What to know about the Matt Gaetz controversy
Matt Gaetz, a rising star in the Republican Party known for his flashy lifestyle and frequent flirtations with controversy, may now be embroiled in a sex scandal that carries very real legal jeopardy.
Gaetz-gate, as it is being called, began with reports last week that the third-term congressman from Florida may have had sexual relations with a 17-year-old girl. Since then, the story has spiralled into a world of “sugar daddies” – men who lavish young women with cash and gifts – extortion, fraud and sex trafficking.
It has included reports that Gaetz showed photos of nude women on his phone to lawmakers on the floor of the House of Representatives and boasted about his sexual exploits.
The congressman has vehemently denied all allegations and dismissed calls for his resignation. One of Donald Trump’s most loyal defenders, who has stuck by the ex-president through all of his scandals and controversies, is now facing an existential political crisis of his own, however.
Who is Matt Gaetz (and why should we care)?
Gaetz was first elected to the US Congress in 2016, representing a House district in the northern panhandle of Florida – a region more politically akin to neighbouring arch-conservative Alabama than the multicultural southern tip of the state. Prior to that, he had spent six years in the Florida state legislature.
Junior members of the House of Representatives usually toil in relatively anonymity unless they have Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-level media savviness or boast influential political connections.
Gaetz had both – and used them to become a leading face of a new generation of Republican politicians.
The 38-year-old congressman, blessed with good looks, better hair and a sharp tongue, has been a frequent guest on conservative cable news outlets – 346 weekday appearances since August 2017, according to the liberal watchdog group Media Matters.
Upon taking congressional office, he quickly raised his public profile and caught the eye of that most powerful consumer of conservative media content, Donald Trump.
Gaetz became a regular warm-up speaker for Trump whenever the former president campaigned in Florida during his 2020 re-election bid. He met his fiancée, 26-year-old Ginger Luckey, while visiting Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. He’s posted Twitter selfies taken on Air Force One.
The Florida congressman boosted his political notoriety with a variety of viral publicity stunts as well, including wearing a gas mask on the floor of the House of Representatives during debate over the first coronavirus pandemic aid bill in March 2020 and joining a group of Republican members of Congress who forced their way into a closed congressional witness deposition during the run-up to Trump’s first impeachment in 2019.
In January, Gaetz travelled to Wyoming to hold a rally against Liz Cheney, the Republican congressional leader who had denounced Trump and voted to impeach him after the 6 January Capitol attack.
He’s also been connected to a few stories that border on the bizarre, such as his revelation last year that he has been living with a 19-year-old non-biological, non-adopted “son”, Cuban immigrant Nestor Galban, whom he met when Galban was 12 and Gaetz was dating his older sister.
Agencies