Daryl Cagle: Hi, I'm Daryl Cagle and this is the CagleCast where
we're all about editorial cartoons.
And today we have three brilliant cartoonists joining me to discuss
Matt Gaetz, the congressman who was nominated for attorney general.
And just five minutes ago on the news, we saw that he has withdrawn
his name from consideration.
So we will proceed with our podcast and kick Matt Gaetz while he is down.
We've got three wonderful cartoonists joining us.
Bill Day, Dave Whamond, and R.
J.
Madsen.
Gentlemen, nice to see you.
Good to be here.
RJ, we'll start with you.
This is great.
American Borat, subsequent movie film, Congressman Gates, unmasked.
That's funny.
And he is wearing his mask.
and it is, restricted under 17.
Not a problem.
Course, Matt Gates has his sex scandal going where he has Been,
paying through Venmo for, it looks like dozens of prostitutes,
including, at least one that's, 17.
and this cartoon is great.
RJ Matson: Thanks that cartoons from 2021, I think, when the sort of the
scandal first broke, or we first learned he was being investigated.
. And I submitted that to my newspaper Roll Call, which covers Capitol Hill
and life on Capitol Hill and Congress.
And they passed, obviously.
Daryl Cagle: They didn't print this one!
RJ Matson: No, but I did it for you because I like the joke.
I did it for the syndicate.
I don't know how much that printed around the country.
I don't know if if there's a formal policy at Roll Call, but kind of like in
Congress, they don't like to take shots at the character of members of Congress.
And my editors tend to only pick cartoons that have members of Congress
if they're in leadership positions.
Thanks.
It's just something I've noticed.
Daryl Cagle: Well, that's kind of a problem cartoonists have
in general is that congressmen don't rise to the level of being
recognizable in cartoons typically.
but of course Matt Gaetz has.
So, I would have expected that.
RJ Matson: Yeah.
Well, since my audience
is primarily members of Congress, they all know each other.
And it's, it's great when I can, when I can make fun of them individually.
I kind of think, you know, our media spends way too much time obsessing
about the president and, and Congress doesn't get covered well enough.
So I kind of make it my mission to focus, try to focus more on Congress
than what's going on in the White House.
Daryl Cagle: I think that's true.
Here, you've got Matt Gaetz getting off the hook from the FBI
investigation of his, sexual picadillos and, , That's a wonderful drawing.
I love your color and the hair on it.
It's so beautiful.
Look at this hair.
Isn't that great?
RJ Matson: I struggle with hair so when I have to draw hair.
Daryl Cagle: Oh, it doesn't look like a struggle.
It looks like
you're just, completely comfortable with the hair.
It's just wonderful hair.
I gotta compliment.
Your hair is so wonderful.
Dave Whamond: Yeah, it's perfect.
Flows with the water.
It's, uh, fits just nicely.
Daryl Cagle: Also, it's tricky to make his hair out all out of
blue hue to match the underwater.
I think it's great.
His hair flows like the, the kelp.
RJ Matson: Well, the blue, you know, the blue hue, I got a, lesson from
Ed Sorel, the great old cartoonist about color back in the days when
I would actually use watercolors on paper, and he always struggled
to make his colors blend together.
And he just told me to underpaint the whole page with one color.
And then any color you put on lightly will sort of pick up that either a
light yellow or a light blue and then all the colors kind of work together
because they all have a touch of that one under underpainted color and I
do the same thing and when I color in Photoshop in a lot of cartoons,
Daryl Cagle: that's great.
I think, sex scandals are very well suited to cartoonists we seem to
excel when there are sex scandals and I love sex scandals, To me, it's
kind of disappointing that Matt Gaetz withdrew just now, because I would have
enjoyed a few more days of Matt Gaetz.
Dave Whamond: It's for the good of the country though, I guess.
So, you know, we have to look at it.
It's not about us cartoonists all the time.
Daryl Cagle: So, uh, Bill, here you have Matt Gaetz as a suckerfish on Trump.
And he is very much like that.
And of course, I put this here because we just saw RJ's fish.
And we have a whole bunch of Matt Gaetz as animals cartoons, you've
done more of those than anybody else.
Here you have Matt Gaetz as a love bug.
In a sting operation.
He's got a big stinger here.
You've got him as a parrot, parroting everything Trump wants to say.
You've got him as an elephant's ass, which is, uh, puts his
mouth in a different perspective.
