Matt Gaetz Declares Democrats His 'Hostages' In Debt Ceiling Fight

While talking to the press this week, Matt Gaetz said that he doesn't feel like Republicans should be negotiating with their "hostage" in the debt ceiling fight, a telling admission from a man that is willing to screw over millions to get his way. His hostage comment shows that he believes he has all the power, and that both Democrats and the economy at large are going to have to bend to his will. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Matt Gates accidentally said the quiet part out loud this week when he admitted that he and his Republican allies are holding the Democrats and the economy and the entire debt ceiling hostage. Here's a statement that Republican representative Matt Gates from, unfortunately my district here in Florida said this week, this is exactly what he said. My conservative colleagues, for the most part, support, limit, save, grow. And they don't feel like we should negotiate with our hostage, with our hostage. So of course the question becomes, who is your hostage? Matt, am I your hostage is the United States economy. Your hostage is President Biden, your hostage are the Democrats, your hostage, the debt sealing your hostage? Who is your hostage? Matt? I think that is a question that every reporter in this country that's worth a needs to be asking. Matt Gates. You need to get on the phone with Matt Gates' office right now and say, can I just ask the congressman who his hostage is and why this isn't a bigger story across the national media? Absolutely blows my mind. This idiot fail, son of a Republican politician here in the state of Florida, admitted that he's holding us all hostage and that he doesn't think he should have to listen to any of us. That's the even bigger part. It's not just that he admitted we're all his hostages, it's that he doesn't think he should take our considerations into mind. In the debt ceiling negotiations, that's where we're at as a country.

Republicans essentially make up a minority of voters. A majority of voters now, uh, identify as independent. Then you have Democrats and in third place you have Republicans. So we are being held hostage by this minority political party in the United States for what? Because Matt Gae wants to screw over low income Americans by instituting these needless work requirements for SNAP benefits, which will immediately kick 10 million people off the program, including 3 million children. So if Matt Gates has his way, 3 million kids are gonna start going hungry in this country because their parents will no longer have access to food stamps. And as I've explained many times in the past, there are already work requirements for SNAP benefits. He just wants them to be even more strict. And as I've also explained, there's plenty of reasons why able-bodied Americans who are receiving SNAP benefits cannot take just any job that comes up before them. It may interfere with school hours when they have to handle their children and take care of them. It may only be night work, which they can't do because they have nobody to come and watch their children. There's a lot of different reasons why

An an able-bodied person would have to turn down specific jobs. And if those are the only jobs available, then it would make sense why that able-bodied person on government benefits isn't able to take the job. But nobody wants to have those conversations about childcare and things like that. Nobody wants to have the conversations about why people might have to turn down certain jobs and that should be a part of the conversation. But I guess it can't be because we're the hostages. And Matt Gae says Republicans shouldn't negotiate with us.