Matt Gaetz’s nightmare just got even uglier
Earlier this week Palmer Report pointed out that Matt Gaetz’s continued presence on House committees was essentially free advertising for the Democrats. After all, each time Gaetz opens his obnoxious and largely incoherent mouth during a televised hearing, swing voters are reminded that Gaetz represents the Republicans. Also, each time Gaetz speaks up, it gives the media another opportunity to remind the voting public that he’s under federal criminal investigation for underage sex trafficking.
Palmer Report also explained that while House Democrats could theoretically remove Gaetz from House committees with a simple majority vote, there’s no real reason for them to do so. It’s the Republicans’ job to take out their own trash, and as long as House Republicans don’t crack down on Gaetz, the Democrats get to keep using that as a talking point against the entire Republican Party.
Sure enough, House Democrat Ted Lieu tweeted this tonight: “Rep Gaetz is entitled to the presumption of innocence, but he is not entitled to sit on @HouseJudiciary. His questioning of AG Garland today, designed to smear DOJ prosecutors, was wildly inappropriate. @GOPLeader needs to remove Gaetz from the Judiciary Committee asap.”
In other words, House Democrats are using Matt Gaetz’s continued presence on House committees as a weapon against House Republicans, just like we spelled out. In light of today’s news that the Department of Justice has added a child sex crimes prosecutor to the criminal case against Gaetz, his continued presence on House committees is about to become an even more damaging mess for the Republicans – but they’re still afraid to oust Gaetz for fear of offending his pal Donald Trump. This is yet another way in which a defeated Trump is taking the cowardly Republicans down with him.
