speaker

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Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz cast a vote on Thursday for former President Donald Trump to be speaker of the House.

House Republicans failed to elect a speaker on the seventh ballot, with opponents to Republican California Rep. Kevin McCarthy refusing to increase his vote tally. McCarthy received 201 votes, Republican Florida Rep. Byron Donalds garnered 20 votes, and Gaetz was the sole representative to vote for Trump.

The race for the speakership will continue until a candidate reaches a majority of 218 votes.

Gaetz said he would vote for Trump for speakership in March.

“Give us the ability to Fire Nancy Pelosi, take back the majority, impeach Joe Biden and I’m going to nominate Donald Trump as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives,” Gaetz said at the time.

Trump urged Republicans to vote for McCarthy on Wednesday to “close the deal, take the victory” and “watch Nancy Pelosi fly back home to a very broken California.”

“Republicans, do not turn a great triumph into a giant & embarrassing defeat. It’s time to celebrate, you deserve it,” Trump said on Truth Social.

He also said if Republicans are going to fight, they should be fighting against Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

AUTHOR

DIANA GLEBOVA

White House correspondent.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Twitter Exec Pushed To Ban Matt Gaetz’ Account After Jan. 6

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Twitter’s former head of Trust and Safety, Yoel Roth, pushed internally for the company to ban Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, despite messaging another employee that such a decision did not align with the company’s policies, according to the company’s internal documents published by author Michael Shellenberger Friday as part of Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s “Twitter Files.”

An employee, whose name was redacted, messaged Roth around noon on Jan. 7, 2021, asking “What’s the latest on Antifa claims?” — seemingly in reference to a Jan. 6, 2021, tweet by Gaetz alleging that members of the anarchist movement Antifa had “infiltrated Trump protestors who stormed Capitol” — and noting that another employee, identified only as “C,” was “yelling from the other room that we should just ban Gaetz,” Shellenberger reported. Roth responded that Twitter had employees “working on that.”

“It doesn’t quite fit anywhere (duh),” Roth said, prompting agreement from the unnamed employee before he continued, according to the messages posted by Shellenberger. “But I’m trying to talk safety into treating it as incitement 
 I think we’ll get over the line for removal as a conspiracy that incites violence 
 [then-head of Legal, Policy and Trust] Vijaya [Gadde] was directionally okay with it.”

Gaetz’ account was ultimately never banned, despite the internal discussions.

The discussion occurred roughly seven hours before Roth would inform a sales executive that Twitter was “changing [its] public interest approach for [Donald Trump’s] account to say any violation would result in a suspension,” Shellenberger reported. Twitter policy protects tweets from elected officials that would otherwise violate its rules under so-called “public-interest exceptions,” which allow tweets to remain live so that the public may be aware of and discuss the users’ “actions and statements.”

Gaetz later had a June 1, 2021 tweet that read “Now that we clearly see Antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East?” hit with one such public-interest label for violating Twitter’s rules regarding the glorification of violence. At time of writing, Twitter users cannot share, like or comment on that tweet, but can still “quote tweet” it.

“This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence,” the label reads at time of writing. “However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”

Neither Twitter nor Gaetz’ office immediately responded to a Daily Caller News Foundation request for comment.

AUTHOR

JOHN HUGH DEMASTRI

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Florida Legislature Passes Two Landmark Bills: Textbooks and American Laws for American Courts

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Senator Hays

Florida Senator Alan Hays.

After four years of trying in the face of misinformed opposition, an amended version of American Law for American Courts (ALAC) SB 386 passed the Florida Legislature this week.  The Senate sponsor of SB 386, Senator Alan Hays, Republican of Umatilla, said on Monday, April 28th when the Senate voted to pass the measure by 24 Republicans to 14 Democrats:

I am delighted that my colleagues in the Florida Senate passed SB 386 – The Application of Foreign Law in Certain Cases -this morning.

It is my fervent desire to make sure everyone in a Florida courtroom is  protected from the imposition of any foreign law that may diminish the rights of that person which are afforded by our US and Florida Constitutions.  This bill codifies case law to offer those protections and is a welcome addition to the statutes of our state.