And, that's one of mine where I have him as a dog.
Talk to us about your, your Matt Gaetz cartoons, Bill.
You're in Florida.
You do lots of Matt Gaetz.
Bill Day: Yeah, that's probably why I have so many of them,
um, being a Florida boy myself.
and for a while, uh, he was actually my congressman.
So, I'm well aware of his behavior and his, his place in this,
in the panhandle of Florida.
it is, as you might know, the panhandle is, probably South Alabama more than
it is anything to do with Florida and the reason why he works so well with
the alt right is because that's who he grew up with and that's who support him.
So, I've gotten really used to knowing what he's all about and
why he behaves the way he does.
it's been my job, uh, caricaturing him and dealing with him as an individual.
So He is a complete jerk.
He is absolutely a jerk.
Someone pied him one time in the face, and then of course he got arrested,
but That's how people feel about him, except the people who vote for him.
And, uh, there he can do no wrong.
So, that's
. Daryl Cagle: You are as liberal as a cartoonist can be, Bill.
And you've chosen to be in the most far right MAGA area possible to live?
Bill Day: Well, I can't help that.
Um, I was offered some work.
My wife got offered a job in the panhandle and so we moved to the
panhandle in order to try to survive.
And from my office overlooking the little gulf I enjoy drawing
cartoons about Matt Gaetz.
Daryl Cagle: Well, very good.
this is one I drew recently, um, going with the animal theme.
He's just biting sexy Justice's butt.
And, one thing I love about Matt Gaetz is that he is so easy to draw.
He's got that big head with the little face on it.
And, his eyes are just, uh, it's like they're, they're
designed for a cartoonist.
They're already exaggerated.
I think he's fun.
This is, uh, Adam Zyglis, also on the animal thing.
I think, I think the swamp thing is, is an animal, isn't he?
RJ Matson: Uh, yeah, I think so.
Daryl Cagle: Maybe he's kind of a plant,
Bill Day: some kind of creature from the swamp.
Dave Whamond: I think he's a mutant or something like that.
Yeah.
Daryl Cagle: Well, very good.
This is Ed Wexler.
This one made me laugh.
The pixelation on the little girl's face.
Dave Whamond: I didn't notice that before.
I've seen this one.
Yeah.
It's hilarious.
Daryl Cagle: Makes me laugh.
She's 21.
Dave Whamond: Ed is great at caricatures.
He nails them every time.
Bill Day: He's the best.
Daryl Cagle: His little face and his eyes.
Here he is with crazy Marjorie Taylor Greene, I think, they were kind of a pair.
Um,
Bill Day: They traveled together for
a while.
Dave Whamond: That's right, too.
I forgot.
Yeah.
Bill Day: But as I was saying, you know, she's from Georgia, and
he's actually from, well, from, from North Florida, which is
partly Alabama and partly Georgia.
So, they got along real well in terms of politics.
Daryl Cagle: This is also Ed.
Editors don't like flipping the bird.
This one made me laugh.
It would be nice if editors printed this one.
Bill Day: You know, um, I was told by some friends that live in the Netherlands
that, the bird is quite popular.
In fact, when you give us one of the finger doing drawings in
Netherlands, this It's not verboten.
It's good.
Hmm.
It would probably, it would probably sell in the Netherlands.
Dave Whamond: Yeah.
I find a lot of these types of cartoons have a huge Presence on online like
they get a ton of likes and it's just the newspapers won't print them But
they they seem to be the more popular cartoons on Twitter or blue sky or
Daryl Cagle: you know, that's true with our podcast It's the ones about
Trump with the nastiest cartoons.
They get the most traffic and other topics just are duds
Dave Whamond: Yeah, yeah,
Bill Day: I think editors have just become you know afraid of their shadows.
That's all
Daryl Cagle: Dave, this is fun, and it's kind of an animal cartoon too.
it may be too late.
The gang green has already set in.
yes, these are the four guys that caused all of that trouble to get rid of,
speaker McCarthy and, it's interesting because you would think that Gaetz would
be more of a bad guy to Republicans.
so Trump was kind of thumbing his nose at Republicans to pick
Gaetz for attorney general.
Dave Whamond: I think it was almost a test to see if they would fall in line and
vote for him and, by what just happened today with his resignation, or that he's
not going to put up his name, excuse me, his name forward is, that they're
calling his bluff a little bit here.
That's he probably didn't have the votes to get it through.
