The Daily Beast
The Party of Pervy Projection hits a new low with Matt Gaetz
Bill Clark / GettyIt’s always the one you suspect the most. So far, Gaetzgate is the most surprising scandal since it was discovered that Matt’s hero, Donald Trump, was paying porn stars to shut up about sleeping with him. Elements of Gaetz’s story have been released for a while, the “sleeping with staff to earn points” part was reported in January by Solomon Gustavo at Orlando Weekly and years earlier by Marc Caputo, but the Times was able to put it all together. And when the whole thing came together, it looked a lot like Qanon with men trafficking girls, except that in the real life version it always seems like Republicans are supposed to commit these crimes. Of course, Gaetz is far from being Trump’s first fervent supporter in Congress to have his own legal or ethical ethical issues. The first member of the House to support Trump, Chris Collins, was later accused of insider trading, and Trump’s huge booster, Duncan Hunter, used the campaign’s money to buy rabbit air tickets – among other things. Both committed their crimes in time to finally be forgiven by Trump; Gaetz hasn’t gotten a word of support from him until now. Trump isn’t coming to the rescue of Matt Gaetz – for now, but Gaetz has built a huge profile for himself, in his short term in office, because he spends most of his time on right-wing TV – from where he has been conspicuously absent since the scandal broke out, except for an incredibly strange, sad and sweaty appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show. On that program, he tried to drag the presenter into his scandal and talked about how he was being blackmailed by a former DOJ lawyer in an interview that was so confusing that even the Fox presenter called it “one of the strangest interviews. I’ve already driven. ”Since then, Fox News has practically disappeared the handsome boy star of the rising party who supposedly likes to pop Molly (unrelated) with underage girls, with the ad network going for a full 30 hours at one point without as much as one. mention of him, even though CNN and MSNBC were in all the scandal, with CNN reporting on Thursday that Gaetz was showing videos and photos of naked women and bragging about their exploits in Congress and The New York Times reporting that “The Department of Justice inquiry is also examining whether Mr. Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old girl and whether she received anything of material value, according to four people familiar with the investigation” – and all without mentioning the photo of condoms in a trash can outside his office that a colleague of his shared with The Daily Beast. There is also the inconvenient truth that shortly after arriving in Congress in 2017, Gaetz was the only one, yes, the ONLY legislator to vote against a bill that gives the federal government more resources to fight, yes, you guessed it, the thing itself that he can be accused now, human trafficking. Matt Gaetz tries to meddle in his defense of the FBI’s teenage sex case The congressman may look more like a boy fraternity that seems to have crossed moral and perhaps legal boundaries – but that doesn’t mean that this is any kind of joke. An adult man and a member of Congress allegedly paying teenagers below the age of consent to have sex is deadly serious, which is perhaps why Gaetz released a statement when more charges emerged on Thursday. The statement used his full name repeatedly and categorically denied the charges: “Matt Gaetz never paid for sex. Matt Gaetz refutes all disgusting claims completely. Matt Gaetz has never been to any of these sites. Matt Gaetz values the relationships of his past and hopes to marry the love of his life ”, a reference to his fiancee Ginger Lucky. If Ginger is smart, she is halfway to Istanbul now. In addition, Matt Gaetz’s communications director resigned on Friday for some reason. Gaetz may be issuing general denials, but reports of bad behavior and worse are still coming, many of them linked to his friend Joel Greenberg, the local Florida tax collector now charged with 33 charges ranging from electronic fraud to sex trafficking and who allegedly they used his position to chase women he was paying for in Seeking Arrangements, a “daddy” site. Gaetz, moreover, emphasized that he has always taken good care of the women he has become involved with. In the meantime, the Republicans’ official silence was deafening, even though many were pouring into their unpopular and exhibitionist young colleague in the background. On CNN on Friday morning, former Beast editor John Avlon stressed that “it doesn’t look like his Republican colleagues are coming together in his defense.” Dana Bash replied that: “If you could see my text messages from some of your current and former colleagues, I can’t really repeat what some of them say on morning television.” And earlier in the week, minority leader Kevin McCarthy told Fox News: “If it is true, yes, we would remove it. These are serious implications. Matt Gaetz continues to dig deeper holes for himself. But perhaps the worst sign for Gaetz is that Trump and his great failed adult son responded to the allegations with silence, officially and in the background. “The ex-president stood on the sidelines, waiting to see what comes next. The same happened with his son, Don Jr., who is also an influential ally of Gaetz. He tweeted several times since Tuesday night, but offered no defense from the congressman. “In fact, the only people who have spoken out in defense of Gaetz are Marjorie Taylor Greene, who came to Congress promoting Qanon’s conspiracy theories accusing Democrats of abusing children said that what is happening to her friend now was a” witch hunts ”and Jim Jordan, who historically has been very good at ignoring other people’s sexual crimes. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Subscribe now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper into the stories that matter to you. To know more.