On Monday, Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz appeared on Newsmax TV’s “The Right Squad” and asserted that Democrats should join Republicans in wanting to reform the FBI in the wake of the Durham report.
He argued the FBI has been weaponized against causes that the left is passionate about, before calling for rescinding funding for a whole new FBI headquarters.
Gaetz also called to abolish secret FISA courts.
The congressman declared, “[I]n a proper world, Republicans and Democrats would be able to work together on this, because it wasn’t all that long ago, [that] the FBI was a right-wing organization weaponized against civil rights leaders and others, and it was wrong then and it’s wrong now.”
He continued, “And I do think this has to be a clarion call to every Republican, we cannot reauthorize 702 authorities within FISA.
We cannot continue to fund the FBI at its current level, and I think we should claw back the $325 million that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had gifted for a new FBI headquarters in the D.C. area.
That’s a bad thing for people’s civil liberties, and there should be firings. But there has to be legislative reform, and it should be bipartisan.”
Gaetz added, “I’d get rid of the secret FISA courts.
The lawmaker accused the FBI of becoming “the enforcement wing of the Democratic Party to play offense against Trump,” and demanded that the agency face harsh consequences for its wrongdoings.
“I think we have to deauthorize, defang and defund many of these authorities and entities and different task forces that actually converted the just and righteous act of protecting our country with the desire to have a particular political candidate win or lose,” he added.
Gaetz also tweeted that the Durham report is an “absolutely DAMNING treatise on the weaponization of the FBI against President Trump.”
Check it out:
The Durham report is an absolutely DAMNING treatise on the weaponization of the FBI against President Trump.
This should be a clarion call for legislative reform. We need to defund and deauthorize government entities that are converted from the just cause of defending our nation… pic.twitter.com/peaeMcVr6q
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) May 16, 2023
