U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, provided a ticket to President Trump's State of the Union speech to a radical right wing website operator who was banned from Twitter for seeking donations to "take out" a civil rights activist, who has said black people are intellectually inferior to white people, and that Jews generally should not be given important decision-making responsibility because of their neuroticism.
Gaetz declined to talk to the Tampa Bay Times, noting that in December The Buzz described him as "a loudmouth" in naming him one of the winners of 2017 in Florida politics.
But Gaetz told The Daily Beast that he had no relationship with Johnson and gave him a ticket to Trump's speech after Johnson showed up at his office.
From the Daily Beast:
Johnson offered a different explanation of how the evening came together. Initially, he said he and Gaetz were introduced by another member of Congress, whom he declined to name. In a separate conversation with The Daily Beast, however, Johnson said that he was invited by several members of Congress but "took Gaetz's invitation" as "he's into stuff on the issues that I care about."
Johnson told The Buzz that descriptions of him as a racist white nationalist from groups including the Southern Poverty Law Center are untrue.
"I believe in the dignity of all people," Johnson said.