Florida Representative Matthew Gaetz announced his willingness to resign from Congress to join former President Donald Trump's impeachment defense team, a report said.
Gaetz signified his intention to resign from Congress in a podcast interview conducted by War Room Pandemic Host Steve Bannon, who previously served as chief strategist for the White House during Trump's administration.
"If the president called me and wanted me to go defend him on the floor of the Senate, that would be the top priority in my life. I would leave my House seat. I would leave my home," Gaetz declared.
"I would do anything I had to do to ensure the greatest president in my lifetime--one of the greatest presidents our country has ever had, maybe the greatest president our country has ever had," he added, "got a full-throated defense that wasn't crouched down, that wasn't in fear of losing some moderate Republican senator, but was worthy of the fight that he gave to the great people of this country for four years."
According to Townhall, Gaetz made such statements in response to Bannon's question if he would be willing to step down Congress "to defend the president in the way" he wanted him defended.
"There were some of us who checked to see where we could be the ones to go defend in the Senate because we would be honored to and the word we got back from House Ethics is that we could not, as sitting members of the House, go and defend him in the Senate," Gaetz revealed.
Gaetz explained that although he loved his constituents, he viewed the Trump presidency's cancelation as a "major risk" to the country and would then be most willing to join the former president's defense team for his second impeachment, which is scheduled on February 8.
"I view this cancelation of the Trump presidency and the Trump movement as one of the major risks to my people, both in my district and all throughout this great country," he said.
Bannon said he is pretty sure that Gaetz's constituents would support him if he were to be part of Trump's defense team.
Trump's defense team recently got overhauled as the initial five-member team disbanded for not being agreement with the former president's intended defense approach for his case. The five-member team that included South Carolina lawyer Butch Bowers, South Carolina Criminal Defense lawyer Deborah Barbier, North Carolina federal prosecutor Josh Howard, criminal prosecutor Johnny Gasser, and Democrat Illinois Representative Greg Harris all left Trump a week before his trial, CNN said.
As per the Associated Press, Trump announced new members of his team on Sunday in the persons of David Schoen, a federal defense lawyer, and Bruce Castor, the previous attorney general of Pennsylvania. Schoen and Castor came out with a 14-page answer in behalf of their client addressed to the Senate in answer to the "incitement of insurrection" charges against him on Tuesday, Feb. 2.
Trump's response, which Christianity Daily reported previously, was cited by Townhall as a "very strong case in his defense" since the lawyers were able to clearly present the "salient arguments for his innocence."