So
Bill Day: I figured it'd probably be a recess nomination anyway, but
Dave Whamond: yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
Yeah.
So I don't know who, who, who's worse.
Uh, Hannibal Lecter.
You know, but then I'll find out he's a, he's not a real person.
Bill Day: He is, he is to Trump.
Dave Whamond: Yeah.
Daryl Cagle: Here's another nice animal Gaetz one head under three headed dragon.
Dave Whamond: Yeah, this was a lot of fun to draw.
And I find a lot of these characters are like Batman villains.
You know, they're, they're, uh, Almost cartoonish already, you know, so you have
to work extra hard to caricaturize them.
So
Daryl Cagle: the things they say are such nonsense, Bill, you live in that area.
do they hear this as nonsense?
Why, do the space lasers and, all the craziness, why doesn't
that sound crazy to them?
Bill Day: Well, because that's where their head's at still.
They think this stuff is true and real.
So they, they fall for it.
I mean, we're not talking about people who can think critically very well, you know?
Dave Whamond: I think we don't realize how much of this disinformation is
funneled into some of these voters on a daily basis, you know, and then they
do start to believe some of this stuff.
Bill Day: And even if they don't, they get a big kick out of it just being said.
Daryl Cagle: Also Dave.
It is so charming the way you put the, the shadows in here.
Oh, thanks.
I think that, that makes the drawing more interesting and sophisticated.
I think it's, uh, I think this is lovely.
I can see that it was fun to draw.
Dave Whamond: Oh, thanks.
It was a little more ominous.
At first, I kind vignette.
And then, so I hesitated putting the shadow in there.
But, I
think it popped it out a bit more, so.
Daryl Cagle: Very nice.
Thanks.
Here you have Gaetz, uh, I guess he's feeling, uh, Justice's butt in this one.
He says, don't worry, I'll Venmo you the ten thousand dollars first
Dave Whamond: She's a bit of an older lady for him, I guess, but, uh, I guess
it was age group, but I always find, uh, Like you said earlier, Matt Gates
is just such so much fun to caricaturize You just start with the, uh, the upside
down Nike logo swoosh for the eyebrows.
The
rest just falls into place.
He's got, I didn't give him enough forehead there.
I think I was running out of space.
So I usually, you gotta add a bit more forehead, but
Daryl Cagle: There's a lot of leeway on drawing him.
If you don't get something right, it still looks like him.
close enough.
Dave Whamond: Yeah, and then the hair is fun too, so.
Daryl Cagle: It is.
Dave Whamond: Yeah.
Daryl Cagle: And here's another group scene with the four of the nutbags.
Very nice.
Dave Whamond: Oh, thank you.
Yeah.
Like I say, they're, it's, it's, uh, so much fun to, to caricaturize these folks,
you know, they do all the work for us.
So you just, just have fun with it.
Daryl Cagle: And here he is on, on the bus with the bomb ready to explode.
He says, Oh, and if you ever go below 50 miles per hour,
we'll blow the whole thing up.
That's great.
Dave Whamond: Oh, thanks.
Yeah, I gave him enough forehead in that one.
Bill Day: You got a good chin there, too.
Yeah,
Daryl Cagle: just a little spot of face in the middle of his big head.
Yeah,
Are you happy to see him gone?
You guys?
Dave Whamond: I don't know.
He, I kind of got, I had trouble characterizing him at
first and then I finally got it and then he, then he's gone.
So, you know, he, yeah,
RJ Matson: I struggled with him at first too.
a little bit bland.
No, I think it's fair to say he wasn't respected by his peers and
probably not the sharpest guy.
So to draw him kind of bland and dumb, but, uh,
Daryl Cagle: you're talking about McCarthy.
RJ Matson: McCarthy.
Yeah, but, but those aren't necessarily the most fun people to caricature and like
another one from olden times who was kind of just serious and boring was Al Gore.
I had a really hard time drawing him.
Daryl Cagle: Well, here's a perfect example of this piece of art where,
Matt Gaetz is clearly fun to draw and McCarthy is clearly more of a struggle.
Mm
RJ Matson: hmm.
Daryl Cagle: Well, it wasn't a struggle for you.
You got it very well.
You got it good.
Here he's opening up the flood Gaetz
Dave Whamond: Yeah, you can see it.
Yeah, we're doing a progression here.
I'm getting bigger forehead and chin every time here.
