SEX, LIES, AND BLIND EYES, The bizarre story of America's most self-entitled congressman

 

There are four hundred and thirty-five members of the House of Representatives. For the most part they’re pretty anonymous, only 37% of people can even name their own congressman. Then there’s Matt Gaetz. Prior to last spring he’d made a name for himself through a series of publicity stunts and being Trump’s number one lackey. Although he has a conservative voting record, in terms of ideology Gaetz isn’t very interesting. He’s spent more energy tweeting support for the “free Britney’’ movement than advocating for more conventional right-wing policies.

His rising media presence took an unexpected turn last April when leakers revealed he was under investigation for having sex with a 17-year-old. He went from being an occasional target of late-night talk show hosts to the lead news story for weeks. This invited more in-depth investigations into the young Northwest Florida congressman. Matt Gaetz is the type of guy that the more you learn about him the less there is to like. To those, like me, who live in his district, this didn’t come as much of a surprise.

The Good Ole Boys

State and local politics in most places tend to be controlled by a clique of wealthy insiders that either hold office or decide who does. Nowhere is that truer than in the South where the “good ole boys” tend to control the local political scene. Matt Gaetz had the good fortune to be the son of one of the most connected people in Florida politics, Don Gaetz. Don was the son of a North Dakota politician and became a multimillionaire after selling his for-profit hospice care company he founded. The company was later force to settle a state fraud lawsuit for misspending tens of millions of dollars of Medicare funds while Gaetz was vice-chairman. Gaetz managed to avoid any significant personal liability in the settlement.

Undaunted, Don Gaetz decided to go into politics. After winning two terms as county school superintendent, in 2006 he ran and won a seat in the Florida Senate. Eventually he attained the position of President of the Senate before leaving the seat after reaching Florida’s term limits. So, when Matt decided to run for the Florida House of Representatives in 2010, Papa Gaetz was just reaching the zenith of his power in Florida politics. As a 27-year-old with only two years of experience as a practicing lawyer, he normally wouldn’t be considered a leading candidate for this office. But Don Gaetz made sure to get all the “good ole boys” in line. With essentially the same list of donors as his dad, he raised nearly half a million dollars. The next highest candidate only raised $100k. In fact, all five of the other Republicans combined only raised $180k.

Breaking the Law

This wasn’t the first-time pops smoothed things out for Matt. Just two years earlier, soon after passing Florida’s bar exam, Gaetz was stopped for speeding while driving his dad’s BMW. The officer observed that he was visibly intoxicated and ordered the junior Gaetz to undergo a breathalyzer. Gaetz refused this order. Under Florida law, that calls for an automatic one-year driver’s license suspension. Prosecutors can also use the refusal in court as evidence of the defendant’s guilt. That’s exactly what would happen under normal circumstances. However, in this case the arresting officer was forced to resign in lieu of being fired in an “unrelated” matter within a week of Gaetz’s arrest. The judge then quietly dismissed all charges. He somehow even avoided the suspended license. It’s good to have a dad who’s a leading state senator. This incident was just one of the 17 traffic tickets he accumulated between 1999 and 2014.

Business Insider recently contacted some of Gaetz’s law school classmates from the College of William and Mary. The picture they paint of Matt is that of an attention seeking frat boy who was more interested in partying than school. They recalled one incident of him making jokes about hiring strippers for a Super Bowl party he organized. I suppose this isn’t too shocking for a young college student. Still 34 members of his small graduating class have called for Gaetz to resign from Congress. The significance of this is the pattern of behavior it establishes that he has continued to the present day. As one of his former classmates stated, he hasn’t changed “except he’s more over-the-top now.”

You’re the Next Contestant on . . .

Two sources, including a Republican state representative who served alongside Gaetz in the Florida House in 2014–15, have accused Matt Gaetz of coming up with a sex game when he served in the state legislature. Reportedly in Gaetz’s sex game, contestants scored points by having sex with different categories of women. A lobbyist was worth one point, a staffer two, and three points for a fellow legislator. They awarded three bonus points for married conquests. The game was apparently popular with young male representatives and continued up until his run for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2016.

