The New York Times reported on Tuesday night that Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-GA)—one of the most vocally far-right representatives in Congress—is under investigation by the Justice Department for sex trafficking of a minor.
The investigation began under former Attorney General Bill Barr's tenure as Attorney General during the administration of former President Donald Trump, and centers around whether Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17 year old and paid for her to travel out of state with them.
Gaetz claimed the allegations were the result of an extortion effort by former Justice Department official David McGee, who fervently denied the claim.
Hours later, the Congressman soon appeared on far-right Fox News host Tucker Carlson's primetime broadcast where he continued to deny the premise of the investigation, but what followed was bizarre—even attempting to draw comparisons between him and Carlson.
Here are some clips.
Tucker Carlson responds to Matt Gaetz casually mentioning that someone accused him of a sex crime. Yikes. pic.twitter.com/GkcCP1yZnZ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 31, 2021
Gaetz again bizarrely implicates Tucker Carlson in his own personal peccadillo, then says, "providing for flights and hotel rooms for people that you're dating who are of legal age is not a crime" pic.twitter.com/wD0hUmwGGN
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 31, 2021
Gaetz mentions that someone has alleged there's photos of him with child prostitutes. He claims such pictures don't exist. pic.twitter.com/GSCz9ea8T4
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 31, 2021
Carlson offered a summation after the interview ended.
Wow. Back from commercial, Tucker Carlson proclaims that the interview he just conducted with Gaetz was "one of the weirdest interviews I've ever conducted." pic.twitter.com/85Fnyv4Km9
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 31, 2021
He said:
"You just saw our Matt Gaetz interview. That was one of the weirdest interviews I've ever conducted. ... I don't think that clarified much, but it certainly showed this is a deeply interesting story and we'll be following it. Don't quite understand it, but we'll bring you more when we find out."
Carlson isn't without his shortage of critics, but in this instance, people agreed that it certainly was one of his "weirdest interviews."
Some thought it spoke volumes that Carlson refrained from supporting Gaetz's version of events—and others even surmised that Carlson was ready to throw him under the bus.
News of the investigation emerged just after reports surfaced that Gaetz is considering an early retirement from Congress to take a job with Newsmax, a right wing disinformation outlet.
