All Fun And Games Until Congressional Witnesses Start Pants-ing Matt Gaetz On C-SPAN

Another successful day in Gaetz's career.

What is the world coming to when dumb stupid idiots like GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz can't even cite balls-out Chinese propaganda during congressional hearings without the witnesses calling them on it and making them look like dumb stupid idiots? We know, you're thinking wait just a stinkin' minute, aren't congressional Republicans always telling us how they are against the Chinese Communist Party and all its propaganda? Why would they cite it during congressional hearings? Are Republicans just full-of-shit clowns?

Shhhhh.

 Gaetz was trying to get Colin Kahl, undersecretary of Defense for policy, to ADMIT that American military money and weapons were going to the Azov Battalion in Ukraine. The Azov Battalion is a far-right nationalist group in Ukraine that's been fighting as part of the resistance, and it has some historical neo-Nazi ties. Some of its members are in the Ukrainian military. Ukraine, like the United States, has its own issues with neo-Nazis. However, people like Matt Gaetz apparently want us to believe Vladimir Putin when he says he's fighting the Nazis in Ukraine, as if the Azov Battalion is somehow representative of the entire struggle against Russia's genocidal war against Ukraine. (That'd be like conflating "Oath Keepers" with "America," which would be highly offensive indeed. Also, fam, are there far-right freaks in America's military?)

The problem was that Gaetz was reading his "information" about America giving weapons to the Azov Battalion from the Global Times, AKA a major Chinese Communist Party propaganda outlet.

 Hilarity ensued:  

“"As a general matter I don't take Beijing's propaganda at face value" -- Absolutely amazing: Matt Gaetz tried to use literal Chinese propaganda during a congressional hearing, and got called on it by a witness”

— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1677605321 

 Yahoo! News with all the transcribings:

"Is the Azov battalion getting access to US weapons?" Gaetz asked Colin Kahl, the US's undersecretary of defense for policy. The Azov battalion is a far-right nationalist regiment in Ukraine, and some of its members serve in Ukraine's armed forces.

"Not that I'm aware of, but if you have information, happy to hear it," Kahl told Gaetz.

Gaetz then asked to enter the Global Times report into the congressional record and cited from the paper to support his allegation that the Azov battalion was "getting stuff as far back as 2018."

"Any reason to disagree with that assessment?" Gaetz asked Kahl.

"Is this the — I'm sorry, is this the Global Times from China?" Kahl said.

Uh oh.

"No, this is —" Gaetz began, before leaning over to read from the article he was quoting.

"That's what you read," Kahl said.

"Well, it might be," Gaetz said. "Yeah, it might be, yeah."

"As a general matter, I don't take Beijing's propaganda at face value," Kahl replied.

"No, no, just tell me if the allegation is true or false," Gaetz said.

Kahl reiterated that he didn't have any evidence one way or another and repeated that "as a general matter, I don't take Beijing's propaganda at face value."

Gaetz conceded the point, saying, "Fair enough, I would agree with that assessment."

Aw fiddlesticks. Wonder why Putin's best friends the Chinese might be spreading rumors about things like that. And why Republicans in the US American Congress would be reading it into the congressional record.

We guess it will just have to remain a mystery.

[ Yahoo! News ]

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