So, but it is funny even looking at him live and in person.
His face is very small and there's a ton of flesh around.
This is a.
Face, which is very odd, but it works for us.
So
Daryl Cagle: I've got to say, I kind of enjoy him and I'm, I'm a little bit sad to
see him go because whoever goes in there is going to carry out Trump's agenda.
Why not be entertaining?
Dave Whamond: Yeah, I think he would have been a, disaster, but he probably, it
would have just been all about retribution if he got in there, so probably,
Daryl Cagle: you know, you don't expect the retribution and
Dave Whamond: it'll still be there, but you know, I think he'll
be, he would be over the top.
going after Liz Cheney, et cetera.
Daryl Cagle: Here's Bruce Plante, the teenage girl, running
away from Matt Gaetz's office.
there, uh, I've noticed the square peg in the round hole seems to be a theme
that, cartoonists were picking up on this.
Here's Randy Enos with square pegs in round holes.
Here's Pat Bagley.
Look at that ass.
Yeah, right.
Dave Whamond: perfect.
Daryl Cagle: Steve Sack.
You know, it's nice that Gaetz was here, three years ago with
his, his scandal so that we could get a Steve Sack cartoon from it.
Bill Day: Seventeen Magazine.
That's great.
Daryl Cagle: Yeah.
Dave Whamond: Yeah.
Steve was one of the best.
Daryl Cagle: Here you are Bill with the same idea.
And here's Taylor Jones.
I thought this was fun.
The hair on this is great fun.
And of course he paints with real watercolors and a brush.
Dave Whamond: Yeah.
Yeah.
Very well done.
Daryl Cagle: He doesn't need any eyeballs at all.
Bill Day: No,
RJ Matson: no.
Bill Day: His eyeballs are so recessed.
You don't need to see the eyeballs themselves.
RJ Matson: uh, Gates will come back.
He'll have a comeback like Nixon or something.
Trump
Daryl Cagle: might've pointed to something that doesn't require confirmation.
Dave Whamond: Well, he did resign Congress.
From Congress, I mean,
Bill Day: yeah.
But he may very well run for governor of Florida and win.
Yeah.
Dave Whamond: Oh, God.
RJ Matson: did he run for reelection?
in the in 2024 and won and then resigned.
Bill Day: He can't be defeated in North Florida.
Well,
RJ Matson: I wonder if you can just reclaim his seat since he'll be
sworn in and January 2nd or whatever.
Dave Whamond: Think he resigned though, before that report came out and that
was the, is, Oh, he can't have a private citizen, have the house ethics report.
Well, I think going back in would cause what they would release it then.
So I don't think he wants that.
Bill Day: They only released a couple of rules apply anymore with Trump.
Daryl Cagle: No
Bill Day: rules.
I mean, did
Daryl Cagle: you see that chart of all the women that he called in Venmoed?
Dave Whamond: No, I didn't see that.
I know he got him in the middle at all these lines to like, uh, dozens
of women that he was Venmoing.
like who, who would Venmo, you know, like you, you think he's
dizzy or the cash or, you know,
Daryl Cagle: it's funny when you look at, at that chart with all
the dozens of women's and your takeaway is why would he use Venmo?
Dave Whamond: I'm just thinking he's, he's obviously come on, man.
You know?
It's all out there, it's all traceable.
Yeah, not smart.
Yeah.
Daryl Cagle: So here's Rick McKee, and he's got the two, teenage girls.
one girl has a, I guess it's like a valentine.
Do you like me?
Yes or no, pick one, yes, no.
It's from that creepy congressman, Matt Gaetz.
Bill Day: That's good, man.
Dave Whamond: Yeah, I hadn't seen that one, that's good.
Daryl Cagle: Here's Date Night with Matt Gaetz.
A rose and a happy meal.
RJ Matson: I'm not getting the McDonald's connection, but I guess, Oh, happy meal.
That's
Daryl Cagle: okay.
He's got a kid's meal that he's giving her for her date.
RJ Matson: That's that's right.
Dave Whamond: Very good caricature too.
Daryl Cagle: I'm not a monk.
This would be me as a monk.
That's wonderful.
It's kind of crazy.
Did he say I'm not a monk?
RJ Matson: He must have.
Dave Whamond: That's funny to look back in some cartoons that you've done in.