I sincerely appreciate the efforts of many others who assisted in the passage of this landmark legislation.

Fl. Rep. Mike Hill

Florida Rep. Mike Hill

House Rep. Mike Hill, Republican from Pensacola, a member of the Subcommittee on Civil Justice, following   House approval on April 30th of HB 903 by 78 Republicans to 40 Democrats, said:

I am honored to join my colleagues and vote ‘yes’ on the bill that passed the Florida House today codifying that American law only will be used in Florida courts.  It is our duty to do so as I took an oath to protect the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Florida.

The Amended version of SB 386 was adopted to overwhelm five Amendments put up by opposition minority Democrats prior to the floor debate that began last Friday, April 25th.The compromise reached was to take up an Amendment formerly offered and waived by Republican Senator David Simmons of Altamonte Springs in previous House and Senate Committee hearings. The Simmons Amendment would codify Florida case law. However, it would assist in addressing Sharia compliant parental abduction in violation of Florida, US and international law.Given Florida legislative procedures, the House passed the Senate version.Now the measure awaits enactment into law upon review by Florida Governor Rick Scott.

Rabbi Jonathan H. Hausman small

Rabbi Jonathan Hausman

Rabbi Jonathan Hausman and I were in the Florida House Public Gallery on Tuesday, April 29th witnessing the floor debate with questions from opposition Democrats to House bill sponsor Rep. Neil Combee.   Misinformed, they persisted in asking why the measure was necessary and alleged conflicts over recognition of Israeli rabbinic divorce decrees and business contracts.Rep. Combee cited both lower court and appellate level cases in which foreign law had been recognized that did not comply with the comity principles under Florida practice as justification for passing the measure.

The alleged problems cited by Democrat members of the Florida House; i.e., non-recognition of Israeli family court decisions had been investigated and found misleading. That effort was based on published research by Professor Daphna Hackner, a Tel Aviv University Family law expert and arguments presented in a video and letter to Florida legislators by Rabbi Hausman, a member of two state bars and expert in both Jewish Halacha and Islamic Sharia.

Prior to the Senate and House deliberations on SB 386/HB 903 we suggested to the bill sponsors that the Amended version be reviewed by Stephen M. Gelé, Esq. of the New Orleans law firm of Smith Fawer LLC.  Today, despite his being on vacation, Gelé sent his assessment on the legislation that we received via Christopher Holton of ACT!  Gelé said:

The Florida Legislature recently passed SB 386, a bill that will help protect Floridians from foreign law that is inconsistent with American values, such as Islamic Sharia law.  When hopefully signed into law by Governor Scott, the bill will: help protect Florida parents who face loss of their children to a foreign custody judgment; help protect spouses who face unfair foreign judgments of divorce, spousal support, or marital property distributions; help protect parents and spouses from marital contracts (including Islamic marital contracts often named mahrs) that would force decisions regarding child custody, spousal support and marital property distributions to be decided in foreign courts or under foreign law in American courts; and, help protect parents and spouses from having disputes regarding child custody, spousal support and marital property distributions from being dismissed by Florida courts in favor being decided in  foreign courts.

Although American and Florida courts have held in the past that foreign law should not be applied when the foreign law offends public policy, this concept has not previously been strengthened by statute. Further, under current Florida child custody statutes a judge can refuse to enforce a foreign custody judgment only “if the child custody law of a foreign country violates fundamental principles of human rights.”  Unfortunately, statements by the U.S. State Department suggest that “fundamental principles of human rights” should be interpreted more narrowly than most Americans would interpret the phrase.  However, SB 386 allows a Florida judge to refuse to enforce a foreign custody judgment under the much broader standard of whether the judgment offends the public policy of Florida.

Therefore, the most important effect of the change in the law would be to protect parents from losing their children to foreign custody decrees, which has happened before.

