Matt Gaetz appeared on the Tucker
Carlson show to attempt to defend
himself although you wouldn't think
that's the case based on how this
conversation went down.
So just to give you a little
background on what he's defending
himself on.
On Tuesday,
news broke that the Department of
Justice was investigating whether
Gaetz had a sexual relationship
with a 17 year old and paid for
her to travel with him.
Which by the way breaks federal sex
trafficking laws.
Three sources briefed on
the probe told The New York Times.
Gaetz in an axial story later that
day deny the allegations but
confirmed that he was
under investigation.
Gaetz says that the accusations
were part of an extortion effort.
And he also alleged that his he and
his father are cooperating with
the FBI and
that his father is wearing a wire.
Because when someone's wearing
a wire you'd want to make a public
announcement about it.
But with that said hwq did
the conversation with
Tucker Carlson go?
Let's take a look.
>> New York Times is running
a story that I have traveled with
a 17 year old woman and
that is verifiably false.
People can look at my
travel records and see that that is
not the case what is happening
is an extortion of me and
my family involving a former
Department of Justice official.
And the FBI and the Department
of Justice were so concerned about
this attempted extortion of
a Member of Congress, that
hey asked my dad to wear a wire.
Which he did with the former
Department of Justice official.
Tonight I am demanding that the
Department of Justice and the FBI,
release the audio recordings that
were made under their
supervision and at their direction,
which will prove my innocence.
>> What is the allegation?
Is that really not very clear from
these news stories?
>> Yeah, again I only know what
I've read in the New York Times I
can say that actually you and I
went to dinner about two years ago.
Your wife was there and
I brought a friend of mine you'll
remember her and she was
actually threatened by the FBI.
Told that if she wouldn't cope to
the fact that somehow I was
involved in some pay for
play scheme.
That she could face trouble and so
I do believe that there are people
at the Department of
Justice who are trying to smear me.
>> So there's a lot to unpack there
John.
I'm going to let you take a stab at
it, go ahead.
>> Yeah, I think that's what
Tucker was thinking.
There's just so much here and
I wish there was less, yes.
So he's had a very interesting
defense strategy over the past day
he said there the the idea that
I traveled with a 17 year old is
verifiably false.
The travel look is an important
component when it comes
to the actual sex trafficking laws
because that's the illegal part is
crossing state lines at random and
having money be involved.
He didn't deny having sex with a 17
year old there, which I feel like I
would do if it weren't.
I would want to make clear that
people knew that I was not as
a late 30s Congressman sleeping
with a 17 year old girl.
I would want that,
that would be nice.
Also he says the travel allegations
are verifiably false people can
check my travel records.
Okay, I mean if it's in there that
might prove that it happened it not
being in your official travel
records doesn't prove that it
didn't happen.
But anyway all of these will be-
>> I mean John, hold on.
I mean, I think that that was
actually a valid point because I
too keep logs of who I'm
fornicating with when I'm
traveling, obviously.
>> I've read those notes,
they are rough.
>> And what kind of travel
arrangements am, like what a stupid
thing to say, right?
Like, I'm potentially breaking sex
trafficking laws with what I'm
doing, let me make sure that
there's proper documentation of
that anyway, but continue, sorry.
>> Yeah and like sometimes I'll be
in a store and I'll think I really
want to shoplift let me add it to
my to do list.
No that's not how crimes work, also
making it about somebody attempting
to extort you, I get that.
Whether it's true that it's
happening or not I get it and I'll
even go so far as to say I assume.
Then it is true, that someone is
trying to extort him, I think a lot
of people are missing that doesn't
mean the crime didn't happen.
It actually kind of indicates that
it's more likely that the crime
did, because you can try to extort
someone for
something they haven't done.
Especially with being
a Republican Congressman though,
they're unlikely to go down for
crimes they did commit,
let alone ones they didn't.
I would rather extort someone for
a crime they committed so
I get him wanting to make this
whole conversation about this
DoJ guy that's like messing with
his family.
But the DoJ guy could be messing
with his family because Matt Gaetz
had sex with a 17 year old and was
bringing her across state lines.
So all of that is really important,
we also whether it's a crime or
not, we'll see whether he did
anything or not, we'll see.
But even like, I think we have to
make clear whether he
is going around trying to begin
relationships with 17 year olds.
Because whether that's legal or
illegal I think it's noteworthy for
a public servant.
>> Yeah I agree, I absolutely agree
with you on that.
Well look obviously we don't know
without a shadow of a doubt
that he did it was being alleged or
what he's being investigated for.
So our commentary just to be clear
is really speculative at this
point.
But I think it's easy to make
educated guesses based on
the character of the people that
we're talking about.
And Matt Gaetz is the type of
person who can lie to the American
people with a straight face.
He certainly did it incessantly
during the Trump Administration.
He did it incessantly when it came
to the 2020 general election.
So, it's really hard to take,
anything that he says seriously or
at face value,
considering how willingly deceptive
he's been,
in his short tenure in Congress.
So we'll see what happens through
the outcome of this investigation.
But, as he was talking in that
interview, I couldn't help but
think about similar types of
claims that were made
by Trump's lawyers in response to
the outcome of the 2020 election.
