Washington D.C. has been slightly abuzz over the missing FBI texts story. Reportedly, upwards of 50,000 text messages mandated to be stored were supposedly missing. (They have since been “located.”) To discuss the Strzok/Page controversy, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz sat in with CNN’s Chris Cuomo. After some sober and solid points, the interview took on a surreal tone.
Gaetz began by laying out the specifics of the story; the timeline of the FBI explanations, the talks of the so-called “Secret Society”, and the convenience of the missing segment of texts dealing with the specific aspects being investigated. The host attempted a “gotcha” point, in trademark Cuomo fashion: “Now you have them meeting with a secret society, and you don’t even know that one exists.”
He then attempted to barge forward after that barb, but Gaetz did not allow it to stand, interjecting correctly that Lisa Page herself declared they were holding Secret Society meetings.
Gaetz lays out the details in a very sound fashion:
“It would be the greatest coincidence since the Immaculate Conception that it just happened to be the case that right after Obama sics the intelligence community on Trump, the text messages go dark, and they only reappear the day that Robert Mueller is hired to investigate the president. Come on, the American people won’t believe that’s a coincidence, and I don’t believe it, either.”
At this moment Cuomo is clearly off balance, and quite possibly out of his element. He had visiting his show a politician he hoped to steamroll with narrative talking points, except Gaetz showed he had a comprehensive grasp on the story and was more than holding his own. In response, Cuomo takes an off-ramp and focuses on the reference to the Immaculate Conception.
As Gaetz was looking to go forward with the talk Cuomo makes this analogy his new driving point. Three successive times the host peppered Gaetz with questions about the Immaculate Conception comparison he made, and then began challenging the congressman on the specifics of that religious event. That Cuomo pounced on this particular detail -- the syntax and nuance of a religious precept -- reveals how he was without traction in the interview and needed to find a higher ground, anywhere else.
Gaetz, eager to remain on topic and continue the conversation, was well aware what Cuomo was doing. “Look, did you really bring me on to discuss my religious views, Chris?”
What makes this pompous religious posture all the more ridiculous, apart from arguing a point that has nothing at all to do with the FBI texting story, is that Chris is no religious authority worth listening to on such details. Cuomo is an avowed Catholic, yet somehow he also is a staunch pro-abortion media figure. For him to wax theologic over Catholic teaching while advocating for the termination of births is a little beyond the hypocritical.
In wrapping up his segment, Cuomo attempts once again to sting Gaetz with a lack of knowledge of the details. “You better figure out what this ‘secret society’ is before you say there’s a shadow organization within the FBI.” As Gaetz already detailed, it was Page and Strzok who confirmed this Secret Society was meeting. It is a detail Cuomo seems deluded about, given that Gaetz has actually seen the contents of the hotly debated memo, and Cuomo has not.
Brad Slager is a Fort Lauderdale freelance writer who wrote this story exclusively for Sunshine State News. He writes on politics and the entertainment industry and his stories appear in such publications as RedState and The Federalist.
