Gaetz clashes with Stanford professor: ‘It makes you look mean’

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) clashed with law professor Pamela Karlan during Wednesday’s House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearing, pressing her on her past donations to Democratic candidates and excoriating her for invoking 13-year-old Barron Trump earlier in her testimony.

“When you invoke the president’s son’s name here, when you try to make a little joke out of referencing Barron Trump, that does not lend credibility to your argument,” Gaetz said. “It makes you look mean.”

‘It makes you look mean’: Republican Rep. Gaetz criticizes Prof. Karlan for making ‘a little joke’ referencing Trump’s son, Barron, after she used the 13-year-old’s name to make a point about titles of nobility https://t.co/vYnyxHyLwJ pic.twitter.com/7OhQA9ttZH

— Reuters (@Reuters) December 4, 2019

Karlan earlier in the hearing told lawmakers that the Constitution does not grant lawmakers the power to bestow nobility, quipping that Trump could name his son Barron but could not make him a baron.

Gaetz’s line of questioning reflected a concerted effort by President Trump’s allies to paint Karlan and other Democratic witnesses as biased. The congressman seized on donations the professor made to Democratic candidates and highlighted her past comments that he portrayed as condescending to conservatives.

Karlan confirmed that she donated $1,000 to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), $1,200 to former President Obama and $2,000 to Hillary Clinton, who ran against Trump in 2016.

The congressman then read a quote from Karlan in which she said, “Liberals tend to cluster more. Conservatives, especially very conservative people, tend to spread out more, perhaps because they don’t even want to be around themselves.”

Karlan acknowledged making the comments but sought to explain that with proper context she was not speaking derisively about conservatives. As she attempted to elaborate, Gaetz raised his voice and cut her off.

“You don’t get to interrupt me on this time,” he said.

The testy exchange marked a relatively dramatic moment in what had otherwise been a hearing heavy on legalese and the merits of impeachment.

Trump allies have hammered Karlan over her comments about the president’s son. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham called the remarks “classless,” and the Trump campaign put out a statement blasting the joke as “disgusting.”