With the possibility of COVID-19 mandates reappearing as the fall and winter draws nearer, Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) provided his response to the looming threats of restrictions in an interview on the “Chris Salcedo Show.”
The Florida Congressman mentioned that the public saw authoritarian-style leadership at all levels of government.
.@RepMattGaetz on the threat of fresh lockdowns:
"If they're coming back again, I think we're going to have a lot more Americans a part of our political coalition to stand for freedom." pic.twitter.com/pKVXlBILVu
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) August 22, 2023
“We learned that we can have tyrants at every level of government, didn’t we? We had tyrannical little mayors and governors and folks believing that they could dictate the American way of life. I am not going back to gutter dining. I am not going back to sitting outside of a perfectly good restaurant, just because the powers that be want that type of social control,” stated Rep. Gaetz.
When asked about what the public and the GOP can do to address any new COVID procedures, Rep. Gaetz said that through the First Amendment, we can “vindicate the rights of our fellow Americans.”
“I think we can vindicate the rights of our fellow Americans, particularly in the free exercise of religion, following what we learned from the lockdowns of COVID. And if they’re coming back again, I think we’re going to have a lot more Americans, a part of our political coalition to stand for freedom.”
Finally, Gaetz provided the notion that the conservative coalition has grown since the “tyrannical” lockdowns occurred.
“You know, we saw the political coalition for Republicans really grow when you had Democrats trying to lock people in their houses, with their kids and tell them that they couldn’t go to work and couldn’t experience the American way of life. So, I think actually, Democrats would really suffer a political consequence for that if they go back down that road,” said Gaetz.
Recently, Rep. Gaetz introduced legislation defunding the United States Postal Inspection Service’s (USPIS) "Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) for violating Americans' First Amendment rights.
The iCOP system, described by Rep. Gaetz as "illegal," would comb through sites such as Parler, Telegram, and Facebook, flagging "inflammatory" posts for further inspection by the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies.
"The Postal Service should be focused on delivering the mail on time and on budget, not running a covert surveillance program to monitor political behavior on social media. This program is not only outside USPIS' jurisdiction and infringes on American citizens' civil liberties but is more evidence of the government-sanctioned spying on its own citizens. Congress must immediately abolish this program," said Gaetz.
Gaetz represents Florida’s first district.
