“I had no idea who he was,” Rep. Matt Gaetz said Wednesday, disavowing some of the racist views attributed to his invited guest Chuck Johnson. | Alex Wong/Getty Images Why a Florida congressman invited a notorious alt-right troll to SOTU

His Florida colleagues invited hurricane survivors, and the family of a hostage in Iran. Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, however, invited a far more inflammatory guest to the State of the Union address: Chuck Johnson, a alt-right troll who’s been banned from Twitter and accused of Holocaust denying and white nationalism.

“I had no idea who he was,” Gaetz said Wednesday, disavowing some of the racist views attributed to Johnson, which the congressman said he learned of after they met earlier this week.


But even after Gaetz found out just how controversial Johnson was — the Capitol Police had flagged the name and called Gaetz to inquire about Johnson in a mysterious unrelated matter — the first-term congressman decided not to pull his ticket to President Trump’s speech.

The two have similar libertarian views on cryptocurrencies and marijuana, Gaetz said. A provocative and increasingly ubiquitous cable news guest, Gaetz has become a leading House voice criticizing the federal investigation into President Trump.

Johnson said he loves what he hears from Gaetz.

“I like weird guys with a fuck-you attitude. And Matt Gaetz is one of those dudes,” said Johnson, noting he and Gaetz are both young: Johnson is 29 and Gaetz is 35. His appearance as Gaetz’s guest was first reported by The Daily Beast.

For once, Gaetz said, he wasn’t trying to troll the left when he unwittingly invited the infamous right-wing troll. He said his pairing with Johnson was a coincidence. And if anything is ultimately to blame or credit for the situation, Gaetz said, it’s Tallahassee.

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Gaetz had planned to take his father to the State of the Union to celebrate his 70th birthday on Tuesday. But Don Gaetz, a former Florida Senate president when Matt Gaetz served in the Florida House, couldn’t go because, while serving on the state’s Constitutional Revision Commission, he contracted bronchitis in Tallahassee. [State legislators are in the notoriously moldy, pollen-ridden city for the legislative session.]

Just as he was absorbing the news Monday about his dad, Gaetz said “another member [of Congress] sent Chuck to me to talk about cannabis and cryptocurrency. So in walks this guy, younger than me, redhead, and we got to talking.”

Neither Gaetz nor Johnson would name the member who introduced them.

Johnson, Gaetz said, had heard about his dad’s illness while in the congressman’s office and hinted at wanting the spare ticket to go to the speech.

“He kind of got the sense of what was going on. He kept mentioning his interest in the president laying out his agenda,” Gaetz said.

“Hey, I’ve just got an extra ticket to the State of the Union. Would you like to go?” Gaetz recalled asking.

“I’d be honored,” Johnson replied.

After Johnson left, a Gaetz staffer did a Google search on Johnson. And the results were a surprise, the congressman said.

“I then found out he was quite famous for his activity online,” Gaetz laughed. “I didn’t know much about him. I learned he’s in conflict with technology companies and has said some rather infamous things. Unquestionably I don’t agree with everything Chuck Johnson has said and done. That needs to be said on the record. But he was a perfectly polite guest.”

Johnson doesn’t deny being an infamous troll. But, he says, he’s not a Holocaust denier and “they call me a white nationalist and I’m not.” Before he was banned from Twitter, Johnson said, he repeatedly used the n-word to study the site’s algorithms. He said he does believe in physical and mental differences between races and ethnicities, but said he didn’t want to relitigate the issue.

Gaetz said he could have pulled Johnson’s ticket, but he was intrigued by him. Johnson has a crowd-funded website called Got News and is a Bitcoin and marijuana investor.

“I don’t only associate with people who hold all my views,” Gaetz said. “I have friends on the right and the left. I don’t have an ideological purity test.”

While submitting Johnson’s information as a gallery guest to Capitol Police, Gaetz said another red flag went up.

“Capitol Police called us immediately and said they wanted to speak to my guest. Not about any challenges or something related to the state of the union, but they thought he could help them with on some other matter,” Gaetz said.

Gaetz said he asked if Johnson would be a problem as a guest. Capitol Police said he wouldn’t be.

Did Capitol Police tell the congressman what the issue was?

“They did not,” Gaetz said. “And I did not ask.”

