Noted Voice Of Reason Geraldo Rivera Tears Into Matt Gaetz: ‘What In The World Were You Doing?”

With Kevin McCarthy finally being elected as Speaker of the House following four days and 15 rounds of voting at the beginning of the month, it would seem that the issue is in the rearview for Republicans. Geraldo Rivera, on the other hand, still has questions. During Thursday night’s episode Hannity, Rivera tore into Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz for being the ringleader of the Republican holdouts who prevented McCarthy from securing the vote until well into the night of Friday, January 6. (What is it with the GOP and that date?)

At one point during the House vote, a fistfight almost broke out after Gaetz tanked the 14th round of voting, and Rivera wants to know what the heck was the point of it all?

“What in the world were you and your 19 colleagues doing torturing the speaker, your speaker, your speaker-designate Kevin McCarthy? What was that for? What did you hope to attain in that?” Rivera asked Gaetz who took umbrage with the phrasing of the question.

“So, first of all, I’ve got some constituents in the military that could talk to you about real torture,” Gaetz responded. “I don’t think sitting through 15 votes quite qualifies.”

From there, Gaetz went into a diatribe about omnibus spending legislation and having individual votes on appropriation bills, which surprisingly won over Rivera — until he used the world flamboyant. Via Mediaite:

“Congressman, with your filibuster right now, you are portraying yourself to the American people as a thoughtful legislator,” Rivera interrupted.

“Thank you,” Gaetz replied.

“And yet, the publicity that you get – characteristically – almost inevitably is flamboyant, it’s confrontational–”

After some crosstalk between the two and host Sean Hannity, Gaetz took issue with Rivera’s remark.

“I make a substantive argument about changes to the process and you call me flamboyant and confrontational?” he asked.

At that point, Hannity jumped in and stopped another squabble from breaking out by noting the House Speaker issue is settled and, “Now everybody’s on the same page.”

(Via Mediaite)