136 Facts About Matt Gaetz

Matthew Louis Gaetz II is an American politician and lawyer who served as the US representative for from 2017 until his resignation in 2024.

Matt Gaetz's district included all of Escambia, Okaloosa, and Santa Rosa counties, and portions of Walton County.

In October 2023, Matt Gaetz filed a motion to vacate which led to the removal of Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the US House of Representatives.

Matt Gaetz served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2010 until 2016, and received national attention for defending Florida's "stand-your-ground law".

On November 13,2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced he would nominate Matt Gaetz to serve as United States attorney general, which some Senate Republicans received poorly.

Gaetz started hosting The Matt Gaetz Show, a political talk show airing weeknights on One America News Network in January 2025.

Matthew Louis Gaetz II was born on May 7,1982, in Hollywood, Florida, to Victoria and Don Gaetz, who later became a prominent local politician, earning Matthew Gaetz the nickname "Baby Gaetz".

Matt Gaetz grew up in a conservative and religious family near Fort Walton Beach, and graduated from Niceville High School.

Matt Gaetz graduated from Florida State University in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in interdisciplinary sciences.

Matt Gaetz was admitted to the Florida Bar on February 6,2008.

Matt Gaetz's father represented parts of northwest Florida as a member of the Florida State Senate from 2006 to 2016, was Senate president from 2012 to 2014, and was elected to the Florida Senate again in 2024.

In October 2021, the Florida bar suspended Matt Gaetz from practicing law due to unpaid fees.

Matt Gaetz was reinstated after the $265 fee was paid.

In March 2010, after Republican state representative Ray Sansom's resignation on corruption charges in February 2010, Matt Gaetz ran in the special election to succeed Sansom in the 4th district, which included southern Santa Rosa County and Okaloosa County.

Matt Gaetz joined state senator Greg Evers in proposing legislation to eliminate the federal ethanol content mandate that 10 percent of gasoline sold in Florida contain ethanol; Governor Rick Scott signed the legislation in May 2013.

In 2015, Matt Gaetz was one of two members to vote against a Florida bill which criminalized revenge porn, due to "personal animosity".

When his subcommittee was considering legislation that would keep suspects' mugshots off the Internet until their convictions, Matt Gaetz brought up his 2008 arrest and non-conviction, arguing that his mistakes made him who he is and that publicly available mugshots "could be a problem for those unaccustomed to publicity".

In 2015, Matt Gaetz supported the presidential campaign of Jeb Bush.

Bush emailed Matt Gaetz about introducing a bill to change the 2016 Florida Republican presidential primary to an earlier date in order to benefit Bush, Florida's former governor.

In 2013, Matt Gaetz announced that, in 2016, he would run for the 1st district State Senate seat held by his father, Don Matt Gaetz, who was term-limited in 2016.

On March 21,2016, Matt Gaetz withdrew from the race, choosing instead to run for the US House seat representing Florida's 1st congressional district; the incumbent, Jeff Miller, had announced 11 days earlier that he would not seek reelection.

Matt Gaetz is only the seventh person to represent this district since 1933.

Matt Gaetz resigned from two Florida House political action committees he had started and chaired; the PACs closed down and transferred $380,000 to a federal super PAC, North Florida Neighbors, whose purpose was to support Gaetz's congressional campaign.

Matt Gaetz was listed as a member of the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership from at least January to June 2017.

Matt Gaetz served as a top campaign adviser to Ron DeSantis during his 2018 gubernatorial campaign.

Matt Gaetz managed debate preparations and "drafted early administration organizational charts, helped steer early policy decisions and played a huge role in DeSantis' appointments", according to Politico.

Matt Gaetz hired Darren Beattie as a speechwriter in April 2019.

Matt Gaetz attended political rallies in 2018 and 2019 at which members of the Proud Boys were present.

Matt Gaetz announced that he would no longer accept campaign contributions from federal political action committees in February 2020.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy complained on a January 10,2021, phone call that Matt Gaetz was unnecessarily "putting people in jeopardy", noting that the rioters at the US Capitol on January 6 "came prepared with rope".

Matt Gaetz was one of 21 House Republicans to vote against a resolution to give the Congressional Gold Medal to police officers who defended the US Capitol on January 6 in June 2021.

Matt Gaetz invited Corey Ryan Beekman to lead the pledge of allegiance at a Judiciary Committee hearing in February 2023.

Certain members of the Freedom Caucus, including Matt Gaetz, could contribute the required margin.

Thirteen months earlier, Matt Gaetz had discussed with former president Trump the possibility of getting Trump elected to the speakership, for which House membership is not required.