There's some quote or something and it's like, did he say that you can't
even remember so much stuff happens, uh, on a daily basis with these guys, you
can't even remember half of the stuff,
Daryl Cagle: you know, as cartoonists, we have the right to
put words into anybody's mouth that they didn't really say something.
No other journalists can do quotes around it like this.
It gives the impression that he actually would have said it, but
we're not really required to have him actually say it to put quotes around
something, so you don't really know.
Dave Whamond: I know on things like, Saturday Night Live, they'll just
basically quote what the politician had said, and whoever's doing the impression
of them will just repeat verbatim.
What that has been said, and then people will say, that was hilarious.
All I do is quoting what they actually said, you know, like Sarah Palin,
I can see Alaska from my house.
RJ Matson: Yeah.
Whenever possible.
I'd like to use the politicians, actual words in a cartoon, if I can.
Yeah.
Daryl Cagle: How do you identify it as actual words?
Do you identify it?
RJ Matson: If I have them saying something in a caption, I'll
just be an actual direct quote.
Daryl Cagle: So do you put quotation marks around it?
RJ Matson: Well, uh, yeah, if I run my caption along the bottom of
the drawing, I always have it in quotation marks if somebody's speaking,
whether I'm quoting them or not.
So
Daryl Cagle: I've seen cartoonists write actual quotes in their cartoons.
RJ Matson: Oh, I've never done that.
Yeah.
Daryl Cagle: So here's Randy Enos again.
Would you let your teenage daughter date a guy that looks like that?
It looks like a Dick Tracy villain.
Yeah.
Teeny face.
This is something the kids are not going to have any idea who.
Dave Whamond: I love that teeny face works with the teen thing too.
So it
Daryl Cagle: It does.
Here is John Darkow.
This is his cartoon from today.
They're sitting at the Thanksgiving table and the old lady says, Why is
Matt Gaetz at the children's table?
And the lady at the grown up table says, He's explaining he can't pick
up dates on his recess appointment like he does during recess at school.
One thing I thought was fun about this is look at the caricature of Matt Gaetz.
You've got A little bit of his face, it doesn't include eyes or nose or mouth,
and you still know it's Matt Gaetz.
Dave Whamond: Yeah, yeah.
And see, recess works both ways, too, so.
Yes, it's just perfect sitting there for us.
Daryl Cagle: Here's John Darko again with the monsters at the Star Wars cantina.
So it's official, we're all getting jobs in Trump's cabinet.
The only one that's not An explicit Star Wars monster is Matt Gaetz, is
just a natural Star Wars monster.
Dave Whamond: Yeah, I see him more like a Batman type guy.
Like, it's just face, his facial expressions.
Like, especially when he had that Botox for the convention
that he was speaking at.
I thought he's just, he's a central casting for a Batman villain.
He is.
Daryl Cagle: Yeah.
Um, and, you notice, John Darkow has his eyebrows leaping off of his head.
I think it's natural for cartoonists when there's something interesting
on someone's face to make it bigger.
Um, and with Matt Gaetz, you have that conflict of wanting
to make his whole face smaller.
I think that that's a struggle.
Dave Whamond: I was going to say, uh, the caricature, the drawing
in here is really nicely done.
So, the Star Wars characters, I wouldn't have thought of that.
That's a, that's a great, uh, some of the cabinet picks are, are in line with that.
Exactly.
So
Daryl Cagle: he draws with real pencil on real paper.
Yeah, it is pencil.
I was wondering about that.
Yeah.
Dave Whamond: You still do pencil as well, Daryl, right?
Is that how you do that?
Daryl Cagle: I do, but then I scan it.
with high contrast, and then I color it on the computer, so
it's, not really very pencil y.
I just
Dave Whamond: Yeah, no, not at all.
Daryl Cagle: I get too stiff
when I use ink.
Dave Whamond: I was really surprised to see that when you did one of your demos.
I thought, I had no idea that there was a, those were pencils, because
they do look like croqueline, you know, or nib pen or something.
Daryl Cagle: I've been trying to use Procreate on an iPad
and struggling with that.
I did only one cartoon that way so far, but it takes me like four times as
long cause I don't have the skillset.
RJ Matson: I've switched over to the iPad within the last year.
Last year and a half and I'm loving it.
Um, and I don't use Procreate.
I use Adobe Fresco, which is stuff you're used to Photoshop.
it just feels more familiar, but working in layers and, and, um, you know, tracing
your own work and cleaning things up and erasing a line that you don't like, it
just becomes second nature very quickly to the point that when I draw on paper now.
