Can Matt Gaetz survive a real world scandal?

Matt is the champion of a reality-show host turned reality-show president, and a promulgator of govern-by-media tactics. He views politics through the lens of entertainment. He craves the spotlight and uses it to his advantage. According to Forbes, he appeared on Fox News nearly 180 times between 2017 and early 2021. A former Fox News employee tells me that when Gaetz began appearing on primetime shows, he showed up with a woman on his arm, having come straight to the studio from dinner. This person said Gaetz never introduced the women — all young, beautiful and “dressed to the nines” — and the studio team never saw the same woman more than once, even when Gaetz appeared on the air several times in the same week. That tracks with the CNN report accusing Gaetz of being fond of showing nude photos of women he had supposedly slept with to his House colleagues.

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Whatever Gaetz’s private proclivities, his boldness extended to his role as a member of the House Judiciary and Armed Services committees. Whether it was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the head of the FBI, Al Sharpton or other committee members, Gaetz appeared to revel in back-and-forth spats. During the inquiry phase of Trump’s first impeachment, Gaetz peppered legal experts about their political leanings and donations to Democratic politicians.

Unfortunately for Gaetz, his fearlessness often extends into outright buffoonery. On October 23, 2019, Gaetz and thirty other House GOP members jostled their way into a secure meeting room known as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) at the Capitol and crashed a deposition led by Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Gaetz tweeted: “BREAKING: I led over 30 of my colleagues into the SCIF where Adam Schiff is holding secret impeachment depositions. Still inside – more details to come.”

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