Early this week, Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was once again the subject of media scrutiny, after a misleading video appears to have him inciting Trump supporters to take up arms against Silicon Valley employees Democrats to push for his House Judiciary leadership stripped over the deep fake video.
Rep. Gaetz actually told a group of people at a Dalton, Georgia "America First" rally that big tech firms were "the internet's hall monitors," and said they were trying to "suppress" conservatives as he called on the movement to use the First Amendment to speak and assemble.
Later in his speech, he made a second point about the Second Amendment where a Twitter user edited the audio together to further to big tech controversy.
"The internet's hall monitors out in Silicon Valley, they think they can suppress us, discourage us. Maybe if you're just a little less patriotic, maybe if you just conform to their way of thinking a little more, then you will be allowed to participate in the digital world? Well, you know what? Silicon Valley can't cancel this movement, or this rally, or this congressman," stated Gaetz.
But even though the doctored video was exposed, the damage has already been done, with several high-profile Twitter users sharing the now-viral video including Liberal political commentator Cenk Uygur.
Uygur tweeted even questioning if laws apply to conservatives, allowing Gaetz to respond where he cited Newsweek who jumped on the story early, which according to Gaetz is "not exactly right win media," and accuses Uygur of making the situation more violent :
The 2nd Amdmt doesn’t call anyone to shoot anyone. When you make the absurd equivocation, you actually incite violence far more.
Also, you are citing deceptively edited remarks.
Newsweek (not exactly right wing media) takes that argument apart here:https://t.co/SLTL2bATmS https://t.co/fER2qyVPqU
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) May 31, 2021
Even out of context, the comments have still gotten the reactions of legislators, with Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) calling on Minority Leader McCarthy (R-CA) to boot out Gaetz from the House Judiciary Committee, on top of his recent controversy in sex trafficking that Gaetz claims is simple extortion of him by an ex-Justice Department official.