Margaret McLain

Prof. Margaret McLain

Gele’s comments are reflective of a new theme adopted based on the recommendation by Kansas House Speaker Pro Tempore, Rep. Peg Mast. Mast successfully secured bi-partisan support for passage of ALAC in the 2012 session in Topeka. She suggested emphasizing protection of “fundamental Constitutional rights” for Florida women and children. That meant putting a human face to the theme of the foreign law war on women and children. This was reflected in New English Review  interviews with two women.

One interview was with retired Arkansas State University Professor Margaret McClain. She spoke in Tallahassee on March 13, 2014 to a group of citizen lobbyists about the abduction and removal of her five  year old daughter Heidi to Saudi Arabia by her Saudi ex-husband in violation of state, federal and international law, but condoned under Sharia. 

Yasmeen A_ Davis NER interview 3-17-14

Yasmeen A. Davis

Then there was the interview with Floridian Yasmeen A. Davis who told about her abduction by her Saudi father at age 11 and her treatment under Sharia in his home in Saudi Arabia until rescued by her family at age 13.  Now 28 she still suffers PTSD from the episode.

One of the premiere groups in providing ground forces to obtain commitments for the legislation is the Christian Family Coalition (CFC) of Florida led by its highly effective executive director, Anthony Verdugo. CFC has more than 5,000 members and supporters working with over 1,000 Churches in the state. CFC demonstrated its prowess by supporting social issue legislation that passed the Florida legislature and a bi-partisan Support for Israel resolution in 2012.  CFC made the legislation a priority for passage in 2014 and held several training sessions with members to equip them with FAQs documents and arguments as to why the bills should be passed countering the misinformation of opponents.  On March 13, 2014  following talks by both Senator Hays and Professor McClain at the CFC’s Annual Leadership Prayer Breakfast in Tallahassee, 75 citizen-lobbyists fanned out buttonholing Senators and Representatives presenting the rationale behind  the CFC legislative priorities.  By the afternoon of March 13th, these CFC citizen lobbyists had successfully obtained 39 commitments in support of bills and other CFC legislative priorities.

Fl Rep Matt Gaetz

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz

Without the dogged determination of the legislation’s sponsors like Sen. Hays and Rep. Combee with the support of advocates in the House Reps. Mike Hill, Larry Metz and Matt Gaetz, what occurred this week might not have happened.

That was abetted by a new and important theme, protecting the Constitutional rights of women and children.  This was assisted by able ground forces from the CFC and other concerned citizen activists securing legislator commitments.

But that is not all that occurred in Tallahassee this week.

Earlier this month, Sen. Hays had also deftly maneuvered a companion measure directed at text book review, SB 864, passed the Senate with a thin vote tally of 21 Republicans  to 19 Democrat. The measure would reverse State Department of Education control over selection of textbooks returning that role to Florida’s 67 school districts, requiring open public hearing on texts used in courses.  SB 864 was largely prompted by a different issue; objections of parental groups in several Florida counties about the treatment of Islam and Muslim culture in world history textbooks that are on the Florida State Department of Education list of approved texts.

Today, the House passed the amended SB864/HB 921 by a resounding bi-partisan 117 yeas with 2 not voting.

Fl Rep_ Larry Metz

Florida Rep. Larry Metz

Like the experience with SB 386, SB 864/HB 921: “on K to 12 instruction materials”, was amended following a conference with both Senate and House sponsors and consultation with the Governor’s office.  While it may require clarification that standards of fact-based accurate depictions in world history texts should be adhered to, the legislation does create a process giving parents relief who object at the school district  level  to specific instructional material triggering  a public hearing.  The legislation  also adds requirements that instructional materials “accurately portray the religious and physical diversity of our society”. Further, it makes the school district boards responsible for the content of all instructional materials used in the classroom.  One important requirement is that the amended legislation would add a new topic in the curriculum specified in 1003.42, F.S. –“the events surrounding the terrorist attacks occurring on 9/11/01 and the impacts of those events on the nation”.

Those of us who have been involved with the support of both measures consider them landmarks for possible consideration in other US states.  This might not satisfy all of the concerns in certain quarters; however, they reflect two well turned precepts.  Voltaire wrote: “a wise Italian says that the best is the enemy of the good”.   German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck said:  “politics is the art of the possible”.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The New English Review.