WATCH: Matt Gaetz Defends George Santos in Wild Interview While Guest Hosting Steve Bannon’s ‘War Room’
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) guest-hosted Steve Bannon’s far-right War Room podcast on Thursday and interviewed a slew of guests from inside the House GOP, including Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), and fabulist George Santos (R-NY).
Gaetz, who was filling for Bannon while he was at a court hearing for his border wall scheme criminal case, openly defended Santos by declaring at one point “embellishing one’s resume isn’t a crime.”
Santos has publicly admitted to lying about his past and has been found to have lied about everything from his employment and education history to his heritage to even how his own mother died – having falsley claimed she was killed in the 9/11 terror attacks.
“One thing I know about this town. They come for the fighters and they are coming for George Santos like nothing I’ve seen in quite some time,” began Gaetz kicking off the interview.
“I could ask you what it’s like to be an embattled congressman, but I kind of know a little bit about that scene. George, you’ve heard just there, Congressman D’Esposito, your Republican colleague, calling for you to resign. Nick Langworthy also, what’s your reaction?” Gaetz asked.
“You know, it’s your prerogative. I came here to serve the people, not politicians and party leaders. And I’m going to do just that,” replied Santos, adding:
And I’ve been doing just that throughout this entire first two weeks, whether it was voting for the speaker or whether it’s been the last week where we’ve been working on legislation in my office. So, you know, I wish well, all of their opinions, but I was elected by 142,000 people until those same 142,000 people tell me they don’t want me. We’ll find out in two years.
Later in the interview, Gaetz praised Santos for flipping a blue seat red.
“This was a seat that a lot of folks looked at and said, definitely going Democrat, you know, Republicans. Gosh. Well, you know, Santos ran last time. We’ll send him to run this time. And you surprised a lot of people,” Gaetz said.
”All the people calling me to resign. I beat them by double their margins in the victory because I outworked every single one of them,” Santos replied.
“Embellishing one’s resume isn’t a crime. It’s frankly, how a lot of people get to Congress. And we want everyone to be honest,” Gaetz said.
“And again, you’ve acknowledged that and you’re working forward going forward. One of the principal critiques I’ve heard is that a lot of money was donated to your campaign by you. 700,000, I believe. Where did it come from?” Gaetz asked.
“Well, I’ll tell you where it didn’t come from. He didn’t come from China, Ukraine or Burisma. How about that?” replied Santos, taking an apparent dig at the Bidens.
“Well, that that is an answer. I mean, I also put money into my campaign when I ran. I had to sell some of the property that I had acquired in my life in order to fund something that I really believed in. And, you know, when I was raising money for different charities, I always tried to put my own money in first. And so, you know, when you donated that money to your campaign, is there anything else you can say about the work you did that was the origin of those resources?” Gaetz followed up, looking for an answer.
“Look, I’ve worked my entire life. I’ve lived an honest life. I’ve never been accused, sued of anything bad doing. So, you know, it’s my it’s the equity of my hard-working self. And I’ve invested inside of me. Like I said, it didn’t come from Burisma. It didn’t come from Ukraine, Russia, China, unlike some folks that we all know that get money from those sources,” Santos replied, doubling down on his talking point.
Gaetz then moved on and asked Santos about what he’s hearing from his constituents are their top priorities.
Watch the full clip above
