Once highly respected, former South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy has proven to be an abject disappointment, particularly when it comes to spewing asinine rhetoric as a Fox News contributor against President Trump and his allies. But The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway put him in his place Friday evening.
Hemingway and Gowdy appeared as guests on Friday’s Special Report with host Bret Baier, where they discussed Trump’s surprising picks to lead his second administration. These included former Florida GOP congressman Matt Gaetz, who Trump chose to be America’s next Attorney General.
Hemingway opened up the conversation by telling Baier that Trump’s selections show he is earnest about rooting out corruption embedded in the Deep State and reversing the extensive damage caused by the Biden-Harris regime.
“He has big goals and big vision and a feeling that there’s something that’s just been wrong with our country for a while, and we need to return to that glory of self-governance where we don’t have really corrupt agencies hurting the country, putting – stopping people from being able to produce,” Hemingway explained.
Gowdy said he liked most of Trump’s picks but unloaded on Gaetz’s selection. He called the pick “dumbfounding” and smeared Gaetz as “corrupt,” alleging he only resigned to avoid being sanctioned by the House Ethics Committee.
“You don’t root out corruption at the Department of Justice by picking a corrupt person to lead it,” Gowdy whined. “They’re (the media) talking about this wild card pick of someone who had to get out of the House to avoid being sanctioned by the House Ethics Committee. That dumbfounding pick is just sucking the oxygen out of all the good ones he made.
But Hemingway smacked him down with an epic comeback that laid out precisely why Gaetz was the right choice to lead the DOJ. She pointed out that he was one of the most effective people when it came to exposing the Russia Collusion Hoax. He also had first-hand experience knowing what it was like being targeted by a corrupt government body.
“For the last eight years, they (the DOJ) have run roughshod over the rule of law in this country. They have prosecuted political opponents,” Hemingway explained. “Matt Gaetz is one of the most effective people at fighting that Russia collusion hoax and other information operations, whether it was the Brett Kavanaugh information operation…Or the one that is referenced here, which is something that the FBI and Department of Justice, which hate Matt Gaetz, looked into and cleared him of any wrongdoing.
“People are sick and tired of people in Washington, D.C., doing nothing as these people tried to destroy the country and getting upset at someone who actually might root out the corruption there,” she added. “We don’t have a Department of Justice. We have a Department of Injustice, and that’s why you get Matt Gaetz as a nominee.”
WATCH:
Mollie Hemingway vs. Trey Gowdy on Gaetz: One Of The Most Effective People At Fighting Russia Hoax, Exposing DOJ
“People are sick and tired of people in Washington, D.C., doing nothing as these people tried to destroy the country and getting upset at someone who actually might… pic.twitter.com/tJHO4tPOlz
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Transcript courtesy of Real Clear Politics:
BAIER: Let’s bring in our panel, Trey Gowdy, former congressman from South Carolina, Mollie Hemingway, editor-in-chief at The Federalist, and Democratic campaign consultant Kevin Wally. Mollie, what do you think, the reaction and kind of these picks as they’re rolled out here and traditional Washington gasping?
HEMINGWAY: Well, Donald Trump campaigned with a pledge that he would root out corruption at the Department of Justice and throughout the intelligence agencies, that he would secure our borders, return us to being a nation with borders, and to fix the failed foreign policy of the Biden administration. His picks are showing that he is very serious about that.
But even more than that, I think they show what a transformational president he’s setting out to be here. It’s not – you know, there are four years to go. We’ll see how much he’s able to accomplish with a frequently hostile, entrenched, sclerotic, permanent Washington, D.C. But he has big goals and big vision and a feeling that there’s something that’s just been wrong with our country for a while, and we need to return to that glory of self-governance where we don’t have really corrupt agencies hurting the country, putting – stopping people from being able to produce. And that is what you’re seeing in these picks.
BAIER: Trey, you know, I had Senator Thune on, the incoming Senate majority leader, yesterday. And he basically said, listen, it’s not going to be easy. Some of these picks are not going to be easy to get through. But there is this mandate just by the vote that there is a feeling that Republican senators, in particular, most of them, want to give the president what he wants. Some of them will be tough.
GOWDY: Yeah, the overwhelming majority of his picks will sail through because they were grand slam picks. But to Molly’s point, you don’t root out corruption at the Department of Justice by picking a corrupt person to lead it. So, Matt Gaetz, either the report comes out, and he’s not going to be the attorney general, or the report doesn’t come out, and he’s not going to be the attorney general.
I mean, the problem, Brett, is all the good picks, John Lee Radcliffe, Elise Stefanik, Lee Zeldin, Mike Walsh, all the good picks, nobody’s talking about those right now. They’re talking about this wild card pick of someone who had to get out of the House to avoid being sanctioned by the House Ethics Committee. That dumbfounding pick is just sucking the oxygen out of all the good ones he made.
BAIER: You are referring to the situation with the report in the House Ethics Committee. Johnson puts the kibosh on the Gaetz report. This is Politico. Trump announced his AG intentions. Gaetz promptly resigned his seat, which, in the normal course of affairs, would end the ethics probe. But keep this in mind, the report exists.
Senators examining the nomination want to see it, and it will remain a proverbial sword dangling over Gaetz’s head so long as he’s up for confirmation or serving as the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
Mollie, let me just go back to you. I saw you shaking your head about this particular nomination and where it stands with that report.
HEMINGWAY: Right. Matt Gaetz was nominated for this position because we have a problem with the Department of Justice. For the last eight years, they have run roughshod over rule of law in this country. They have prosecuted political opponents. They ran the Russia collusion hoax. And too many people in Washington, D.C. did not stand up against what was happening there, and many Americans are upset about it.
Matt Gaetz is one of the most effective people at fighting that Russia collusion hoax and other information operations, whether it was the Brett Kavanaugh information operation, the Donald Trump Russia collusion hoax information operation, or the one that is referenced here, which is something that the FBI and Department of Justice, which hate Matt Gaetz, looked into and cleared him of any wrongdoing. The idea is that this is about the issue of corruption. It’s the Department of Justice’s corruption.
And people are sick and tired of people in Washington, D.C., doing nothing as these people tried to destroy the country and getting upset at someone who actually might root out the corruption there. We don’t have a Department of Justice. We have a Department of Injustice, and that’s why you get Matt Gaetz as a nominee.
