Matt Gaetz raged at a joke Martin Short told about his employment after his abrupt resignation from Congress on Saturday Night Live.
The Trump ally was the first to be mocked by Short as he took to the stage for SNL’s Christmas special.
‘We must move this monologue along because I have 10 sketches to get to where I play an elf. Also, I left my Uber driver waiting, and you know how testy Matt Gaetz can get,’ he joked.
Gaetz, who withdrew himself from consideration as Donald Trump’s attorney general pick last month, didn’t take too kindly to the wisecrack and responded on social media.
‘SNL just called me an uber driver? As an insult? It is a job held by HONEST & HARD WORKING people,’ he wrote on X.
‘Imagine being so out-of-touch that you insult Uber drivers just to take a swipe at me. Sad!’
Gaetz’s actual new job as a talk show anchor on the conservative One America News Network will start in the first week of January. He’s also turned to Cameo to make income, charging people $325 or more to record personalized videos.
At Sunday’s Turning Point USA AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, Arizona, Gaetz floated a number of different directions he sees his career going.
‘My fellow Floridians have asked me to eye the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee. Maybe special counsel to go after the insider trading for my former colleagues in Congress,’ he said on stage.
‘It seems I may not have had enough support in the United States Senate. Maybe I’ll just run for Marco Rubio’s vacant seat in the United States Senate and join some of those folks.’
Former Congressman Matt Gaetz raged at a joke Martin Short made about him being an Uber driver now that he has stepped down as a Florida representative
Pictured: Gaetz responded to Short’s jibe with this post on X
He also said he wouldn’t be returning to the House of Representatives when the new Congress is sworn in on January 3, something he very much could do since he won his re-election bid in November.
‘And my friend Steve Bannon and others have suggested that I return to the House of Representatives on January 3, but I would remind Steve, when he got out of prison, he didn’t punch a guard on the way out. For the moment I’ll enjoy being one of you,’ he said.
Shortly after President-elect Trump nominated Gaetz to lead the Department of Justice on November 13, the firebrand conservative stunningly resigned from Congress.
His resignation came as he was staring down the release of potentially damaging House Ethics Committee investigation into his alleged sexual misconduct, whether the he used illicit drugs and whether he ‘shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor.’
After a week of nonstop media reporting on the various accusations against Gaetz – including one from a woman who claimed she had a threesome with him when she was only 17 – he announced that he would no longer seek the attorney general role.
Gaetz denies all the allegations against him and frequently points to the fact that a Department of Justice investigation into him ended in 2023 with no charges being filed.
However, the House report into Gaetz’s conduct will now be released after the Ethics Committee secretly voted to do so on Wednesday.
The same committee had voted along party lines last month to keep the report secret, with many lawmakers saying that it isn’t customary for Congress to release the results of an investigation into a former representative.
Gaetz’s other claim to fame is being the lone representative to trigger a vote to oust former congressman Kevin McCarthy (left) as House Speaker last October. That effort was successful, and the Republicans replaced McCarthy with Louisiana Representative Mike Johnson
But some Republican senators, when Gaetz was still Trump’s AG pick, argued that they should at least see the report as part of their role in confirming presidential nominees.
Trump has since replaced Gaetz with Pam Bondi, a close MAGA ally and the first woman to serve as Florida Attorney General. She was in the role from 2011 to 2019.
Gaetz was first elected to Congress during Trump’s first term and quickly became one of his most staunch defenders.
Gaetz is also known for triggering a vote to oust former congressman Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker last October.
That effort was successful, and the Republicans replaced McCarthy with Louisiana Representative Mike Johnson, who himself risks being tossed from his job come January.