In an incident from 2012, Gaetz and some of his legislator bros got drunk at a Disney resort and made a loud scene in the lobby. He attempted to bribe the front desk attendant with $20 to get access to another guest’s room. Apparently Gaetz and his fellow legislators wanted to take some cigars from that room. When asked about the incident Gaetz said, “I don’t remember it.” Despite getting a public rebuke from the Speaker of the House, party leaders dropped the matter and took no action against the junior Gaetz. It seems he looked at his time as a state lawmaker as an extension of his frat boy days.

Friends in Low Places

If you just became aware of who Matt Gaetz is this year, it’s likely due to his association with the sleaze ball Joel Greenberg. Greenberg was a low-level Republican politician who seemed to aspire to be the next Jeffrey Epstein. At least twelve women have accused him of sexual misconduct going back to 2013. Evidence points to him having 40 or more college aged, or younger, women whom he used money, drugs, and gifts to induce them to have sex with himself and other men. One of those other men was Matt Gaetz. Venmo records indicate that Gaetz sent money to Greenberg who then sent it to women they would later meet.

In late 2020, Trump associate Roger Stone advised Greenberg to write a letter explaining the situation in hopes of getting a pardon from President Trump. In this letter Greenberg stated that Matt Gaetz paid to have sex with multiple women including a seventeen-year-old girl. Greenberg also stated in a text message to Stone that he and Gaetz both had sex with an underage girl. Greenberg’s account is consistent with the money transfers and the accounts of several women. Two women told CNN they saw Matt Gatez at Greenberg’s parties including one who saw Gaetz take drugs. This same woman admitted accepting money to have sex with the guests, but didn’t want to name who she had sex with.

Matt Gaetz has denied all this, but again, everything that has come to light this year seems to reinforce this pattern of behavior. In a separate story, CNN reported that two direct eyewitnesses told them that Gaetz showed them nude photos and videos of women he had sex with. They claim he even showed these images while on the House floor. One of the sources stated, “it was a point of pride.” Multiple sources said Gaetz frequently bragged about his sexual encounters. It’s not known if these are the same women he met through Greenberg or are unrelated. Either way, this is shows Gaetz’s “frat boy” attitude and is consistent with everything else that has been revealed about him over the last year.

Even if you ignore everything Greenberg has stated, it’s still known that Gaetz sent money to a known sex trafficker who then gave that money to women who had sex with his party guests. There are independent witnesses that have stated Matt Gaetz was one of those guests and was seen taking drugs at these parties. He was showing off nudie pics of the women he was having sex with, at this same time he was attending these parties. Gaetz’s wants us to believe he chose not to have sex with the prostitutes he’d already paid for. That’s a tough sell.

Sexcapades

Up to this point, Matt Gaetz’s misadventures paint the picture of a man with the emotional maturity of a 16-year-old, yet none of this is that surprising. We’ve seen a long list of politicians, tele-evangelists and other celebrities who have been brought down by similar scandals. But the more you look at Matt Gaetz, the more bizarre things become. Earlier this year, on March 30th, reports surfaced that Rep. Gaetz was considering resigning his seat to host a show on the conservative cable news network Newsmax. This wasn’t that shocking given he often seems to be auditioning for a position on cable news in his many Fox News appearances. Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe once held the same congressional seat as Gaetz. It’s appeared for a long time he’s wanted to follow a similar career trajectory. Still, potentially resigning in mid-term did seem a bit out of the blue.

Later, the same day that the Newsmax story broke, the New York Times reported the FBI was investigating Gaetz’s sexual encounters with a 17-year-old. Hoping to deflect attention from that news, Don Gaetz announced the whole thing was just an extortion scheme. It turned out there was an incomprehensible plot to defraud the Gaetz’s out of $25 million. Apparently, word was starting to leak out about the FBI investigation into Gaetz’s sexcapades. Someone with knowledge of the investigation approached the Gaetz family with a plan to get Matt out of the situation. Under this scheme Don Gaetz would pay $25 million to free an American who was being held in Iran. Matt would personally fly to Iran to retrieve the freed hostage and a grateful Donald Trump would pardon him for any misconduct.

