Representative Matt Gates who still
maintains that he's done nothing
wrong despite Justice Department
investigation into possible sexual
trafficking of a minor,
asked the Trump administration,
in the tail end of that term,
of course,
to offer him a preemptive pardon.
Now we learned about this through
some reporting over at
the New York Times.
And apparently Donald Trump has
responded to these allegations.
But before we get to his response,
let's hear a little from
Maggie Haberman over at
the New York Times, who I think
is incredibly questionable.
Keeping it real.
But nonetheless,
she chimes in on that reporting,
let's hear what she has to say.
>> His first impulse was that
he wanted to defend Gaetz.
He's one of our people, several of
his advisors have told him that's
a very bad idea that the the nature
of what Gaetz is being investigated
before for is so serious.
That this is now something that
former President Trump should be
out there on a limb.
Remember, he does not have Twitter
anymore so it's not as if he can
just go out and do what he wants.
So far they have been successful in
keeping him away.
Trump did like Gaetz,
Gaetz was a very full throated
supporter of Trump.
He was defending him during
the impeachment,
he tried to defend him again during
the second impeachment.
Trump personally likes him,
Trump's staff has always had issues
with him.
>> I have an idea real quick, not
to go off on a tangent let's please
retire the phrase full throated,
especially in this context.
Putting that aside.
So, Donald Trump says that he was
never approached personally by
Matt Gaetz.
He says congressman Matt Gaetz has
never asked me for a pardon.
It must also be remembered that he
has totally
denied the accusations against him.
So that's a little bit of a defense
there, but mostly Trump saying that
no, I wasn't asked about a pardon.
But really the story doesn't say
that Trump was specifically
approached by Matt Gaetz.
White House staffers and aides were
approached by Matt Gaetz based on
the New York Times reporting.
And apparently a source familiar
with Gaetz's request told Fox News
that Gaetz's request was met with
quote, lots of eye rolling and
wasn't even considered
by the White House.
And I should also note that Gaetz's
is currently fundraising off of
this scandal.
We'll give you the details on that
in just a minute.
But John, I wanted you to jump in.
>> Yeah, so
I'm a little bit surprised that he
maybe not himself personally asked
for one but people on his team were
clearly involved in that.
I mean, we don't know for sure that
he knew about the investigation.
But of course, if he did anything,
he knew that he did things.
And so, I don't know to
opportunistically look for
that in the last few months is just
not something that generally you
do when you're innocent as many
people have pointed out.
In terms of the defense that was
offered up by that official
presidential statement,
it is a defense.
It is all that we've gotten from
Trump so far.
So if you're Matt Gaetz,
you're probably happy with it that
he's spoken out at all.
But I mean it's not strong,
i It's not great.
Ana, if you were caught up in some
sort of massive scandal, and
I waited a week, and people
are sending super chats every day,
why aren't you John?
Just saying anybody in a scandal
and then finally I put
out a tweet that just said,
it must be remembered that Ana has
denied the accusations
against her and that was it.
Would you be satisfied that?
Would you feel like >> No I mean-
>> Got my back.
>> Yeah,
it's not a full throated defense
to use Maggie Haberman's wording
there.
But look,
I think you're right I think anyone
who has the same perspective
Given the story is correct.
If you did nothing wrong, if you
have nothing to worry about, why
would you need a preemptive pardon?
And I do want to show you what
Matt Gaetz his argument was in
favor of a preemptive party
not just for himself.
It seemed like he just kind of
wanted to distract from
the fact that he was looking for
a preemptive party for
himself by also including a broader
group of people to be pardoned.
And he made this case during the
November 2020 interview with Fox.
Let's let's hear what
he had to say.
>> President Trump should pardon
Michael Flynn, he should pardon
the Thanksgiving Turkey.
He should pardon everyone from
himself to his administration
officials to Joe exotic if
he has to.
Because you see from the radical
left a blood loss that will
only be quenched if they come after
the people who worked so hard to
animate the Trump administration
with the policies and the vigor and
the effectiveness that delivered
for the American people.
And so I think that the President
on a wield that pardon power
effectively and robustly.
>> So he was obviously a big fan of
these preemptive pardons,
tried to make it seem like
it wasn't just about him.
It was about all of these
Republican lawmakers,
was about the Thanksgiving Turkey
because Democrats allegedly
have blood lust?
Okay, and of course
he's fundraising off of this.
He put out an email blast asking
for some money because he's being
unfairly targeted by Democrats even
though, and let me be clear ,the
Justice Department investigation
began under the Trump
administration with
Attorney General William Barr
serving as the head of the justice
department as the Attorney General.
So to say that this is an attack
by Democrats,
I think is pretty pathetic.
I think most people who can
think logically
can see right through this.
The body of the email says
the Far-left New York Times, that's
hilarious, has been publishing
salacious allegations against me
in an attempt to end my career
fighting for the forgotten men and
women of this country.
It's a shame that the left tries to
drag my dating life into their
political attacks, but
it's no surprise when your ideas
suck you have to stoop this low?
Well, I mean, we know that when
republicans and their ideas suck,
they just rigged elections to their
favor as they're doing in Georgia
and pretty soon also in Texas.
