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   From: nowomr@protonmail.com   
      
    Matt Gaetz built a devoted fan base, but has few friends in Washington   
   Even before the current investigation, the Florida Republican prompted   
   plenty of eye rolls on both sides of the aisle.   
      
   WASHINGTON — Rep. Matt Gaetz has always openly said that he didn't go to   
   Washington to make friends.   
      
   But after the news broke that the FBI is investigating the Florida   
   Republican for potential sex trafficking, Gaetz found few people willing   
   to defend him or lend credence to his claim that he's done nothing wrong   
   but instead is being extorted and smeared.   
      
   Instead of circling the wagons and reflexively declaring “fake news” about   
   the investigation, first reported by The New York Times and confirmed by   
   NBC News, Republican leaders and opinion-makers are mostly staying quiet   
   or letting Gaetz, a strong ally of former President Donald Trump, flap in   
   the breeze.   
      
   During an interview Tuesday night in which the congressman denied any   
   relationship with a 17-year-old woman, Fox News host Tucker Carlson wore   
   an incredulous expression.   
      
   “That was one of the weirdest interviews I’ve ever conducted,” Carlson   
   later said. “I don’t think that clarified much.”   
   Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz under investigation for possible sex   
   trafficking of a minor   
   March 31, 202102:17   
      
   Trump has so far not spoken up and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy,   
   R-Calif., who was traveling in Iowa on Wednesday, told NBC News that he   
   was “surprised” he hadn’t been able to reach Gaetz yet and that the   
   allegations were "serious."   
      
   "If a member at my conference gets indicted, they will get removed from a   
   committee," McCarthy said. "He says this is not true. And we have a   
   newspaper report that says something else. We'll find out."   
      
   The most vocal defense has come from the likes of Reps. Marjorie Taylor   
   Greene, R-Ga., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a former wrestling coach who has   
   faced his own allegations of ignoring sexual misconduct by a doctor who   
   treated student-athletes, which Jordan has denied.   
      
   Despite his high profile among the conservative grassroots, Gaetz has few   
   friends on Capitol Hill, according to multiple Republican aides and   
   operatives.   
      
   His relentless self-promoting and near-daily appearances on Fox News stand   
   out, even by the standards of Congress, where a generous ego and a hunger   
   for the spotlight are practically job requirements.   
      
   He proudly criticized some of his own Republican colleagues, accusing them   
   of weakness and selling out the conservative cause.   
      
   "When I first got to Washington, the party leaders said 'Gaetz, it seems   
   to us you're not really a team player,' and I said 'I am, but you're not   
   my team,'" he told a crowd in his district this week, according to the   
   Northwest Florida Daily News.   
      
   Gaetz’ relationship with his party’s leadership has been especially   
   strained since he flew to Wyoming to lambast Rep. Liz Cheney, the third-   
   ranking House Republican, in her home state over her vote to impeach   
   Trump.   
      
   One former Trump campaign aide, who said Gaetz seems more interested in   
   generating social media buzz than advancing conservative issues, said he   
   frequently winced when the former president praised Gaetz.   
      
   Trump repeatedly lauded the “handsome” and “fantastic” Gaetz, who relished   
   his role as Trump’s man on Capitol Hill and gatekeeper for people seeking   
   favors.   
      
   "I only regret that I have but one political career to give to my   
   president,” Gaetz said last month.   
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   Gaetz is the son of a wealthy Florida GOP powerbroker, former state Senate   
   President Don Gaetz, who helped support and bankroll his son’s political   
   career and is now corroborating his son’s claim that the elder Gaetz wore   
   a wire at the behest of the FBI to foil the alleged extortion plot. The   
   FBI has declined to comment.   
      
   “There was always that group of four or five male Republican members of   
   Congress who would hang out late at the Capitol Hill Club and carouse and   
   get into trouble. And I think everyone expected Matt would go in that   
   trajectory,” said former Rep. David Jolly of Florida, who has since left   
   the GOP and become a Trump critic.   
      
   The Capitol Hill Club, founded 70 years ago by a former Republican   
   congressman, is the unofficial-official watering hole of Republican   
   members of Congress, government officials and lobbyists.   
      
   “He kind of walked into that House seat. And that was just lighting a   
   match to a personality that was looking for a fire,” Jolly added. “Anybody   
   who knew Matt knew that eventually he would find controversy or   
   controversy would find him.”   
      
   Gaetz has answered charges of impropriety before, including an accusation   
   by a Florida legislator that he created a game in which young lawmakers   
   scored points for sleeping with aides, interns, lobbyists and other   
   legislators. He denied the accusation.   
      
   Gaetz has spoken publicly about several ex-girlfriends, including the   
   sister of a young man whom he has come to see as his son.   
   Former federal prosecutor says Rep. Gaetz 'grasping at straws' amid DOJ   
   probe   
   March 31, 202102:05   
      
   The 38-year-old lawmaker got engaged in December to a 26-year-old food   
   industry analyst at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s club in Florida where the former   
   president now lives. “He’s giving up the single life!” exclaimed Fox News   
   host Jeanine Pirro, who happened to be in attendance.   
      
   A skilled debater with an instinct for what enrages the left and delights   
   the right, Gaetz has a knack for chasing viral news moments.   
      
   He wore a gas mask on the House floor in the early days of the Covid-19   
   pandemic. He barged into a secure room to disrupt the House Intelligence   
   Committee’s work on Trump’s first impeachment. And he tried to get Britney   
   Spears to testify before Congress on her conservatorship.   
      
   Controversy sells. Gaetz raised nearly $6 million in 2020, even though he   
   faced only token opposition in re-election to his third term, and almost   
   two-thirds of his haul came from small, grassroots contributions.   
      
   Gaetz was one of the few lawmakers in either party to defend former Rep.   
   Katie Hill, D-Calif., after leaked nude photos showed her relationship   
   with a campaign staffer.   
      
   Hill returned the favor when Gaetz faced questions about his adoptive   
   "son," saying on Twitter, "I can’t stand a lot of his beliefs but he’s   
   been there for me when others haven’t."   
      
   But the latest allegations were a bridge too far for Hill. “A 17-year-old   
   girl is a girl, not a woman. Statutory rape is rape, not anything else,”   
   she tweeted.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)