If your head is spinning in disbelief, that’s the appropriate response. None of that made a lick of sense. First Iran denies holding the individual and the U.S. government considers it likely that the person is dead. Even if all that somehow worked, it still doesn’t follow that freeing a hostage equates to a pardon for statutory rape. It was an attempt to shake down the Gaetz family and at least one arrest has been made. But in revealing the extortion attempt, they also confirmed the FBI investigation. They couldn’t be extorted unless there was something to extort them for.

The Mysterious Nestor

All this was a lot for the people of Northwest Florida to take in, but it wasn’t the first head shaking revelation concerning their young congressman. The year before, the unmarried representative publicly announced he had an adopted son named Nestor. Keep in mind, the public didn’t know about any of these sex scandals at the time. He was a congressman in his late 30s who had never been married or even romantically associated with anyone. I think it’s fair to say that many assumed he was gay. After all, being a Republican in an ultra-conservative district, that’s the kind of thing you might want to keep quiet. I mean his colorful suits and immaculate hair just screamed closeted homosexual. So, the announcement that he had adopted a son seemed to come from out of nowhere. Maybe he was turning over a new leaf and was going to start acting his age.

But par for the course, the closer you looked at the situation, the weirder it appeared. Nestor, who was 19 at the time of this announcement, had been living with him since he was 13. Yet despite Gaetz’s proclamation, he never adopted him, or apparently even had legal custody of the boy. In fact, the boy’s dad was alive and well in South Florida. Over the years Matt at various times described Nestor as a page in the Florida legislature, as a local student, and when he was seen at Matt’s house, as a helper. But there was never any indication that Nestor lived with him. I don’t think it’s homophobic to question why a single man in his mid-30s has a teenage immigrant boy, whom he doesn’t have custody, secretly living with him.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions about this arrangement. Why wasn’t he living with his father? Why didn’t he petition the courts for a guardianship? Did Gaetz represent himself to schools and medical professionals as his father? Who was watching Nestor when Gaetz was away from home for long stretches of time? What kind of home did the eternal frat boy from Hollywood, Florida provide for the boy? Gaetz has refused to answer any of these questions. He told People Magazine, “Our relationship as a family is defined by our love for each other, not by any paperwork.” That’s fine, but without the paperwork it looks a lot like you’re a creepy middle-aged man who secretly had a teenage boy who barely spoke English living with him.

The only reason this came to light in the first place is because Gaetz wanted to shield his poor voting record on civil rights by saying he had a non-white son. He’s claimed he kept the relationship quiet to protect Nestor. Yet, when he finally announced it to the world it was for a completely self-serving reason. Despite all the weirdness surrounding Gaetz’s relationship with Nestor, there’s no evidence of abuse. Nestor, who’s now in college, has defended Matt and corroborated his statements. Despite the secrecy and refusal to answer basic questions, for now we’re going to have to accept that this is just more unexplained Gaetz weirdness.

Circle the Wagons

Through all this the Republican establishment has stood by him in unwavering support. When the facts surrounding his “son” came out I couldn’t find a Republican who would even acknowledge there was anything out of the ordinary about the situation. Of course, if he had been a Democrat they would have shouted pedophile from every roof in town. If federal prosecutors collect enough evidence to charge him with statutory rape over the 17-year-old girl, the local good ole boys may be forced to cut him loose. The practical problems of running someone under indictment for rape may be too much even for them.

Yet by all appearances they’ve circled the wagons and have every intention of re-electing him again in 2022. There’s no shortage of other qualified conservative Republicans in Northwest Florida. Gaetz could easily be replaced by someone with less baggage. However, the local Republican establishment feels they’re untouchable and voter sentiment is of little concern to them. They’ve turned a collective blind eye to the revelations about his drug fueled parties with teenage prostitutes.

Gaetz was able to easily win re-election last year without running a serious campaign. After all the revelations this year it does feel different though, and local Democrats are energized. Has the good ole boy’s hubris met its match, or will it be another cake walk for Gaetz? It will be 28 years since a Democrat held this seat at the end of his current term. Gaetz is the definition of white privilege. Given a political seat by the local elite because of his family’s connections rather than any qualifications. Despite a string of scandals and bizarre political stunts he’s avoided accountability for his actions. We’ll find out next November if the people of Florida’s 1st Congressional district have had enough of Matt Gaetz’s self-obsessed depravity, or if they’ll keep the blinders on for two more years.