Rep. Matt Gaetz Clashes with The View Over Trump, Roger Stone, and Political Left
Rep. Matt Gaetz was brave enough to make an appearance on ABC’s ‘The View’ to talk about the recent appointment of Rick Grenell, the potential of pardoning Roger Stone and Rod Blagojevich, and the election.
During the segment, co-host Sunny Hostin asked Rep. Gaetz about President Trump’s potential pardoning of Roger Stone who was just sentenced to 3 years and 4 months in prison.
Hostin: “Now, the president has been on a pardon spree and many think he’s about to pardon Roger stone, his long-time friend and one-time campaign adviser who’s being sentenced I think any minute now. They’re in a break. For crimes of obstructing justice, witness tampering, lying to congress. Do you think trump should pardon Roger stone?”
Gaetz: “I do…Bill Clinton pardoned 16 people of a Puerto rican terror organization. He got plenty of flack for that. That wasn’t the right thing to do. When we designed our constitution there were vestiges of the British monarchy that Americans still had some reverence for and one was the notion that the executive, that the sovereign, could extend unlimited grace for any reason.”
“In federalist 74 Alexander Hamilton writes that the reason we have the pardon power is to save as a check on the criminal justice system which could create a great sense of sang winty of our country. The original intent of the pardon power, it cannot be limited. Obama pardoned over 1700. Bill Clinton parred 459.”
In the show, Behar predicted that former Vice President Joe Biden would be the Democratic nominee after what she called a failed performance by former New York City Mayor MIchael Bloomberg.
Gaetz disagreed, arguing that he should be able to count Biden, at least, out of the race. “What states is he going to win?” Gaetz asked. He added that the whole “premise of the Biden campaign” was his electability, but he’s failed to win in both Iowa and New Hampshire.
“So, now you have socialist Bernie Sanders against billionaire Michael Bloomberg,” he said. He went on to argue that Democrats likely wouldn’t nominate a Democrat.
“They’re either going to nominate a socialist or someone who some time ago was a Republican,” he said.
Toward the end of the interview, Gaetz blasted what he called the “Venezuela wing of the Democratic Party.” “Oh, c’mon, the Venezuela wing!” Behar responded incredulously.