Matt Gaetz is a danger to the military and our national security
Long before the calls to expel Congressman Matt Gaetz for his role in the violent Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, veteran and military family groups like ours were sounding the alarm about his unfitness to serve.
Our concerns began in 2017, when Republican leaders made the troubling decision to assign Gaetz, then a 34-year-old freshman representing part of Florida’s Panhandle, with big political aspirations — but no military service, national security expertise or much professional experience — to the House Armed Services Committee.
The House Armed Services Committee is a vital part of America’s unique system of civilian oversight of the military. Its faithful execution of its constitutional duties is impossible without members who are competent, diligent and honorable, and who know better than to play politics with the troops and national security.
Don’t be fooled by
Gaetz’s self-righteousness on full display at last week’s rally in Wyoming. He is not competent, diligent or honorable. Despite his promilitary rhetoric, Gaetz consistently has undermined the values, institutions and policies that matter most to the military community. He has not faithfully executed his committee oversight duties. In fact, he has acted more like a Trump political staffer than a member of a separate and co-equal branch of government.
Four years later, his grasp of defense policy remains dangerously simplistic, compounded by a childish defiance of national-security and intelligence experts, whom he disparages as “deep state,” “swamp,” or “warmongers” when their recommendations don’t serve his political interests.
GOP leadership has yet to hold him accountable for these attacks on the intelligence and defense institutions that our service members depend on to fulfill their mission and for troop safety.
His favorite pledge to protect the military with “a whip and a chair,” doesn’t line up with his record of voting to upend decades of national-defense policy that girds the post-World War II order. Gaetz — who nicknamed himself “The Firebrand” — has voted against international alliances, the peaceful transfer of power, conditions-based troop withdrawals — and even the national defense bill.
Gaetz claims his isolationism stems from deeply held beliefs, but his ignorance of policy and craven political calculations are a more plausible explanation. Either way, isolationists do not belong on the Armed Services Committee in the nation that leads the free world. Once upon a time, the GOP understood that.
Instead of doing the serious, complex work of the committee, Gaetz has been busy making social-media memes and working the cable-news circuit, basking in the attention he has received from his controversial, anti-establishment record. His willingness — indeed, eagerness — to use his massive communications platform to sow division and disinformation has also earned him a starring role in two of the ugliest chapters of the Trump era: the unprecedented politicization of the military and the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election.
Gaetz’s legacy includes baseless allegations about the Navy justice system’s mistreatment of Eddie Gallagher that sparked a cascade of political interference into Navy command’s efforts to maintain good order and discipline. At the end of it all, the secretary of the Navy resigned in protest and a war criminal was re-made into a celebrity.
When President Trump shocked the Pentagon by invoking emergency powers to divert more than $3 billion in defense funds to build the border wall, Gaetz had no qualms about fearmongering about an imaginary invasion and downplaying the very real impact the loss of funds would have on the military community.
Gaetz was a cheerleader for Trump’s rushed troop withdrawals against the
administration’s own warnings that they would put troops’ safety at risk, leave our allies in a lurch and boost terrorist groups. Gaetz’s “forever wars” crusade was part fawning devotion to Trump and part attack on the seasoned military leaders and counterintelligence experts who dared to call the withdrawals what they were: “political” and “without merit.”
With an unforgivable disregard for troop cohesion and morale, Gaetz would even resort to smearing our military leaders, claiming the “war mongers” consider their rank-and-file “a disposable commodity.”
As it turns out, pitting America’s enlisted service members against their officers wouldn’t be the congressman’s most disgraceful act. Since the fall, Gaetz has been undermining public trust in our elections, repeatedly lying to the American people about a vast conspiracy to commit systemic election fraud in several states, courts and law enforcement agencies.
When Trump’s defeat became apparent, Gaetz’s rhetoric turned radical and extreme, calling on Republicans to “stand and fight” Democrats who were allegedly stealing their votes. His rhetoric would radicalize untold numbers of Americans, including the deadly mob that stormed the Capitol to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.
For every example of Gaetz’s unfitness to serve, there are dozens more in our joint complaint to GOP leadership, calling for his removal from the House Armed Services Committee.
Any member of Congress who actively undermines America’s interests cannot be permitted to serve on a committee so vital to our national security.