Matt Gaetz nominated him once and voted for Trump on the 7th, 8th and 11th ballots.

On October 2,2023, Matt Gaetz filed a resolution to oust McCarthy from his role as speaker of the US House of Representatives after the latter had negotiated with Democrats to pass a shutdown-averting continuing resolution which did not include fiscally conservative reforms.

On February 26,2019, the night before the scheduled public hearing of Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney, before the House Oversight Committee, Matt Gaetz directed a tweet to Cohen that implied without evidence that Cohen had had multiple extramarital affairs and suggested his wife might be unfaithful while he was imprisoned due to new information disclosed to her.

Politico reported in April 2020 that Matt Gaetz had spent nearly $200,000 of taxpayer funds renting an office from Collier Merrill, a Pensacola real estate developer and restaurateur and longtime friend, adviser, campaign donor, and legal client.

On July 1,2020, the Office of Congressional Ethics notified Matt Gaetz it had terminated its review of the lease arrangements.

In July 2020, Politico reported that its investigation had found expenditures by Matt Gaetz that appeared to violate the House ethics rules: spending tens of thousands of dollars for a speech-writing consultant and having a private company install a television studio in his father's home in Niceville, Florida, which Matt Gaetz uses when he appears on television.

Matt Gaetz's office acknowledged that he spent $28,000 on speech-writing services, which is prohibited by House rules except in special circumstances and with prior approval from congressional officials, but said that it was a clerical error that would be fixed.

The Intercept reported in March 2023 that Matt Gaetz had hired Derrick Miller as his military legislative aide.

President-elect Trump announced he would nominate Matt Gaetz to serve as United States attorney general on November 13,2024.

Matt Gaetz resigned from the US House of Representatives shortly after the announcement.

Matt Gaetz's planned nomination was received negatively by multiple Senate Republicans, several of whom indicated that they would not support it due to standing allegations against him and perceived lack of qualifications.

On November 21,2024, Matt Gaetz announced on X that he was withdrawing his name from consideration as attorney general to avoid complicating the Trump transition.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis requested that an interim election be held in Matt Gaetz's former Florida district to fill his House seat, as is the constitutional procedure when there is a resignation.

In January 2025, Gaetz began hosting a 9 pm Eastern weeknight political talk show called The Matt Gaetz Show on One America News Network.

In January 2018, Gaetz invited Charles C Johnson, an alt-right activist and Holocaust denier, to attend Donald Trump's State of the Union address.

Matt Gaetz defended Johnson in an interview, saying that Johnson was neither a Holocaust denier nor a white supremacist.

Matt Gaetz was an early supporter of Trump and his appeal to the Republican Party base, echoing his talking points.

In several commercials during his 2016 congressional campaign, Matt Gaetz promised to "kill Muslim terrorists and build the wall".

Matt Gaetz has introduced legislation to reclassify cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act.

Matt Gaetz has introduced legislation to loosen federal restrictions on the cultivation of cannabis for research purposes.

Matt Gaetz has criticized the federal government for having "lied to the American people for a generation" about the medical benefits of cannabis.

In September 2017, Matt Gaetz keynoted the American Medical Marijuana Physicians Association's annual conference.

In November 2019, Matt Gaetz was one of only two Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee to vote for the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, which among other reforms sought to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act.

Matt Gaetz was the only Republican cosponsor of the bill at the time of its passage.

Matt Gaetz introduced the STATES Act to prevent federal interference in states that have legalized cannabis for medical or recreational purposes.

Matt Gaetz said he had multiple conversations with President Trump about cannabis policy.

Nonetheless, Matt Gaetz did not find positions on marijuana to be a dealbreaker in the 2024 Republican Speaker nominee selection, repeatedly supporting anti-cannabis candidates.

Worried about protesters disrupting his appearance at his town hall in Pace, Florida, Matt Gaetz prepared what his staffers called a nonverbal town hall on February 23,2017.

Matt Gaetz printed out part of his speech onto giant boards that he would hold up if he was unable to speak.

Matt Gaetz arrived 30 minutes late to the meeting, where at least 500 constituents crowded into a bowling alley.

Matt Gaetz said that Trump should release his tax returns, but stopped short of saying Congress should subpoena them.

Matt Gaetz closed his town hall by shouting Trump's 2016 campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again".

In May 2018, Matt Gaetz was one of 18 House Republicans to vote to nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in peace talks with North Korea.

Matt Gaetz is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, but not of the Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, or Oversight and Reform Committees, and so was not allowed to join lawmakers' closed-door deposition of former White House Russia aide Fiona Hill in October 2019.

Matt Gaetz told reporters that, since his committee oversees impeachment, he should have been allowed to be part of depositions related to the Trump impeachment inquiry.

