Matt Gaetz

And at the time, I was somewhat relieved because I thought, perfect.

If what you think is in my phone is some sort of untoward issue with underage people, have a look.

And obviously, if I'd committed any crimes, they kept my phone for years.

They did?

Yeah, they did.

And that never happens.

Well, I mean, I know who I am.

The people around me know who I am.

I would, during these investigations, repeatedly run back to my district.

And despite Kevin McCarthy spending millions of dollars to try to defeat me, I was always overwhelmingly reelected.

And so I took comfort in knowing—

despite a lot of folks not wanting me to return to Washington.

But there is comfort in knowing that the people will be there for you, your family, the folks you care about.

And so I'm not a tragic case by any sense.

I wish I would have had the chance to be attorney general.

I said a lot of bad things about senators over the years that made that impossible for me to achieve.

And I have not campaigned for that position.

To be clear, I love President Trump and was there to support his transition as a friend, a confidant, someone who had been there during the tough times in his first term.

I mean, the real reason I was hanging around the transition is because I remembered what it was like when you had a good amount of the cabinet hoping that Donald Trump was a criminal and wanting to install Mike Pence.

For sure.