WATCH: Matt Gaetz GOES OFF On The ATF, Says The Biden Appointee Is Keeping Thousands Of Records Illegally

Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) excoriated the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Steven Dettelbach, during a Congressional hearing. During the hearing, Mr. Gaetz routinely humiliated the director by pointing out the abuses of his bureau and pointing out how the director’s excuses were contradicted by governmental documents.

The Florida firebrand began his examination of Director Dettelbach by asking “How many guns has the ATF lost?” Mr. Dettelbach said that he did not understand the question. He commented that he did not know whether Gaetz wanted him to speak about a particular incident. Gaetz then asked, “How many incidents should we look at where you have lost guns?”

Dettlebach tried to evade the question by focusing on one incident on the National Destruction Ranch where “no guns were lost, they were stolen by an individual who is now prison- who was not an ATF employee.” No number of missing firearms was provided by the director. Mr. Gaetz pointed out that “there were recommendations made on what you should do so that you don’t become the victim of the theft and the Inspector General is saying you are not following them.”

Gaetz proceeded to quote directly from the Inspector General’s report that noted that “thousands of firearms, firearm parts, and ammunition have been stolen from the ATF.” Gaetz inquired why the ATF did not follow the recommendations laid out by the Office of Inspector General. The director did not answer the question but pontificated about the brave employees of the ATF. The Republican lawmaker cut off the director’s self-praise of his organization by saying “So you can’t keep ahold of the guns you are supposed to have but then you do keep ahold of a bunch of stuff you are not supposed to have ahold of.”

Gaetz pointed to a GAO [Government Accountability Office] report that pointed out that the ATF violated federal law and its own policies. He pivoted to the director and asked that as a result of such violations whether the bureau had to delete around 250,000 records that “they illegally kept.” The director began his answer by saying, “With respect to both the inspector general reports that you are talking about-” at which point Gaetz cut him off. Gaetz clarified that only one was from the Inspector General and one was from the GAO.

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The director reformulated his defense by saying “With respect to the Inspector General report…that happened several years ago- more than that-” at which point Gaetz again cut him off to correct the record. Gaetz pointed out that the report in question was published in 2022. The director accepted this but qualified it by saying, “The ATF has implemented numerous different safety measures.” Mr. Gaetz quoted from the report from last year that took a very different view by finding they do not “currently…adhere to established operating procedures in place to mitigate risk of firearms being stolen.”

Gaetz returned to the deleted illegally kept records issue to which the director took offense over the numbers Gaetz listed of deleted records but when pressed offered no numbers himself.

The Florida Republican took to Twitter to declare that “The ATF has a “zero-tolerance” policy for gun store owners, yet the ATF has lost thousands of guns and illegally kept hundreds of thousands of firearm-purchase records. Their “zero-tolerance” policy has destroyed the life and career of a constituent of mine in Florida over a paperwork technicality that wasn’t his fault.” He then called for the defunding of the ATF and wrote that “Congress should cut Director Dettelbach’s salary to $0.”

The ATF has a “zero-tolerance” policy for gun store owners, yet the ATF has lost thousands of guns and illegally kept hundreds of thousands of firearm-purchase records.

Their “zero-tolerance” policy has destroyed the life and career of a constituent of mine in Florida over a… pic.twitter.com/VkHSVdKBCI

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) April 26, 2023