Matt Gaetz must think he’s next
Now that legal experts have clearly spelled out that the recent DOJ memo doesn’t actually keep any political candidates from being criminally indicted, certain people have got to be sweating it a little more. And now that the DOJ has gotten Steve Bannon convicted on multiple criminal charges, it’s also a reminder that DOJ criminal cases do tend to result in ugly consequences for the targets.
Matt Gaetz is surely sweating things right about now, given that at last count the DOJ has reportedly flipped three cooperating witnesses against him. So it’s perhaps not a surprise that during a convention speech this weekend, Gaetz made this appallingly offensive remark: “Why is it that the women with the least likelihood of getting pregnant are the ones most worried about having abortions? Nobody wants to impregnate you if you look like a thumb.”
No really, Gaetz actually said this. It’s one thing for a political office holder to take the depraved position that women should be denied their most basic health care and bodily autonomy rights. But to say it the way Gaetz said it, well, that’s a whole other ballgame.
There’s only one reason for Matt Gaetz to be saying the kinds of things that can end up coming back to haunt even a right wing politician in the future: he doesn’t see himself having a future. He’s on his way to indictment on serious federal criminal charges. He knows these are likely his final days of freedom until he’s an old man. So he’s trying to convince everyone – or maybe just trying to convince himself at this point – that he’s not afraid of the ugly, dark, dead end future behind bars that’s waiting for him.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report