Congressman Matt Gaetz spoke this afternoon at the 2020 Conservative Political Action Conference. He announced that he no longer would take campaign contributions from federal political action committees.
“As of this very moment, I will not pick up their money in the nightstand anymore,” said  the Republican congressman from Northwest Florida. “I will never again accept a donation from a federal political action committee, not one red cent.”
He admitted that he maybe the only incumbent GOP member of Congress making such a pledge.
“The American people are my one and only special interest,” said Gaetz. “I’m a different kind of Republican. I’m the only Republican returning to Congress to make this no PAC pledge. There are some Democrats, like my friend Ro Khanna (Democrat from California) who do it right, but there are far more Democrats who morally preen themselves by swearing off corporate PACs and then they go and gorge on union PACs, ideological PACs and something ironically called leadership PACs.”
He continued, “Real leadership is telling the American people the truth about who is funding your political campaign and your politics. We need the American people to engage and drive the fate and fortune of this great country, this great country where President Trump has given us so much opportunity to challenge the status quo and to do better.”
Gaetz said the nation is in a fight of capitalism versus socialism that will the future of the next generation. Â He said, “But if socialism is the bribing of voters with taxpayer money, then an oligarchy is the bribing of politicians with special interest money. Just as we vow to never let the United States of America become a socialist country, so must we resolve to not let her slip into an oligarchy. Our patriotic movement rejects both Venezuela and Davos.”
Saying that James Madison wrote that the highest position in American was that of citizen, he challenged the audience: “Get up and become the captains of this great democracy that we have the opportunity to inherit in the United States of America. America is not just an idea. It is our home, and we must protect our home.”
He added, “Let’s send the message that your home, my home, our home is not for sale to any special interest for any costs ever. Our independence from special interests is our loyalty to America and to the America first movement that began what our president rode down that escalator, armed with our well wishes and our prayers. As President Trump says, ‘The best is yet to come.'”