Rep. Matt Gaetz Monday called on House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy to remove GOP Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney from their committee assignments telling Newsmax that keeping them in their posts would send a confusing mixed message after they agreed to serve on the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 incidents at the Capitol.
"You can't then invite those people into your strategy sessions as you're executing an agenda for America," the Florida Republican argued on Newsmax's "National Report." "How can we be telling the American people don't listen to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, (because) they don't represent us and then at the same time, elevate them to significant roles within our conference?"
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday formally named Kinzinger, R-Ill., to join Cheney on the committee. McCarthy pulled back his picks for the committee after Pelosi rejected Reps. Jim Jordan and Jim Banks, so Kinzinger will be just the second Republican on the group.
Gaetz said that Republicans must be as clear with Cheney, R-Wyo., and Kinzinger as "they've been with us that they're no longer a member of our team."
"Our team needs to put forward, I think, a positive agenda for the country that conflicts with the Nancy Pelosi slide back to Jan. 6, the Biden border crisis, and the Biden inflation crisis that's hurting so many American families," said Gaetz.
Further, he claimed that Kinzinger and Cheney would "lose a Republican primary anywhere in America that you would throw a dart and it would hit the map, and so it seems bizarre that they are representing Republicans in this highly significant venture."
However, Gaetz refused to follow other Republicans in calling the committee a "dog and pony show," saying the matter is more serious.
"I think the entire purpose of the Jan. 6 committee is to create a series of criminal referrals to the Biden justice department, and I think that Kevin Mccarthy is the lead target," said Gaetz. "I think most Americans think it's unfair that Nancy Pelosi would get to pick her team and then would get to pick the players of the other team, and in doing so they excluded our best player, Jim Jordan. He is the most talented; he is the most effective member of the Republican conference."
He pointed out that the investigations into Russia and the 2016 election created a series of criminal referrals that led to "process crimes" being charged.
"Kevin McCarthy better hope he never deleted an email or forwarded something to a place where it wasn't saved," said Gaetz. "Otherwise there's going to be an effort to use process crimes to try to jam up the Republican leadership, and I do think it's that serious."
Pelosi also knows that if Jordan is on the committee, "she'll lose, just like she did during the last two impeachments," said Gaetz. "They're picking our weakest members, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, after the Russia hoax, after the Ukraine sequel to the Russia hoax, you saw Jim Jordan's best. We exposed the left for their viciousness and for their lack of focus on the issues affecting the country."
Gaetz also spoke out about how he and fellow Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., were blocked from an event in California, where he said they wanted to share their "patriotic vision for the country."
"They're now saying that words constitute violence and trauma, and that's not true," said Gaetz. "We have to use our words to be able to avoid political violence. But when they say that when you use words like man and woman and mother. That those are violent words than I think you really constrain the type of exchange we need in America to have a healthy national discussion and a functioning republic."
Note: See Newsmax TV now carried in more than 100 million U.S. homes, on DirecTV Ch. 349, Dish Network Ch. 216, Xfinity Ch. 1115, Spectrum, U-verse Ch. 1220, FiOS Ch. 615, Frontier Ch. 115, Optimum Ch. 102, Cox cable, Suddenlink Ch. 102, Mediacom Ch. 277, AT&T TV Ch 349, FUBO and major OTT platforms like Roku, YouTube, Xumo, Pluto and most smart TV’s including Samsung+, Sony, LG, Vizio and more – Find All Systems that Carry Newsmax – Click Here