You know, in the app, you can tap your fingers twice to erase what you just did.
And I find myself drawing on paper and tapping the paper
to make a line I don't like.
Yeah.
Dave Whamond: I do the drawing on the board still.
I still like I can't get the line.
I want digitally, but then I scan it in and do the color that way.
But it's funny because sometimes you're used to doing the, uh, you
know, when you make a mistake, you do the apple or what is it?
I forget what it is, whatever it is.
Daryl Cagle: Command Z.
Dave Whamond: yeah.
So you get rid of it and then I go back to the board and I go,
well, I don't like that line.
And I go to, oh, I can't get rid of it.
You kind of get used to it, you know.
Daryl Cagle: So the transition was easy for you, RJ.
RJ Matson: Yeah, well, so I, I began thinking I would just sketch my ideas.
So do the, do the rough sketches.
And then I would, like I used to do, I would, where I would draw on paper and
then scan it and color it in Photoshop.
I was drawing a black and white sketch.
And then importing it into Photoshop and coloring it and sending my sketches
to my editors And then I started doing the finished drawing and still
coloring in photoshop And now i've just gotten the habit of coloring
right in in the in the app on the ipad and The extra control is great.
And i've never used one of those big wacom tablets or anything like that
But what's wonderful about the iPad is being able to zoom in and
out so quickly and rotate your image.
So, so why do you want to draw better than you always are moving your paper?
It's never fixed in one position and you're moving your arm.
You rotate the paper to make to draw the lines more easily.
Um, so basically your arm is always moving in the same direction.
If you're drawing a circle, you rotate the paper and just draw the same motion.
And you can do that on the iPad.
It's just fantastic.
Daryl Cagle: So where did Procreate fall short that made you choose Adobe Fresco?
RJ Matson: uh, I didn't like the brushes.
I was just really used to, uh, to, Photoshop brushes.
And, um, and I didn't feel the same kind of control I had, like
the, just the basic pencil brush and Fresco is really, really nice.
Um, so you do, and I wanted a few more, uh, I didn't like not having all the.
the tools visible on the screen.
That's why they do
it.
Daryl Cagle: Interesting.
Here's John Cole with Gates as toast.
This, uh, this one turned out to be true, I guess.
Cartoonists do a lot of ventriloquist jokes because I just, the metaphor
of a puppet is so nice and here he's drinking the Trump Kool Aid
while he's, puppeting McCarthy.
he was, I didn't get the impression that he puppeted McCarthy.
I got, he was just, an adversary and got rid of him.
He does drink the Kool Aid, though.
RJ Matson: 80 years ago, this could have been an Edgar Berg
and Charlie McCarthy cartoon.
How do you decide when a cultural reference is too old?
Dave Whamond: I did a cartoon about the Beatles, uh, Couple months ago,
and some people were commenting.
I don't get this.
Like they had no idea what the reference.
RJ Matson: I can't even imagine the Star Wars reference.
Dave Whamond: Yeah, I
think enough kids still watch the old ones, but I don't know.
It's hard to say.
RJ Matson: I remember giving a talk at my, uh, college to some
journalism students 10 years, only 10 years after the Tiananmen square.
Massacre.
And I showed a cartoon of, you know, the classic image of the
man standing in front of the tank.
And the kids had no understanding of what that was.
Dave Whamond: Seriously,
RJ Matson: and I thought, um, yeah, well, you were all like, you know,
third graders when this happened.
Dave Whamond: Yeah,
Daryl Cagle: that would be true in China, too.
RJ Matson: Yeah,
Daryl Cagle: here's Adam Zyglis with his Bates motel cartoon,
the Gaetz motel, another cartoon that the young people won't get.
Dave Whamond: They did redo it a couple years ago.
Um, I think Vince Vaughn did it, but it wasn't that, I don't think that
classic scene would, come across.
So,
Bill Day: and did it in black and white, like the, uh, movie.
Dave Whamond: Yeah.
Yeah.
Nice touch.
Daryl Cagle: Here is Jeff Katerba.
He draws naked Gaetz at the hotel reception, he says, but I pre
ordered the executive blanket.
Pardon?
And the receptionist says, I'm sorry, Mr.
Gates, but I'm not seeing anything.
The Congressman has no clothes.
he's funny or naked.
