A timeline of the series of events that have upended this Florida man’s week and career.
Congressman Matt Gaetz. One way or another, it seems the pairing of that title and that name is not long for this world. Let’s run through a quick timeline of the series of events that have upended this Florida man’s week and career.
- On Tuesday, Axios reports that Gaetz was considering leaving the House of Representatives for Newsmax, a right-wing cable-news channel that wholeheartedly endorsed Sidney Powell and the “Stop the Steal” conspiracy theory before backtracking when its deranged coverage became a legal liability.
- Later that same day, the New York Times breaks the news that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating Gaetz for possibly having had sexual relations with a 17-year-old and paying her to travel with him.
- That evening, Gaetz is interviewed by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. He denies the charges levied against him, accuses a former DOJ official of extortion, and alludes to a dinner he and a female companion enjoyed with Carlson and his wife. Carlson calls it “one of the weirdest interviews I have ever conducted.”
- On Wednesday, the Washington Examiner gets its hands on documents that seem to more or less confirm the extortion scheme Gaetz described in his interview with Carlson, with a few more complicated twists and turns.
- Thursday brings a CNN story that Gaetz did not shy away from discussing his sexual conquests with his colleagues. Far from it, he even shared nude photographs of his partners with them, sometimes while on the House floor.
- A new Times piece adds further detail to its original reporting:
A Justice Department investigation into Representative Matt Gaetz and an indicted Florida politician is focusing on their involvement with multiple women who were recruited online for sex and received cash payments, according to people close to the investigation and text messages and payment receipts reviewed by The New York Times.
Investigators believe Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector in Seminole County, Fla., who was indicted last year on a federal sex trafficking charge and other crimes, initially met the women through websites that connect people who go on dates in exchange for gifts, fine dining, travel and allowances, according to three people with knowledge of the encounters. Mr. Greenberg introduced the women to Mr. Gaetz, who also had sex with them, the people said.
One of the women who had sex with both men also agreed to have sex with an unidentified associate of theirs in Florida Republican politics, according to a person familiar with the arrangement. Mr. Greenberg had initially contacted her online and introduced her to Mr. Gaetz, the person said.
Mr. Gaetz denied ever paying a woman for sex.
At this point, it’s nearly impossible to sift through the true and the false of this story. What, precisely, Gaetz is guilty of, if anything, and whether or not he is the victim of an elaborate blackmail scheme will be revealed only in the fullness of time. Legal culpability aside though, it seems fair to say that Gaetz has been involved in unprofessional and/or unseemly behavior of some sort or another; can anyone profess to be surprised by the broad outline of these developments?
In his political career, Gaetz has shown himself to be a creature of pure ambition and self-interestedness. In one moment he’s endorsing Jeb Bush in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. In the next, he’s pledging his and his posterity’s swords to the service of Donald J. Trump until the end of time. He operates under the belief that “if you aren’t making news, you aren’t governing,” and he traveled to Wyoming to denounce the courageous congresswoman Liz Cheney for offending his king in the wake of an attack on the Capitol that Gaetz himself helped spur on by repeating lies about a stolen election.
What we seem to have here is yet another example of why some of us relentlessly repeat that “character is destiny.” The craven and deceitful cannot easily compartmentalize those inclinations to only one part of their lives; that’s why we should all, no matter our partisan affiliation, try to keep such people away from the levers of power in government. That’s not to say our leaders need to be Boy Scouts, but for people like Matt Gaetz, the chickens almost always come home to roost.