Exactly one month ago, news broke that the Department of Justice is investigating Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz over allegations that he engaged in a sexual relationship with a minor and violated federal sex trafficking laws after paying for sex with multiple women. After delivering a hamfisted denial of the allegations to Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, the receipts kept pouring in: Stories about Gaetz sharing nude photos of women he claimed to sleep with to his colleagues, claims that Gaetz asked President Trump for a pre-emptive blanket pardon (which was subsequently declined), and on Thursday a confession letter from Joel Greenburg, an associate of Gaetz who alleges both he and Gaetz were “involved in sexual activities” with a 17-year-old girl.
But while Greenburg is facing 33 court indictments, which The Daily Beast report “ranges from stalking to sex trafficking,” Gaetz is... well, he’s busy tweeting through it.
In the nearly 24 hours since the bombshell confession letter was published, Gaetz has ignored the damning allegations. Instead, he’s promoting an “America First” tour with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene aimed at calling out RINOs, latching on to Sen. Ted Cruz’s disavowel of PAC money, complaining about Rep. Liz Cheney, and calling Rudy Giuliani an “American Patriot” in the wake of an FBI raid at Giuliani’s apartment.
Gaetz is taking a page out of the Trump playbook: Change the subject and retweet random shit and maybe your haters will get distracted. Of course, Trump could hardly resist chiming in on his own scandals, while Gaetz appears hesitant to even acknowledge the calamity of this career and potentially life damaging federal inquiry. He’s preferred alluding to his struggle through Instagram posts, thanking his followers for their support or posting cryptic quotes paired with portraits of himself that he thinks make him look strong, poised, and ready to take on the world.
But thousands of Instagram likes can’t save Gaetz from allegations of sex with a minor and sex trafficking. If Gaetz wasn’t a glutton for punishment, he would have resigned already. But it looks like we’re going to watch this man tweet through it until the very end.