There was a lot of like, I demand
that this gets released and
that gets released and
we have all this evidence.
Wait till you see all the evidence,
the evidence is going to come out
and you'll see.
And of course there was no evidence
and so like it might be different
in this case with with Matt Gaetz
but if I had to share my opinion,
he's not a trustworthy person.
With that said though, I love that
he is like trying to like
relate with Tucker Carlson [LAUGH].
>> I'm not the only
person on screen right now,
who has been falsely accused of
a terrible sex act.
You were accused of something
that you did not do and so
you know what this feels like.
You know the pain it can bring to
your family and
how it just puts people on defense
when you're accused of something so
salacious and awful.
>> You referred to a mentally ill
viewer who accused me of a sex
crime 20 years ago.
And of course it was was not true
I'd never met the person.
But I do agree with you that being
accused falsely is one of the worst
things that can happen.
>> [LAUGH] Man, like just in case I
want to remind people as I did on
the Damage Board this morning.
That might or might not be what
Matt Gaetz was referring to, but
Tucker Carlson was also accused of
sexual harassment by a frequent
Fox News guest last year.
Not 20 years ago and
it was a woman he very much met,
whether it happened or not,
we can't say.
But there are far more recent
accusations against them and
the thing he's referring to.
>> What was also fascinating was
the post-interview commentary from
Tucker Carlson.
Let's hear what he had to say.
>> You just saw a Matt Gaetz's
interview.
That was one of the weirdest
interviews I've ever conducted.
That story just appeared
in the news a couple of hours ago.
And on the certainty that there's
always more than you read in
the newspaper, we immediately
called Matt Gaetz and asked him to
come on and tell us more,
which is you saw he did.
I don't think that clarified much
but it certainly showed this is
a deeply interesting story and
we'll be we'll be following it.
Don't quite understand it, but
we'll bring you on,
we find out >> I mean that's
a strong claim to make for
a man who's had Rudy Giuliani on
his program on multiple occasions.
But I get it,
I mean if someone brought up
uncomfortable accusations that were
made against me, I would not like
that interview and probably
respond to it in a similar way.
But what I think is interesting
about the story is how there is
a divide among conservatives on how
they're handling this, right?
Because and
you'll see in a story that we're
going to do a little later from
former White House staffers.
They're conservatives who
like deeply dislike Matt Gaetz and
are not defending him.
But then there are some
conservative lawmakers who should
probably just out of their own self
interest avoid commenting on
the story altogether.
And the person that I'm referring
to here is Jim Jordan,
Representative Jim Jordan.
Who told CNN quote,
I believe Matt Gaetz.
How about you sit this
one out Jim Jordan, because you've
been accused of hiding or
brushing under the rug,
the sexual assault of wrestlers.
Who came to you and
disclosed what they had dealt with.
So it's crazy how Jim Jordan is
still in Congress,
he seems untouched by that scandal.
Hopefully, we learn more about it
if he is actually guilty of what
he's being accused for,
suffers the consequences of that.
But with that said, I mean,
if I were Jim Jordan, I would
probably just shut my mouth, but
he couldn't help himself.
>> That'd be great advice I'd love
if you take up on that.
Yeah, he believes him, okay,
whatever.
Like Yeah, they believe the guy and
all of these cases that's
hardly new.
We don't have to
make this a big part of this but
one of the most vocal defenders so
far has been Marjorie Greene.
A person whose entire wackadoodle
to pick up Brett's term a worldview
is based on the idea
that there is a shadowy cult of
powerful political people who
are preying on young girls.
But when she comes across someone
who might fit into that group, no I
believe that that's a witch hunt.
And again we don't know what
he did, or when he did it.
But she is predisposed to assume
that someone she likes and
agrees with politically
cannot obviously have done that.
It's just somewhere there's
somebody Hillary Clinton or
somebody is raping kids.
I don't know who, but yeah,
they're of course going to believe
or they're at least imply, it's at
the end of the day, it's sexual
harassment sexual assault claim.
They don't care about that,
they've been very clear and
very consistent about that.
They can change everyone- >> It's
literally is sex trafficking claim,
it's literally an accusation of sex
trafficking of a minor.
That is literally what QAnon,
exactly, it just- >> But
it doesn't matter.
>> Okay. >> They don't care about
that, they didn't care about
Epstein >> I know.
>> They don't care about Trump's
stuff, they don't care about any of
the specific ones.
And just recently with Cuomo
scandal, the hosts were all
pretending, yes, no, now we take
all of this stuff very seriously,
got to protect, got to believe
the women and all of that.
And then they go right back to no
we're just going to have him on to
talk about it took.
Tom Carlson so confused about
the story arguably could
have reached out to the journalists
who'd written it for
some details or perhaps a contact
at the Doj or something.
No, we should only bring on the
victim to lose his mind on camera.
>> Yeah, and to Tom Carlson,
the story is not that complicated,
I read it within a four
minute break on the show yesterday.
It's pretty straightforward,
you just have to read, you have to
read the article, but sometimes
that can be really difficult to do
with all the busy schedule
stuff that he's got going on,