But I'll put that aside for now and
just note that again,
this DOJ investigation began
under a Republican Administration.
And I would argue that for
a party that has so much support
from QAnon conspiracy theorists,
someone who's being investigated
for trafficking a minor for sex,
serious issue, serious issue that
should be investigated.
>> Except that every ideology has
core values.
The core value or
at least the core driving motive of
modern day conservatism is just I
don't want to have to think about
anything inconvenient.
The Qanon stuff,
I like that because all Democrats
are satanic literally they consume
children, that's great.
Wait, it's a republican did it?
No, I don't like that.
I don't want to engage with
that thought..
They're targeting a Trump ally,
the deep state.
Wait it was a Republican It was
like this guy we love William Barr,
has just inconvenient.
Let's forget about it,
let's pretend that it's Biden.
That guy who's known for
holding political grudges.
But I'm glad that you mentioned
the the fact that it was began
under William Barr.
The part of it that I have
a question for you though is,
the reporting is said that
at the time that Gaetz is,
whoever it was, Gaetz or his team
that went to the White House and
was we want to ask pardon.
And we don't know that either Gaetz
or Trump knew about
the investigation even though
the investigation apparently at
that point was ongoing.
If William Barr was aware of it,
which we found that out days ago,
that he was well aware of it,
how likely do you think it is that
Trump did know about it at that
point.
That someone that's so
close of an ally to Trump was being
investigated for something
particularly bad sounding?
It just seems pretty likely that
Trump would have known during this
pardoned period that that's what
Matt Gaetz was potentially facing,
whether Matt Gaetz
knew about it at that point or not.
>> Yeah, believe it or not, I'm
less interested about what Donald
Trump do about the investigation.
And I'm obviously much more
interested in what Matt Gaetz knew
about the investigation.
And obviously I'm about to
speculate, I don't know for sure.
But remember, this investigation
began not, based on Matt Gaetz's
behavior the investigation was
primarily in the beginning focused
on this guy named Greenberg,
who's actually a close political
ally of Matt Gaetz's.
They're good friends they're from
the same state.
This was the former Seminole County
tax collector, and he was indicted
for alleged sex trafficking.
And while he was being
investigated, that's when
the investigation broadened to also
include Matt Gaetz.
Because there was some indication
that he was trafficking a 17 year
old, or paying for the travel of
a 17 year old, so they can meet and
have sex with each other,
that's the allegation.
I say all that because, if that's
your homie, and you know that he's
facing this investigation, right,
he's he's already been charged
with sex trafficking.
If you've been involved with this
guy in any way,
then i think you're pretty much
well aware that you're going to get
caught up in that investigation.
So I'm speculating that Matt Gaetz
did no which is why he asked for
the pardon obviously we have no
way of knowing for sure.
Donald Trump is always in
lala land, the only thing that he
ever thinks about is himself.
So did Trump know Maybe,
maybe not, but.
But I think that it's less
consequential than
Matt Gaetz knowing that
it was being instigated.
>> I think from Matt Gaetz point of
view long term, sure, I think so.
And the investigators would want to
know if that was motivating him to
ask for pardon,
that potentially could be
a consideration going forward.
I'm mostly interested just in that
like, I want Matt Gates to know
that Trump didn't help him
after all that he did for him.
>> I'm sure he knows, [LAUGH].
>> He eventually got the same
treatment. Yeah, that's true that
he didn't get it, but I want him to
know that he didn't get it and
Trump knew how bad he needed it.
He needs to learn the only way they
can learn that every one of them
has learned that their loyalty will
never be paid back is that they
watch this person get betrayed by
Trump and then the next person that
people have worked for years for
Trump not getting anything for it.
And they're just thinking,
I'm sure I'll break this pattern.
No, no, you won't.
He doesn't care about you,
you're not him.
You're not even Ivanka, so
he's definitely not going to
do anything for you.
And I want Matt Gaetz,
whether he ends up in jail or
ends up resigning or
not, I want him to know that.
He'll still be loyal to Trump
because that's a prerequisite for
a political career on the right
right now, but
I want to question a little bit.
I just think that'd be fun
to know that he's doing that.
I love how you just want to twist
the knife,
it doesn't really matter.
>> It's terrible.
>> It's terrible you want to twist
that knife.
I get it, I mean that's the level
of fact that I
can appreciate for sure.
But a conversation that Ryan Grim
and I had yesterday in regard to
the stories, what will
the political consequences be
because Florida's panhandle that's
the area that Matt Gaetz represents
is incredibly conservative.
And Ryan Grim's perspective is
this scandal as it stands now
is unlikely to persuade Matt Gaezt
supporters in the panhandle to
basically abandon him.
And we want to know what you think.
So will the gate scandals cost him
his job or will this all blow over
because nothing matters?
[LAUGH] So
you got two options there.
I like the usage of emojis.
[LAUGH] >> Will it cost
him his job?
Or will it all blow over?
Of course Matt Gaetz is refusing
to step down.
He thinks he's done nothing wrong.
But we'll see how this
investigation plays out and
fill you guys in as we learn more