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Matt Gaetz
God, guns, and freedom U.S. Politics |
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Starting arguments over Thanksgiving dinner |
Persons of interest |
“”I realize that we are occasionally given to hyperbole about the untoward nature of politicians, but let me be clear: Matt Gaetz is a sex trafficking drug addicted piece of shit. He is abhorrent. His eyes are permanently rimmed with the red rings of chemical boosters. In person, he smells like overexposed Axe Body Spray and stale Astroglide. The fact that he boasted on the floor to multiple colleagues in the House of Representatives of his methods of crushing Viagra and high test Red Bull to maintain his erection through his orgiastic evenings is perhaps the least offensive of his many crimes against womanhood and Christian faith. The man has less principles than your average fentanyl addicted hobo. He likes them underage and he’s not ashamed about it. Matt Gaetz isn’t just your average extreme Florida MAGA Man, he’s a hypocritical ass with the worst Botox money can buy, pursuing an ever-thinner nose and higher cheekbones at every opportunity like a Real Housewife gone mad for fillers. Every Republican in Washington has an opinion about Matt Gaetz, and 99 percent of those opinions are "Keep Matt Gaetz away from my wife/daughter/friend and anyone I care about."
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—Ben Domenech, Fox News commentator[1] |
Matthew Louis Gaetz II (a.k.a., The Venmo Lester[2]) (1982–) is a woke-obsessed, far-right, alleged sex offender (statutory rape, interstate prostitution)[3][4][5] former congressman who served as a Republican Representative for Florida's 1st district in the Florida panhandle from 2017 to 2024, and is close allies with MTG and Lauren Boebert in the Freedom Caucus. He was also one of the Congressmen most responsible for getting Kevin McCarthy removed from his position as Speaker of the House in 2023.[6]
Matt & Donald[edit]
Gaetz is most known for his unapologetic love of Donald Trump, once being called a "proud Trump protege" by Politico.[7] Gaetz is such a big Trump fan he attempted to get the President a Nobel Peace Prize in 2018.[8]
Gaetz first gained national attention through defending Trump during the investigation by Robert Mueller. Of note was his attempt to get Mueller to recuse himself because of non-existent conflicts of interest in November 2017[9] and his claim that the only reason then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions had failed to fire Mueller was because "he's become sympathetic with his captors over there in the Deep State."[10]
When the investigation turned to impeachment, things only got worse for Gaetz. In October 2019, Gaetz put national security at risk through organizing a "storming" of a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility on Capitol Hill along with two dozen of his fellow Republican congressmen, with the goal of hearing a deposition going on in the Pentagon related to the impeachment inquiry.[11] Gaetz would go on to compare this actions to the Spartans from the movie 300.[12]
Gaetz's never ending support for Trump has even caused him to occasionally clash with members of his own party, such as when he was one of the main voices calling for the removal of Liz Cheney from her high profile role within the House Republican Party because she supported the second Trump impeachment, with Gaetz even going to her home state of Wyoming for no other reason than to rally against her.[6]
Scandal at Venmo[edit]
The main story[edit]
Matt Gaetz was investigated by both the US Department of Justice for suspected "sex trafficking", and by the House Ethics Committee for "a range of allegations … including sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, and bribery."[3]
The story originated through Gaetz having connections with Joel Greenberg, a tax collector who was later indicted for sex trafficking.[13] Greenberg later pleaded guilty to sex trafficking,[14] as did an associate to both Greenberg and Gaetz named Joseph Ellicott.[15] Greenberg would later claim in a letter to then-President Donald Trump that both he and Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old girl they both believed was 19 at the time.[16]
Aftermath[edit]
When accused of his actions, Gaetz cried about how cancel culture was trying to go after him.[17] Perhaps disturbingly enough, he attended a debut screening of the fantasy satire film Barbie with his wife Ginger, who later lambasted the film for what they perceive as a "lack of family values", never mind the fact that Gaetz himself lacked the same values they claim to promote and that the theatre he and his wife attended were jam-packed with the very same age group he lusts upon.[18]
He also tried to tie this into some weird campaign against earmarks he was doing at the time, saying it was hypocritical for people to investigate him when those exist. This is in spite of the fact that he was one of the biggest earmarkers in Congress at the time. He specifically was attempting to get a one-hundred-forty million dollar Hanger for his district in hopes of making it easier to land helicopters, this in a place with a massive homelessness problem.[6]
His terrible friends[edit]
One notable thing about Gaetz is how he has a bad habit of buddying around with the absolute worst of society. In 2018, Gaetz invited Charles C. Johnson, a notorious alt-right troll and far-right Holocaust denier,[19] to President Trump's State of the Union Address. Johnson previously ran a crowdfunding site that raised money for the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, [20] and was banned for life on Twitter in 2015 after asking for donations to help "take out" civil rights activist DeRay McKesson.
[21]
One year later, Gaetz would yet again see controversy through hiring Darren Beattie as a speechwriter, despite him previously being fired from his job in the Trump Administration for attending a white nationalist political conference.[22]
In 2020, Right Wing Watch wrote an article discussing how Gaetz would commonly use social media to amplify the voices of those on the far-right, saying:
Like the other individuals profiled above, Gaetz relies on social media to solicit support from online extremists. He frequently “likes,” retweets, and follows the accounts of such far-right organizations as the xenophobic Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), and hard-right media outlets like PragerU, The Next Revolution, and Blaze TV, as well as the far-right Jack Posobiec. While Gaetz’s comments are not often overtly racist, many of his far-right followers online view him to be sympathetic to their causes.