In November 2017, Matt Gaetz introduced a congressional resolution calling for Robert Mueller to recuse himself as special counsel because of what were said to be conflicts of interest.

Matt Gaetz asked for a special counsel investigation into the Federal Bureau of Investigation's handling of the Hillary Clinton email controversy, undue interference by US attorney general Loretta Lynch in the investigation, and the Russian state corporation Rosatom's acquisition of Uranium One during Mueller's time as FBI director.

Matt Gaetz said he did not trust Mueller to lead the investigation because of Mueller's alleged involvement in approval of the Uranium One deal and alleged close relationship with dismissed FBI director James Comey, a probable person of interest in a proposed new investigation.

In October 2019, Matt Gaetz organized a "storming" of a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility on Capitol Hill by about two dozen Republican congressmen, including House minority whip Steve Scalise, in an effort to sit in on and hear the deposition of a Pentagon official during the impeachment inquiry into Trump.

On January 7,2021, after Trump supporters violently broke into the US Capitol, Matt Gaetz falsely blamed antifa for the attack, suggesting that rioters were "masquerading as Trump supporters".

Matt Gaetz co-sponsored a resolution by Andy Biggs to impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas in August 2021.

Later that month, Matt Gaetz co-sponsored a resolution by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene to impeach president Biden.

Matt Gaetz expressed the belief that many Republicans in Congress were hesitant to impeach Biden, but that Republican voters would feel "betrayed" if they did not.

In May 2023, Matt Gaetz co-sponsored resolutions by Marjorie Taylor Greene to impeach Biden and Mayorkas.

Matt Gaetz was among the 71 Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 in the House.

Matt Gaetz acknowledged global warming in 2016 but said he disagrees with the scientific consensus on climate change that human activity is the primary cause.

Matt Gaetz proposed legislation to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency in January 2017, claiming that it hurts small businesses via the costs associated with compliance.

Matt Gaetz joined the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus in November 2017.

Matt Gaetz said he advocated technological innovation and economic incentives that address climate change, and increased federal funds for global warming research by NASA, NOAA and universities, but remained opposed to increased environmental regulation.

In 2021, Matt Gaetz was one of 14 House Republicans to vote against a measure condemning the Myanmar coup d'etat that overwhelmingly passed, for reasons reported to be unclear.

On October 12,2017, Matt Gaetz introduced a resolution affirming the connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem and condemning UNESCO's efforts to the contrary.

In 2019, Matt Gaetz was one of 60 representatives to vote against condemning Trump's withdrawal from Syria.

In June 2021, Matt Gaetz was one of 49 House Republicans to vote to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002.

Matt Gaetz voted to provide Israel with support following 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

Matt Gaetz called the label a "badge of honor", accused Twitter of enabling antifa, and again said that "[o]ur government should hunt [Antifa] down".

Matt Gaetz was one of three representatives to offer Rittenhouse a Congressional internship.

Matt Gaetz is a lifetime member of the NRA, and has an A+ rating from it.

When Matt Gaetz served in the Florida House of Representatives, he led an unsuccessful effort to allow Floridians with concealed-weapons permits to carry those weapons openly in public.

Immediately before his remarks on the Second Amendment, Matt Gaetz criticized Big Tech companies for trying to "suppress us, discourage us", saying, "Silicon Valley can't cancel this movement, or this rally, or this congressman".

In October 2017, Matt Gaetz argued that the Medicaid expansion permitted by the Affordable Care Act fueled the opioid crisis.

In June 2021, Matt Gaetz introduced the Digital Health Pass Prevention Act, a bill aimed at preventing the federal government from funding and enforcing any digital passes associated with COVID-19 vaccination status, with the support of representatives Louie Gohmert and Lance Gooden.

In early March 2020, Matt Gaetz wore a gas mask during a House debate on funds to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Matt Gaetz argued that wearing the gas mask was not an act of mockery but a way of "demonstrating his concern".

Matt Gaetz said he had no symptoms and was not sure when he had contracted the disease.

On December 4,2020, Matt Gaetz attended an indoor New York Young Republicans Club conference in Jersey City, New Jersey, during a period of surging COVID-19 cases throughout the state and the country.

On December 19,2017, Matt Gaetz was the only representative to vote against the Combating Human Trafficking in Commercial Vehicles Act, a bill allocating additional government resources to help combat human trafficking.

Matt Gaetz later explained that his vote was due to his small government principles and his belief that existing federal agencies could adequately combat human trafficking.

Matt Gaetz opposes sanctuary cities, which limit their cooperation with the federal government in enforcing immigration law.