Dave Whamond: He just needs the Borat,
Daryl Cagle: he rose to be a very interesting, crazy cartoon
character early, and just as a congressman, which is an achievement.
But.
This is Rick McKee.
He's got the Trump garbage truck full of his nominees, Matt Gates and RFK Jr.
And Tulsi Gabbard.
RJ Matson: Yeah, great idea.
It's one I wish I'd thought of.
Dave Whamond: Yeah, absolutely.
Daryl Cagle: look how, how tiny the little bit of Washington is down there.
And it tells you that you're in Washington with just that tiny little spot.
Oh, I think that's charming.
Yeah, and the little newspaper tells you that they're the cabinet nominees
and all the garbage in the air This one's full of wonderful details.
Dave Whamond: Mm hmm.
Yeah, and it's not too much to look at He's got a ton of stuff in there and it's
nicely done how he's manipulated the page
So it's not
too hard to look at.
Daryl Cagle: Yes.
And Matt Gaetz has this bra and RFK has this tin hat and Tulsi
Gabbard's has her communist button.
He's, this is full of little details that describe everything.
And Trump's tie is wonderful.
Dave Whamond: Oh, yeah.
And of course he has the worm coming out of RFK's junior's head.
That's like, we all have to do that now, of course.
Daryl Cagle: Bill, here are a bunch of your cartoons in a row.
Because Bill has drawn, I think I counted like three dozen Matt
Gaetz cartoons in Bill's archive.
He's got more Matt Gaetz than any other cartoonist has drawn.
And, This is, he's, he's clearly your favorite, Bill.
Bill Day: yeah.
You can't ignore him.
Daryl Cagle: Here's his back tattoo, like, Roger Stone.
That's funny.
He's singing.
Well, she was just 17.
You know what I mean?
Right.
Dave Whamond: And so you got the perfect Nike swoop eyebrows there,
you know, the upside down Nike logo.
Daryl Cagle: Was there a story about the Bahamas?
Bill Day: Yeah.
Okay.
Well, supposedly one of, one of his, when he was chasing a 17
year old, it was in the Bahamas.
So that's, that's the whole Bahamas thing.
Oh, okay.
But you know, in Florida, you get to wear these fancy ties anyway.
Daryl Cagle: another old man thing.
I don't think the young people in Florida are wearing ties.
Here he is dancing with the KKK hate.
Editors don't like the KKK in cartoons.
Bill Day: Well, they're there and Matt
Gates knows
them well, you know, they're friends.
Daryl Cagle: What has he done anything in particular you can point to?
Bill Day: Oh, well, he's invited him to, you know, attend Congress with him.
He's he's gone, gets out with him all the time.
He's.
He really likes to, likes to bring them into his fold because they vote for him.
He's not afraid.
And he's not afraid of people knowing that they're part of his constituency
because he's from North Florida.
Dave Whamond: You know, 20 years ago, that would have been unthinkable,
inviting a KKK to come to Congress or wherever, you know, and now
it's just sort of like normalized,
Daryl Cagle: but 80 years ago, it wouldn't have been unthinkable.
Dave Whamond: No, that's true.
That's true.
RJ Matson: That's true.
Dave Whamond: We're coming full circle again soon.
RJ Matson: Normalize and people forget history.
Daryl Cagle: Mm hmm.
Bill Day: Yeah, he's still trying to defund the FBI.
And that's, and that's part of, uh, Trump's, uh, plan as well.
Daryl Cagle: Well, here he is under the sex trafficking microscope.
Bill, you've just got so many of them.
I grabbed a tiny little selection.
RJ Matson: The Iron Man of Matt Gaetz cartoons.
Wow.
It's great when you have a local person who's, uh,
Daryl Cagle: You could do a Matt Gaetz book.
RJ Matson: I think, Daryl, if you ever do a show on Rudy Giuliani, there's
probably no one who's done more Rudy Giuliani cartoons than I have.
Really?
Daryl Cagle: Do you think?
RJ Matson: I had all those years at the New York Observer when I was pretty much
the only cartoonist in New York City.
Daryl Cagle: Would people care enough about Rudy Giuliani for us
to do a podcast on Rudy Giuliani?
RJ Matson: Uh,
I don't know.
Probably not anymore.
But, um, He was
Dave Whamond: Trump.
Trump's gonna name him as the new A.
G.
So we'll, we'll be back when you want to on Rudy.
RJ Matson: Oh, you think?
