Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) responded on Tuesday after #MattGaetzIsATool began trending on Twitter in the United States, saying, “I kinda like it.”
The Trump ally used the hashtag himself and shared an image of a man swinging a sledgehammer with a quote from Miley Cyrus’s song “Wrecking Ball.”
Gaetz’s tweet came after Andy Lassner, the executive producer of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” launched a Twitter campaign against the congressman. As of Tuesday afternoon, the hashtag had tweeted more than 61,000 times.{mosads}
Actor Zach Braff used the hashtag along with a GIF from his time on the television show “Scrubs.”
Actress Kristen Johnston from the CBS sitcom “Mom” also chimed in to jokingly compliment Lassner on his “maturity.”
Fred Guttenberg, a gun control advocate whose daughter Jaime Guttenberg died in the 2018 Parkland, Fla., school shooting, also used the hashtag.
“Andy, I promise at your request to never use #MattGaetzIsATool in anything I do even though it is true that #MattGaetzIsATool and using the #MattGaetzIsATool is a tool is an accurate way of summarizing how I feel about #MattGaetzIsATool. However, at your request, I will not,” Guttenberg wrote.
Lassner sparred with Gaetz on Monday after the Florida Republican shared a picture of himself with President Trump and first lady Melania Trump at Sunday night’s World Series game.
Gaetz fired back by suggesting that NBC shouldn’t stand behind an employee who makes a “dumb/triggered/profane comment,” and referred to investigative journalist Ronan Farrow’s new book, “Catch And Kill,” which explores sexual assault and harassment allegations within the network.
However, NBC does not own “The Ellen Degeneres Show” and does not employ the executive producer.
“The Ellen DeGeneres Show” is licensed by NBC and airs on 10 of its stations, as well on 22 stations owned by Hearst Television, according to Deadline.
Lassner pointed this out to the GOP congressman, writing: “I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you took time out of crashing hearings to respond to me.”
The knock was a reference to Gaetz and several other House Republicans barging into a classified intelligence room in the U.S. Capitol last week to disrupt the deposition of a top Defense Department official who was set to testify about Trump‘s dealings with Ukraine.