Matt Gaetz Accidentally Insults Trump While Bashing a “Dictator”

MAGA Representative Matt Gaetz accidentally threw some shade at former President Donald Trump on Monday while trying to weigh in on Venezuela’s contested presidential election.

Venezuela’s election authority declared Sunday that President Nicolás Maduro had won the country’s presidential election, having secured 51 percent of the popular vote, while his U.S.-backed opponent, Edmundo Gonzalez, earned only 44 percent, according to the Associated Press.

The opposition party has disputed the results, claiming that Gonzalez had earned a whopping 70 percent of the vote and that they had the data to back it up. Venezuela’s voting authority delayed the release of the detailed vote tallies Monday as protests broke out across the country, and foreign leaders have been reluctant to recognize a winner. Not Gaetz though—he’s all in.

“Maduro lost the election in Venezuela badly, then simply declared victory anyway. He is an illegitimate dictator,” Gaetz wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Did that description not sound the least bit familiar to the Republican congressman, who has turned into one of Trump’s most devoted sycophants?

“We stand with the people of Venezuela and their diaspora throughout the world in calling for an end to his murderous regime. It is sad but true that a nation can vote its way into socialism, but almost always has to fight its way out,” Gaetz wrote.

A loyal Trump toady, Gaetz has repeatedly downplayed the January 6 insurrection, pushing the conspiracy theory that the FBI was involved in the attack. A year after the deadly riot, Gaetz referred to the rioters as “patriotic Americans … who had no intent of breaking the law and doing violence.”

“We’re ashamed of nothing,” Gaetz said on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast in January 2022. “We’re proud of the work we did on January 6 to make legitimate arguments about election integrity,” he added.

Republican Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, fellow Trump stooges, also posted their criticisms of Maduro to X, proving self-awareness is dead.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday shut down Vivek Ramaswamy’s attempt to fire back at the Kamala Harris campaign’s criticisms of Republicans as “weird.”

It started when Ramaswamy posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday night about how “this whole ‘they’re weird’ argument from the Democrats is dumb & juvenile.”

“This is a presidential election, not a high school prom queen contest. It’s also a tad ironic coming from the party that preaches ‘diversity & inclusion.’ Win on policy if you can, but cut the crap please,” the failed Republican presidential candidate said in his post.

On Tuesday morning, Ocasio-Cortez clapped back, pointing out how Republicans’ actual policies are the weird part.

“It’s an incel platform, dude. It’s SUPER weird. And people need to know,” Ocasio-Cortez posted.

It appears that the criticisms of Vance and Trump are starting to get to Republicans, which signals that they’re working. For the past week, Vance has been heavily mocked, as his campaign speeches fell flat and a false internet rumor circulated about him conducting a sex act with a couch. Old remarks where he compared Democrats to “childless cat ladies” resurfaced and drew criticism from celebrities as well as lawmakers.

Ramaswamy could hardly have expected his post to shut the criticism down. But then again, he’s not known for his powerful language actually working, as those who have heard him try to rap can attest. Tuesday’s post from AOC isn’t even the first time she’s shut him down this month, as she recently destroyed his RNC speech in which he tried to paint Republicans as “cool.” Unfortunately for Ramaswamy, it didn’t work.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has tapped a January 6 conspiracy theory-touting  Republican lawmaker to join a new bipartisan task force investigating the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.

Johnson unveiled his list of picks Monday, which included his fellow Louisiana Republican, MAGA Representative Clay Higgins.

Higgins subscribes to the outlandish far-right theory that “FBI informants” pretending to be Trump supporters descended on the U.S. capital the night before the deadly January 6 insurrection using “ghost buses.”

During a hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee in November, Higgins raised this theory to FBI Director Christopher Wray, who “emphatically” denied his claims. As proof, Higgins pointed at a picture of buses parked outside of Union Station in Washington, D.C., the night before the attack, claiming that they were ghost vehicles, or vehicles with the windows painted over to keep their purpose secret.

“These buses are nefarious in nature and were filled with FBI informants dressed as Trump supporters, deployed onto our capital on January 6,” Higgins insisted, saying he had “extensive evidence” about the two vehicles. 

When the committee’s Chairman Mark Green pushed Higgins to wrap it up, the Louisiana Republican warned: “Your day is coming, Mr. Wray.”

Higgins released a statement Monday about his new appointment. “I am honored to serve on the bipartisan Task Force on the attempted assassination of President Trump,” he said. “The American people demand answers, and we will use every tool at our disposal to reveal granular detail of what led to the attempted assassination, ensure accountability, and identify security failures. I look forward to working with my bipartisan colleagues to deliver the truth.”

If his previous statements are any indication, Higgins might be vulnerable to believing the far-right conspiracy theories about Trump’s brush with death. In fact, he’s already shared one.

“American Patriots are united behind President Trump,” Higgins wrote in a post on X, shortly after the shooting at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “The left will not stop MAGA Nation.”

Donald Trump is getting fed up with Fox News over the network simply doing its job.

“Why is FoxNews putting on Crazy Kamala Harris Rallies?” wrote Trump on Truth Social Monday afternoon.

Amid articles about Ted Cruz “safeguarding” schools from the Chinese Communist Party and Whoopi Goldberg reacting to “drag queens” at the Olympics, Trump couldn’t find enough Fox News articles sucking up to him. Earlier this month, Trump issued a similar complaint that the network wasn’t doing enough to help him, writing “STOP PUTTING ON THE ENEMY!”

In the past, Fox has done plenty to boost Trump, especially around his false claims of 2020 election fraud. That support cost them nearly $800 million to settle a lawsuit.

“Why do they allow the perverts at the failed and disgraced Lincoln Project to advertise on FoxNews? Even Mr. Kellyanne Conway, a man so badly hurt and humiliated by his wife (she must have done some really NASTY things to him, because he is CRAZY!), is advertising on FoxNews,” Trump continued Monday, referring to his former adviser Kellyanne Conway’s ex-husband, George Conway.

Trump seems to be playing willfully ignorant that Fox News has been the most-watched news network for more than 20 years, making it desirable for well-funded advertisers, in order to make the point that he’s frustrated about its supposed disloyalty.

It’s more likely that Trump is annoyed that Fox aired a favorability poll over the weekend that showed Harris leading over him in swing states.

“We have to WIN WITHOUT FOX!” wrote Trump.

How do the right-wing respond when they see white men, typically their most reliable supporters, powerfully mobilizing for Kamala Harris? Derogatory name-calling.

When a Harris campaign account announced Monday that registration for a “White Dudes for Kamala” event had surpassed 75,000 people, Donald Trump Jr. just had to weigh in.

“They should give it a more fitting name,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter), suggesting instead, “Cucks for Kamala.”

Using a typical insult from alt-right internet trolls, Trump is implying that any man supporting Harris lets another man satisfy their wife in the bedroom.

Trump likely stole this particular joke about “white dudes” for Kamala being “cucks” specifically from far-right commentator Steven Crowder, who posted about the dig on X Monday morning. Crowder himself likely lifted the joke from the controversial website 4chan before that.

Trump’s insults came as a similar group, White Women for Kamala, continues to break fundraising records. The groups are modeling their fundraising efforts after that of Win With Black Women, which hosted a Zoom call last weekend that attracted close to 44,000 attendees and raised more than $1.5 million. By Friday, white women had raised over $8.5 million.

As affinity groups in support of Harris meet, strategize, and raise cash for the campaign, right-wing grifters, including the co-founder of Moms for Liberty, continue to attack the efforts, calling them “racist.”

Perhaps the Republicans are freaking out since Trump is losing the support of white male voters.

Threatened much?