In October 2018, Matt Gaetz falsely stated that George Soros paid for a caravan of migrants from Central America to the United States.

Matt Gaetz voted against the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 which authorizes DHS to nearly double the available H-2B visas for the remainder of FY 2020.

Matt Gaetz tweeted on June 23,2021 that the FBI should be defunded.

Matt Gaetz persuaded his father, in the Florida State Senate, to support the repeal.

In 2015, after the US Supreme Court decided Obergefell v Hodges, which established the legal recognition of same-sex marriage in the United States, Gaetz said he disagreed with the court's ruling, saying that each state should have the right to decide for itself whether to allow same-sex marriage.

Matt Gaetz argued that the decision was an example of "judicial activism" that posed "a threat to our democracy".

In 2022, Matt Gaetz voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, which repealed the Defense of Marriage Act, which restricted legal recognition of marriage to opposite-sex marriage in federal law.

In 2024, Matt Gaetz condemned schools for promoting what he described as "degenerate LGBT and anti-White propaganda" as he introduced his "National Prayer In School Act".

Matt Gaetz was one of 39 Republicans to vote for the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2022, an antitrust package that would crack down on corporations for anti-competitive behavior.

In October 2023, Matt Gaetz filed a motion to vacate which led to the removal of Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the US House of Representatives.

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson wrote in her memoir that, during a trip to Camp David in 2020, Matt Gaetz made "repeated passes" at her and asked her to "escort" him to his room.

In January 2020, the US Secret Service reportedly received a tip that, in April 2018, Matt Gaetz had accompanied Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg to a government office where Greenberg was producing fake IDs.

Axios reported that Matt Gaetz was "seriously considering not seeking re-election and possibly leaving Congress early for a job at Newsmax" on March 30,2021.

Matt Gaetz was reportedly joined by marijuana entrepreneur and hand surgeon Jason Pirozzolo, who allegedly paid trip accommodations, traveling expenses, and escort services.

Matt Gaetz had argued in a November 2020 Fox News appearance that Trump "should pardon Michael Flynn [and] everyone from himself to his administration officials to Joe Exotic".

Matt Gaetz said his attorneys contacted the FBI, whom he said had informed them that Matt Gaetz was a subject, not a target, of an investigation.

Matt Gaetz said his father agreed to wear a "wire" to help the FBI record the alleged extortionists.

Matt Gaetz sent Axios screenshots of text messages, emails and documents outlining the alleged extortion scheme, which he asserted was being run by David McGee, a former federal prosecutor who has been a private attorney since 2005 and has represented the Levinson family.

Prosecutors alleged that Alford said he had contacts in the Justice Department who could arrange for a presidential pardon for Matt Gaetz and directed Don Matt Gaetz to wire the money to a trust account managed by McGee.

Matt Gaetz had allegedly claimed to have slept with the women in the photos.

The next day, Trump publicly denied that Matt Gaetz had asked him for a pardon.

That evening, Representative Adam Kinzinger tweeted that Matt Gaetz should resign, becoming the first congressional Republican to make such a call.

Thanks to his assistance with the prosecutors in a series of investigations, including those involving Matt Gaetz, Greenberg was sentenced to 11 years in prison, plus 10 years of supervised release, on December 1,2022.

The House Ethics Committee began its probe in April 2021 into Matt Gaetz's alleged misconduct but soon paused it while the DOJ investigated.

The DOJ had charted payments showing that, between July 2017 and January 2019, Matt Gaetz paid both women a total of over $10,000 across 27 Venmo transactions and a check.

In mid-November 2024, days before the committee was scheduled to vote whether to release its report, which was nearly complete and which insiders said was "highly critical" of Matt Gaetz, Matt Gaetz resigned from the House, in part due to an announcement of his nomination as United States Attorney General for Donald Trump's second term.

Matt Gaetz was arrested for driving under the influence as he was driving back from a nightclub on Okaloosa Island, Florida, in 2008.

Matt Gaetz initially denied that he had drunk alcohol, but later admitted to drinking two beers.

Matt Gaetz failed an eye test twice, then declined field sobriety tests.

Shortly after Matt Gaetz's case was referred to state attorney Steve Meadows, Matt Gaetz's driving license was reinstated.

Matt Gaetz's refusal did not lead to a criminal prosecution, during which it could have been used against him.

Matt Gaetz's attorney argued that an unnamed witness who knew Matt Gaetz "observed no indication of impairment".

Matt Gaetz has published a 2020 book and a 2021 podcast, both titled Firebrand.

In December 2020, Matt Gaetz announced his engagement to his girlfriend, Ginger Luckey, the sister of Oculus VR founder and major Republican donor Palmer Luckey.