Exclusive — Rep. Matt Gaetz: Republicans ‘Don’t Want to Nominate People Who Aren’t Going to Fight’

Republicans “don’t want to nominate people who aren’t going to fight,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily, slamming former House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) view.

Host Mike Slater played a clip of Ryan, who currently sits on the board of Fox. In the clip, Ryan claims that former President Donald Trump has “cost us a lot of seats.”

“I could probably spend some time with the numbers. He cost us the Senate twice. He cost us the House,” he said, accusing Trump of pushing candidates in primaries who “cannot win general elections.”

“We need legislators, not entertainers,” Ryan added.

“How many seats did Paul Ryan lose us? Because the last I checked, it was Paul Ryan who lost us the majority because he fumbled and bumbled on a health care bill. … We kind of lost the plot,” Gaetz said, noting that “the core thesis of every Republican election was that we were going to repeal Obamacare,” but Ryan and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) failed to do it and blamed Trump.

“We don’t want to nominate people who aren’t going to win general elections, but we also don’t want to nominate people who aren’t going to fight,” Gaetz said, countering Ryan’s point.

“What’s the point in having a majority if we don’t ever take it out for a spin, if only the people we elect want to stare at their nameplates and talk about how great they are?” he asked. “I want people who will fight on the border, on the budget, and the bureaucrats. Paul Ryan never delivered those people. Donald Trump is working to do so,” Gaetz said, making the point that there is no point in winning if nothing is done with it.

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“I’ll take it a step further. I actually think if we had nominated you know, Tim Scott, with the nice smile, there’s a chance we would have gotten 60 percent of the popular vote and won 40 states, but we wouldn’t have saved the country. It would have been an empty win,” he said.

“I’d rather win with Trump with 51 percent than Tim Scott with 60 percent because I actually want to do the things that will result in a secure border, balanced budgets, and bureaucrats that are brought to heel,” the Florida congressman added.

Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.