Among Gaetz’s supporters is white supremacist leader Christopher Cantwell, who devoted an hours-long podcast episode to praising him. The white nationalist blog VDARE wrote an article commending Gaetz for his defense of white nationalists under criticism for their dangerous, racist rhetoric.[23]
The end of his Congressional career[edit]
“”"The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts] special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress
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—The conclusion of the House Committee of Ethics report[24] |
Following Donald Trump winning reelection in November 2024, Gaetz resigned from Congress because Trump said that he would nominate him for Attorney General. His resignation from Congress was despite himself having won reelection to Congress that month. The resignation was seen as a way to prevent the Congressional Ethics Committee from releasing its report on him.[25] That gambit failed in December when the Congressional committee released its report anyway.[5] Gaetz was no longer under consideration for Attorney General or able to go back to his job in Congress. By January 2025, he found a punditry job at the second-rate GOP propaganda channel OANN.[26]
Stopped clock[edit]
Gaetz has proven himself to be surprisingly reasonable on the issue of cannabis,[note 1] supporting its reclassification from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III,[27] introducing legislation to loosen federal restrictions on the ability of non-government actors to research it,[28] and directly calling out the government for lying to people about the medical benefits of the plant.[29]
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ Matt Gaetz is a Vile Sex Pest and Any Senator Who Votes For Him Owns That: Crush Some Viagra And Pour The Red Bull In Your Veins by Ben Domenech (Nov 14, 2024) The Transom, Substack.
- ↑ Jimmy Kimmel Nicknames Matt Gaetz “Caucasian Diddy” And The “Venmo-lester” Amid Sex Trafficking Accusations by Radhamely De Leon (November 2024) MSN.
- ↑ Jump up to: 3.0 3.1 Michael Kaplan and Margaret Brennan (November 13, 2024). "House Ethics Committee planned to vote Friday on whether to release report on Matt Gaetz". CBS News.
- ↑ House Ethics report says Matt Gaetz regularly paid for sex, including payment to an underage girl by The former congressman regularly paid for sex, possessed illegal drugs and paid a 17-year-old girl for sex in 2017, according to a 42-page report released by the House Ethics Committee on Monday on President-elect Donald Trump’s former pick for attorney general.] by Jacqueline Alemany & Justine McDaniel (December 23, 2024).
- ↑ Jump up to: 5.0 5.1 5.2 Statement of the Committee on Ethics Regarding Representative Matt Gaetz (Dec 23, 2024) Committee on Ethics, United States House of Representatives.
- ↑ Jump up to: 6.0 6.1 6.2 Loud, Celebrity Politicians – Part One: The GOP - SOME MORE NEWS YouTube
- ↑ Trump’s Best Buddy in Congress Wants Sessions to Fire Mueller Politico
- ↑ Matt Gaetz joins Republican lawmakers in nominating Trump for Nobel Peace Prize Pensacola News Journal
- ↑ Republicans just introduced a resolution to remove Mueller from the Trump-Russia investigation Business Insider
- ↑ Tapper presses lawmaker: Who is the deep state? CNN
- ↑ House Republicans’ national security-threatening impeachment stunt, explained by an expert Vox
- ↑ Matt Gaetz Compares Himself to Spartans in Movie ‘300’ After Storming Impeachment Inquiry: ‘I Love the President So Much’ — WATCH Towel Road
- ↑ Matt Gaetz Is Said to Face Justice Dept. Inquiry Over Sex With an Underage Girl The New York Times
- ↑ Joel Greenberg sentenced to 11 years after cooperating with federal probe into Matt Gaetz CNN
- ↑ Matt Gaetz Associate Pleads Guilty On 2 Charges, Agrees To Cooperation Deal The Huffington Post
- ↑ Bombshell Letter: Gaetz Paid for Sex With Minor, Wingman Says The Daily Beast
- ↑ Embattled Matt Gaetz boasts about being 'canceled man' at first high-profile public appearance since sex-trafficking probe by Joshua Ztiser, May 9, 2021, Business Insider
- ↑ Congressman Matt Gaetz’s Wife Calls for 'Barbie' Movie Boycott
- ↑ GOP lawmaker condemned for inviting Holocaust denier to State of the Union The Guardian
- ↑ GOP rep invited alt-right activist to the State of the Union The Hill
- ↑ "Troll Charles Johnson banned from Twitter" by Dylan Byers, Politico ,2015 May 26
- ↑ Rep. Matt Gaetz hires former White House speechwriter who attended 2016 conference with white nationalists CNN
- ↑ Running on Racism: Far-Right Congressional Candidates in the 2020 Elections, and Those Who Lean That Way Right Wing Watch
- ↑ "IN THE MATTER OF ALLEGATIONS RELATING TO REPRESENTATIVE MATT GAETZ", Report of the Committee on Ethics, 118th Congress 2nd Session, US Government Publishing Office, December 23 2024
- ↑ Trump's withdrawn attorney general pick will not return to Congress by Mike Wendling (22 November 2024) BBC.
- ↑ By the @OANN Live App to see my first show tonight! @laurenboebert @RepThomasMassie @RepSpartz and much more! 9pm est by Matt Gaetz (8:54 AM · Jan 2, 2025) Twitter (archived from 2 Jan 2025 21:39:25 UTC).
- ↑ Matt Gaetz proposes to reschedule marijuana Pensacola News Journal
- ↑ Legislation Introduced To End The Federal Government’s Marijuana Production Monopoly NORML
- ↑ Trump ally Matt Gaetz makes a push for medical marijuana Tampa Bay Times