MAGA supporters voiced their outrage on social media after House Republicans voted on Wednesday against Representative Matt Gaetz’s amendment to restrict funding for the new $375 million FBI headquarters on Wednesday.
The funds for the new building, which will be relocated from Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest in Washington to Greenbelt, Maryland, were allocated in the $1.7 trillion fiscal 2023 omnibus spending bill.
On Wednesday, when the House was hearing amendments to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act for 2024, Gaetz, a Florida Republican, pleaded his case for restricting funds for the new building after trying to block the construction of the headquarters in March.
“I don’t believe that the FBI deserves a massive new headquarters or Washington field office…building a new headquarters would condone, reinforce and enable the Washington field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s nefarious behavior,” Gaetz said on Wednesday.
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Representative Steve Womack of Arkansas spoke in opposition of Gaetz’s amendment on the House floor.
“We’re not always gonna hate the FBI,” he said. “I realize that there are people on my side of the aisle that don’t like some of the activities of the FBI. I’m not gonna pick an argument on that. But what I will argue is that it is bad policy for the Congress to be taking steps to deny a federal agency that is in serious need, in my opinion, of an improvement in their headquarters.”
Newsweek reached out to Gaetz and Womack via email for comment.
The amendment failed 273-145, with 70 GOP members voting against it.
“Time after time we have seen the FBI target President Trump, people who believe in the Second Amendment, parents attending school board meetings, and more recently, some of their own brave FBI whistleblowers who have spoken up about the weaponization of our Federal Government,” Gaetz said in a statement following his failed amendment. “We should not be awarding nefarious behavior by wasting hundreds of millions of dollars for a new headquarters in the DC-area.”
Newsweek reached out to the FBI via email for comment.
Gaetz called out House Republicans who refused to support his amendment.
“Republicans like @Rep_SteveWomack believe the FBI should be rewarded with a new $300M headquarters larger than the Pentagon because the building is ‘crumbling.’ Guess what? Our country is crumbling when a weaponized security state targets the civil liberties of American citizens because of their politics,” Gaetz said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday afternoon. “Those in the J. Edgar Hoover Building should sit in that rat-infested building until they get their act straight.”
In a later post, Gaetz wrote: “70 Republicans voted to reward the Weaponized FBI with a new $300M headquarters – larger than the Pentagon. Sad!”
Social media users who support former President Donald Trump’s MAGA campaign, which led to his win in the 2016 election against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, joined Gaetz’s disapproval.
X user Freddy said: “The FBI is America’s largest criminal organization.” MAGA GIRL wrote on X: “I’m done with Republicans after I vote for Trump in the primary I’m switching back to independent.”
“This why Republicans will lose the house, they are not doing and hearing what the American people want. 70 Wow,” X user Terry MAGA wrote.
Other users disagreed with Gaetz’s push to defund the new FBI headquarters.
“That’s because real Republicans that say they support law-enforcement, actually support law-enforcement,” said X user @caringguy1957.
User BLIP wrote: “The@FBI is FINE, Matt. YOU are the problem.”
Gaetz has a history with the FBI. In February, the bureau decided not to charge him following a sex trafficking investigation that it launched in 2020. Gaetz has strongly denied any wrongdoing.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.