Happy Good Friday, GOP. You bought the Matt Gaetz ticket and now you have to take the ride, and Disneyworld has got zip to compare to this. This is like a roller coaster where the car comes screaming down a hill, whips around a hairpin curve, and then a James Bond seat ejector flings the occupants out into space towards Cape Canaveral — sans parachute. A little too wild for my money, but what you would expect from a guy described as “the prototype of the celebrity politician” who says “If you aren’t making news, you aren’t governing?”
Here’s the latest.
“The Justice Department 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. The sex trafficking count against Mr. Greenberg involved the same girl, according to two people briefed on the investigation,” the newspaper noted. “The Times has reviewed receipts from Cash App, a mobile payments app, and Apple Pay that show payments from Mr. Gaetz and Mr. Greenberg to one of the women, and a payment from Mr. Greenberg to a second woman. The women told their friends that the payments were for sex with the two men, according to two people familiar with the conversations.”
“In some cases, Mr. Gaetz asked women to help find others who might be interested in having sex with him and his friends, according to two people familiar with those conversations,” the newspaper reported.
Among the many descriptors history will use to describe Matt Gaetz, today we add 'alleged small-time pimp' https://t.co/oVzIcoVQR0
— Max Burns (@themaxburns) April 2, 2021
Prior to joining Congress, Gaetz was a member of the Florida House of Representatives when his father was also a member of the Florida Senate. Sources told ABC News the two were often referred to as “Daddy Gaetz and Baby Gaetz.” Sources said some women referred to him as “Creepy Gaetz” because they allegedly found themselves made uncomfortable by the junior lawmaker.
Sources said Gaetz was part of a group of young male lawmakers who created a “game” to score their female sexual conquests, which granted “points” for various targets such as interns, staffers or other female colleagues in the state House. One of the targets of the scoring system was a group the lawmakers had heard were “virgins,” according to a source. The scoring system by male Florida lawmakers was previously reported by the Miami Herald.
One source said Gaetz was often spotted trying to pick up young women at 101 Restaurant, a once-popular watering hole in Tallahassee for some lawmakers and students from nearby Florida State University.
And from today’s Morning Joe:
“We are now learning that this Florida bro, basically, you know, turns out, who’s running around with an indicted sex trafficker and has been walking around apparently showing his best pictures off his phone to his friends on the House floor of his sexual — I don’t want to call them conquests. –if you’re paying for them they’re not conquests, right?” he explained. ” So it turns out, by everything we’re hearing now, he’s skeevy.”
“I think it matters if there’s a federal charge — a sex trafficking charge, that matters,” he continued. “Regardless whether charges are brought now, I think he, the floodgates are now open and on a political level, a lot of members of Congress in the Republican Party who even if they have saddled up to Trump, even if they accepted Donald Trump, even if they got in bed with the fleas of Donald Trump, they are looking — looked at people like Matt Gaetz and said, ‘man, this is a stinky pile that we’re stuck with here.'”
“This is an opportunity for Republicans, I think right now, and in a self-interested way, to be like, let’s get away from that and let’s take some kind of a purely cynical public relations-driven approach, which is like, get on our high horse,” Heilemann added. “No moral standing to take this position, by the way, but to throw Matt Gaetz over the side will make them feel better and they think give them some kind of credibility for having walked away from someone who is clearly, like I said, at this point, I think terminally toxic.”
Well, he’s definitely making news. He’s making more news as each hour goes by. This is a virtual diarrhea of news.
And it’s getting kinky. CNN reporting hula hoops. Yep:
Gaetz allegedly showed off to other lawmakers photos and videos of nude women he said he had slept with, the sources told CNN, including while on the House floor. The sources, including two people directly shown the material, said Gaetz displayed the images of women on his phone and talked about having sex with them. One of the videos showed a naked woman with a hula hoop, according to one source.
And then there was this in Vanity Fair.
Gaetz also credits Trump with making life a little bit easier in Washington for a guy like him who, as he put it, “arrived in D.C. as a single man after a couple of long-term relationships that didn’t work out.” A thrice-married serial adulterer as the face of the Republican Party certainly provides some cover for members who might step outside the lines. “We’ve got a president now who doesn’t care for puritanical grandstanding or moralistic preening. He is a lot more direct, even visceral, open, and realistic about his likes and dislikes, so overall, this is a good time to be a fun-loving politician instead of a stick-in-the-mud,” Gaetz writes. “I have an active social life, and it’s probably easier in the era of Trump. We’ve had ‘perfect family man’ presidents before, after all, and many of those men sold out our country, even if their wives were happy the whole time. If politicians’ family lives aren’t what really matter to the voters, maybe that’s a good thing. I’m a representative, not a monk.”
He’s not a monk, nor a representative, he’s a pervert.
If nobody’s said it yet, I will: Matt Gaetz is what happens when you elect people like Donald Trump and shrug off his indecencies and immoralities.
So many said: “We aren’t electing a preacher!”
No, you weren’t. You were electing perverts.
— Heath Mayo (@HeathMayo) April 2, 2021
Now are you ready for this? Because this is likely where this is going. The good news is that we’ll soon be rid of Matt Gaetz. The bad news is that Donald Trump Jr., or possibly Ivanka, will run for that seat. Watch.
