Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz, a 38-year-old child pampered by a wealthy Florida man who has never had to earn an honest dollar in his life, is allegedly a part-time predator, a youth-loving thing, which he emphatically denies, and that it is unquestionably a full-time flow. Quelle’s surprise: There seems to be more slime in Florida’s first district representative than in all of the Everglades.
It’s hard to say exactly what made the exposure to Gaetz’s dirt so predictable for people who were out of the belt. It could have been the 16 speeding and DUI tickets, his aspiring father’s relationship with former President Donald Trump, that time he took a picture of himself to make fun of COVID-19 with a gas mask, his friendship with right-wing figures such as Holocaust denier Charles Johnson, media appearances where he appeared bewildered, or the fact that he is known to have pursued a popular Tallahassee college bar while serving as state legislator.
Maybe it was the moment he lamented not being able to “chase” the antifa like the military hunting terrorists, or the moment he publicly expressed creepy Tiffany Trump, 22, or the moment threatened a congressional witness the night before he was supposed to testify and then tried to assault the sight of a committee where he was not, or the moment he tried to attack another hearing related to the dismissal that took place in a SCIF. Or maybe it’s his sweet, funny air that reminds everyone of the most annoying guy they went to college with or the giant low glasses in his eyes that shrank and shrunk like a spring break hangover.
But it was definitely something, as the people inside the belt showed a surprisingly similar level. The general response of his party compatriots seems to be, “of course.” In fact, according to reports, many in his party say they saw Gaetz’s public relations problems a mile away; then Attorney General Bill Barr, who knew the investigation, avoided appearing in photos and receiving cable news with him, and it seems likely that some of his colleagues in Congress were doing the same to avoid the bad PR that would inevitably come .
If so, why did none of Gaetz’s fellow congressmen do anything? Why was there no “party official”?
After the Times reported Monday that the FBI was looking at a relationship Gaetz allegedly had with a 17-year-old girl, Gaetz has denied any offense while insisting the real victim here was Matt Gaetz and his family, which Gaetz said which were extorted for $ 25 million. Gaetz’s damage control plan involved a disastrous appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show that Carlson later called “the strangest interview” he had ever done.
As it began last week, more information came to light, each little more dragging its skin than the last. It now appears that Gaetz was not the target of the original FBI investigation, but was caught in child sex trafficking involving a small Florida official, crooked and a friend of Gaetz’s Joel Greenberg. Greenberg was charged in 2020 with, among other things, sexually trafficking a 17-year-old girl with whom Gaetz may also have had sex. Investigators are studying whether the disgusting duo was organizing online sexual encounters and proportional payments as recently as last year. Gaetz has been a member of Congress since 2017.
But wait, there are more. A story resurfaced that the Miami Herald published in 2017 in which it was claimed that Gaetz had created a “game” with other young Florida lawmakers whose goal was to sleep with state House inmates, married colleagues, assistants and pressure groups. (He didn’t actually “create” that game to the extent that he copied a fraternity home game that Lifetime has been making movies since at least the mid-90s, so let’s not give Gaetz too much creative credit, even its predatory behavior is derived Reports also allege that Gaetz allegedly bragged about the women he had slept with, sometimes showing nude photos of roommates on the floor of the house.
“Matt Gaetz has never paid for sex,” Gaetz’s office told the New York Times shortly before Gaetz’s communications director quit in the midst of a scandal that deals a lot with Gaetz, one way or another. another, to pay for sex.
If writing down everything that made me feel like I needed to shower, what the hell is going on with Gaetz’s fellow Congressmen who suspected or witnessed this behavior but did shit roughly to stop it? I’m serious. What about people who knew about it, and yet were more concerned about their own publicity than the safety of their co-workers, law enforcement, and the country’s business?
It’s not that I have any faith that Republicans will do the right thing here and take tangible steps to get Gaetz out of the Washington swamp and back to the Florida swamp where he belongs. The 2021 Republican Party is more adept at launching attacks on Twitter and Twitter than showing any degree of moral courage. House minority leader Kevin McCarthy continues to run his out-of-control caucus like an overwhelmed babysitter the kids have locked in the bathroom, has not removed Gaetz from his committee duties, despite the seriousness of the allegations and the advanced state of the research. Gaetz’s Republican colleagues were brave enough to record how they always knew the boy was rotten, but not brave enough to go out publicly and demand accountability.
And what about all or some of the record numbers of Republican women who took office last fall? Why don’t we hear about it? Surely at least one of the 30 Republican women currently working on the same floor where Gaetz allegedly went naked without the consent of her subjects has any thoughts on this? Whenever a Democrat is accused of sexual misconduct, the press seeks answers from party women. Why don’t we ask Republican women what they think of all this? It’s not fair to just wait for women’s answers on issues related to sexual misconduct, but it’s also not fair to pretend that their vision isn’t important.
Why don’t we get news from Rep. Nancy Mace, who in 2019 revealed on the floor of the South Carolina State House that she was a survivor of a sexual assault? What about Rep. Michelle Fischbach, who sponsored a sex trafficking bill when she served in the Minnesota legislature? How about Ashley Hinson of Iowa, who as a state legislator wrote a bill designed to “ensure that these predators would be held accountable” in public schools, and was so proud of this bill that she posted an ad when did he appear in Congress? Why have we not received news from Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, one of Washington’s most powerful Republican women, who in 2018 applauded the passage of a law that updated the standards of conduct governing members of Congress and their employees with a separate statement, “Members of Congress must follow the talk and set an example. There is no place for sexual harassment in any workplace and there would be no tolerance on Capitol Hill.” happens with Texas Rep. Beth Van Duyne, who once blatantly he tweeted #MeToo in celebration of Bret Kavanaugh’s confirmation on SCOTUS? (Wait a minute; it looks like it might be part of the problem.)
Either Republicans and women stand up and say something about Gaetz, or they shut up and are therefore complicit in perpetuating a workplace culture that actively keeps half the population out.
Because that’s how all this being told about Gaetz is so reprehensible to the privileged that they say they knew, and yet they did nothing: every time women share stories of feeling insecure or deprived of work, they are questioned. . Women who complain about the fraternal behaviors of adult men are told that “not all men” are like that, that there are “good men”. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve reflexively described an observation about male misconduct in pointing out first that I know not all men are bad. But anyone (male or female) who does not speak out when they witness sexual misconduct by a partner agrees to make sure that exceptions to the “not all men” rule are always isolated from people’s punishment. who do not want to participate. If you are a member of Congress from any of the parties that witnessed Matt Gaetz intermittently naked on the floor of the House, you will participate. If you knew he was running around Washington with suspicious young-looking women, you’ll be involved.
Journalists making background calls about this should ask themselves why so many well-known people did so little.