Gaetz: ‘This Is Impeachment by Reflex’

Monday on FNC's "Hannity," Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) slammed congressional Democrats' effort to impeach former President Donald Trump, which is set to begin later on Tuesday.

Gaetz called it "impeachment by reflex" and said the impeachment argument is a double standard for Trump, which Democrats "cannot live by."

"This is impeachment by reflex," he said. "It is impeachment in lieu of an actual agenda for the American people. Regular Americans watching this charade will wonder, what is in it for them? Now, I didn't teach legal ethics like Professor Dershowitz, but I at least passed it, and I can tell you that there is an obligation on the part of the president's attorneys to make these First Amendment arguments and to vindicate the claims the president was making as someone who cares deeply about election integrity. The president's lawyers will do their job if they can show that the Democrats are trying to establish a standard of conduct that they themselves cannot live by. They're — the quotes that you showed in the monologue."

"But also remember Congresswoman Ayanna Presley, who said, as long as there's unrest in our lives, there'll be unrest in the streets," Gaetz continued. "And yet, there was no action taken against here. I think that's far more inciting potential violence than when the president asked for peace and patriotic. But ultimately, here, you see a dangerous expansion of the impeachment tool. In Ukraine, they used impeachment because they had a policy disagreement with the president about the extent to which we had to hold back that aide in exchange for anti-corruption efforts. Now, they're literally using it to try to discipline speech that they find uncomfortable, and they don't like. That is a very dangerous precedent for the country."