Don Jr or Ivanka may run, but I doubt they would be elected. That said, the right wing does seem to have a pretty good hold on Florida.
Florida is Crazy Town. There’s no question about that. The Rethugs rule down there. Rick Wilson, who lives in Florida, said, “the craziness of the universe comes to Florida” — or words to that effect.
Their running for that seat will most likely be dependent on a couple of factors:
1) While the Constitution doesn’t require a representative to actually live IN the district they represent, most voters in a given district do prefer it and most representatives do try to make sure they live in the district they represent (even MTG made a quick purchase of an in-district residence just before the November election). That’s also been a traditional reason why redistricting tends to be a problem as the folks behind the new maps do tend to “protect” current members.
2) Would Don Jr or Ivanka be willing to even set up so much as a broom closet as their “legal residence” in FL-01? That’s the Florida panhandle and it’s not exactly a hotbed of social activity. The beaches are fun but there’s not really a lot of the kind of “high society” to which the Trumps have always aspired.
Personally, the Trumplets are more likely to try for seats from the Gold Coast (Miami/Ft Lauderdale area) where they can at least continue to party in style when they go home from DC.
I’m not sure it’s so much as a virtual diarrhea of news as a “Santorum” (remember the Google definition thing?) of news. I don’t care what consenting adults do in private, and if Gaetz hasn’t been trying to pass himself off as some super-duper family values guy I suppose I can grudgingly admit he’s not as bad as some of these conservative assholes who preach “morality” in public and actually do very different things in their personal lives. (For example Jerry Falwell Jr.) Still, he portrays himself as a single dude (wonder how long his engagement will last?) who enjoys a “typical” single guy life (as in enjoys a lot of sex) but being single and enjoying a sex life doesn’t give license to be a sleaze. Especially using money and power to pressure people into sex, and bragging about it (i.e. showing naked pics to your pals on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, or playing “who’s the biggest ‘stud’ games with cronies) and doing so under the general cover of your political Party and it’s “family values” bullshit stance on morality. The dude’s a sleaze alright. And he’s broken some laws but unlike his daddy getting his drunk driving incident to go away on this one there’s a good chance he’s going to face some real consequences in the foreseeable future. This isn’t some local matter with some elected in a conservative jurisdiction sheriff’s office. Nope. Baby Gaetz sought out the national spotlight and has milked it for still more sleazy sex and even lawbreaking. Even though some of the folks down in FL will want to try and give him a pass on some of this they can’t sweep the whole thing under the rug and for several reasons. First of all that spotlight is shining bright, but it’s shining beyond the boundaries of Gaetz’s Congressional district. As along the same lines we are looking at multi-jurisdictional behavior. Finally, there are federal as well as state laws and charges in play.
Matt Gaetz wanted to be famous and powerful in addition to being rich. He got his wish, and just as he abused his privilege being a spoiled rich kid growing up and through college & early adulthood he’s abused the fame and power he’s sought out since. He wanted the spotlight and he got it. He will I think be one of those people who gets burned by the “Be careful what you wish for” thing.
If there’s any one lesson I learned from those hypocrites, it’s this: don’t never preach something you’re not willing to live by yourself. And if you do believe something that will get you condemned, don’t advertise it.
Ursula, I hope your web guy is making progress with the way the ads continually change size making the text jump back-and-forth. Very difficult to read, and annoying to boot. I like the site so I persist but this could be very offputting to new readers.
Are you experiencing this on a cell phone or on the computer? I need to know before I report it. Thank you.
MIne is on my laptop
I am reading on an iPad.
The page is jumping on my computer too, a Dell with windows 10, I have enjoyed this site for a few months now so please find a way to stop this it’s hard to read, I’m old and adjusting the page constantly is a pain in the A-s ! Sorry for being so rude but Please make it stop LOL.
Ursula, methinks you need to cease referring to these sleazebags as “lawmakers.” They don’t make laws, unless of course they’re laws against Americans voting. Or against women having free choices. Or against immigration. I guess the polite term would be “politician,” although that’s a pretty subtle synonym for sleazebag anyway.
That’s STILL making laws, Jarvis. Unjust, inhumane, vindictive laws, yes, but laws just the same…none of which I respect.
Congratulations, Matt Gaetz, on becoming the first human sacrifice of the post-Trump GQP.
There are real questions now about Nestor and his relationship with Gaetz. Was he there to make it easier to get teenaged girls to show up?
I don’t know why everyone has always been so obsessed with Nestor. I has an assistant once who was a single mom and I grew to have a strong bond with her son and became something of an uncle figure. I can see having a significant other with a kid then adopting them even of the relationship doesn’t last.
That was back when people were suggesting that Gaetz was having a relationship with Nestor…which seemed like an unfair accusation. But now with the reporting, I think it’s fair to question whether Gaetz used Nestor to hang out with younger girls.
Or maybe I won’t question it, because it’s too gross to think about. Maybe I’ll just let others throw him in jail and ignore the story until that happens, lol.
Just think of all the amazing things Ursula has had the honor of teaching us about during this era of Trump, like in this case things like what the specific crime is called when you take sexually explicit photos of a minor and show them around, or how having sex with a 17 year old and paying a 17 year old for sex are two different crimes. ???
I can’t believe I’m yearning for the Anthony Weiner era over this.