Dave Whamond: Oh, I'm just kidding.
But you never know.
Like, Hey, I joke about it and it'll happen.
Daryl Cagle: So, you know, I appreciate the kicking him
while he's down, but he does.
Seem to me like he's a, tragic figure and he's kind of lost his mind.
He's, he's become a genuine nut.
I mean, these other guys are hypocrites and they're being, they're acting nutty.
RJ Matson: Are you talking about Mayor Giuliani?
Daryl Cagle: Yeah.
RJ Matson: Oh, if you saw my cartoons, no, he was always the way he is.
Daryl Cagle: You think so?
You don't
RJ Matson: think he's kind of Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He was always a grandstanding blowhard of the worst kind and would
willing to lie and misrepresent.
to cheap, cheap political points.
Daryl Cagle: You don't think he's kind of lost his mental facility?
RJ Matson: I think he's gotten, he's become more of who he is.
He's become, he's become like, His essence is purified, in a way.
But, no, he was always this horrible person.
Daryl Cagle: you don't have any sympathy for him?
RJ Matson: No, no.
No, none at all.
Dave Whamond: So even back when he was, uh
RJ Matson: Once a jerk, always a jerk.
No.
Dave Whamond: When he was America's mayor, and he was sort of the big
hero, did you know it then as well,
RJ Matson: Well, I'd been drawing cartoons about him for years before that.
Dave Whamond: Yeah, so you kind of saw that through the whole
RJ Matson: And he was, he had worn out his welcome in New York City.
Nobody liked him.
And so Yeah.
Yeah.
And he showed, you know, he showed up and, and was, uh, a
calm, heroic voice on that day.
No doubt about that.
and he built like a multimillion dollar command and control center
for any emergency in New York.
And he, and they, for political reasons, put it in the World Trade Center and
everybody told him it was foolish because the World Trade Center was, was
the target about seven years before.
And so basically he had to run the, react, you know, the response to that
horrible tragedy that day with nothing.
Yeah.
but, yeah, It was, those were hard days in New York to draw cartoons about anything.
And it was hard to attack him.
So everybody like, you know, You know, laid off after that.
All right.
Well,
Daryl Cagle: you've talked me into it.
We'll do a Giuliani podcast.
We'll have you on there.
And, um, whether people want to, Yeah,
RJ Matson: if he becomes attorney general, he needs, he's brought back somehow.
Yeah.
Daryl Cagle: He has sacrificed himself on the altar of Trump.
You would think that Trump might have some sympathy for him.
Dave Whamond: And he hasn't paid his legal fees, so he owes him one.
Yep.
Daryl Cagle: Well, here we've got the classic, I'm with stupid and I'm with
stupid, and, uh, I haven't seen that
Dave Whamond: one, that's great.
Daryl Cagle: That is the end of our cartoons, I only grabbed about
20 of Bill's Matt Gaetz cartoons,
Bill Day: I do appreciate that,
Daryl.
Daryl Cagle: Gentlemen, we had 57 cartoons that we went through very quickly.
I think it was a great collection of Matt Gaetz cartoons, and I especially
enjoyed all of your cartoons.
I think they were delightful.
Dave Whamond: Well, thanks.
It'll be interesting to see where he ends up now, so.
Daryl Cagle: I'll bet he lands on his feet.
Bill Day: I think so, too.
You know, in Florida, his father is Don Gaetz, who's a very powerful figure.
Senate, the Florida Senate guy,
RJ Matson: and
Bill Day: he's, he's still going to be around for sure.
RJ Matson: Looking forward to drawing him for a couple of years.
Dave Whamond: In the greater good.
I'm happy to see him go.
Daryl Cagle: We won't lose him.
We've got him this week and, He's sure to come back, I think.
Bill Day: I think so too, but he is such a jerk.
He is such a jerk.
Daryl Cagle: Okay, gentlemen.
Thank you very much.
It is very nice to have you.
Remember to subscribe to Caglecast wherever you're
watching or listening today.
Our Caglecast is available in both video and audio versions.
So if you don't see the cartoons, go to Cagle.
com or apple podcasts or Rumble or YouTube or Spotify or Caglecast.com.
com to see the cartoons of the video podcast.
Otherwise you can listen to it in audio, wherever you get your podcasts
and, gentlemen, I had a great time today and thank you for being here.
Dave Whamond: Thanks for having us.
Good to meet you guys.
Okay.
See ya.
All right.