Gaetz Keeps Digging Deeper Holes for Himself
The New Abnormal\u2019s least favorite Florida congressman, Matt Gaetz, is in hot water over mounting allegations that he\u2019s been involved with underage women and taking them across state lines. To discuss the burgeoning scandal, co-hosts Molly Jong-Fast and Jesse Cannon brought on The Nation\u2019s national affairs correspondent, Jeet Heer, who says he isn\u2019t the least bit surprised.
\u201cIt\u2019s the ones you always suspect the most,\u201d he says.
Noting Gaetz\u2019s strange appearance on the Tucker Carlson show, where he tried to get Carlson hitched to his sinking ship, Heer says he sees a connection with what other people in the alt-right swamp engage in. \u201cOccasionally you see racists try to implicate the person they\u2019re talking with, like, \u2018You think this as well. You also don\u2019t like those people right?\u2019... To normalize this behavior. That\u2019s basically what he\u2019s doing: \u2018Oh yeah, you remember the dinner that we were at with your wife? And wasn\u2019t there some sort of really sleazy scandal involving you?\u201d
To Heer, Gaetz describing his dinner with a young date along with Tucker Carlson and his wife is reminiscent of the Woody Allen movie Manhattan. \u201cIn the movie, Woody is dating a 17-year-old [Mariel Hemingway]... and they go out to these dinners with their adult friends who are middle-aged.\u201d The imagery is hard to unsee.
For more strange twists in the Matt Gaetz story, Molly and Jesse brought on Daily Beast senior politics editor Matt Fuller, who says he\u2019s been hearing rumors of Gaetz\u2019s bad behavior for over three years.
\u201cLet\u2019s just say he has a proclivity for younger women. He certainly has been open to dating college-aged women, congressional staffers, maybe some interns from Turning Point USA. He\u2019s a man about town,\u201d Fuller says.
The crew agrees that you\u2019re not in a good place when reporters are having to pin you down on the language you\u2019re using around accused pedophilia.
\u201cIt\u2019s been very odd to hear exactly how he phrases these answers on a lot of this, because he always says, \u2018I haven't had any inappropriate relationships with underage women.\u2019 And it\u2019s been unclear if he\u2019s saying underage women, like, with an age of consent, or\u2026? We don\u2019t know what he\u2019s talking about.\u201d
Also on the show, Molly sits down with one of the foremost warriors in the fight against the \u201canti-science movement,\u201d vaccine scientist Dr. Peter Hotez, who talks soberly about what we have ahead of us in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Plus, getting so high you end up flying from Kentucky to Kenya, how you troll Joseph Goebbels, and podcasting with the Original Gangster Villain\u2014that\u2019s all on the latest The New Abnormal.
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