Photo via Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0), J/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
June 24, 2021, 1:04 pm*
Florida congressman Matt Gaetz has continued on his quest to become the least popular U.S. congressman of all time this week by tweeting an attack on the same agency that is currently investigating him for alleged sex trafficking, including of one individual who was under 18 at the time. In response to continuing calls for police departments across the U.S. to be defunded and direct more money to social services that actually prevent crime instead, Gaetz suggested that the first to be defunded should be the FBI.
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Just one minute after it was posted (and recorded by watchdogs), Gaetz deleted the tweet, likely because he realized it doesn’t look good to call for the defunding of the people who are actively investigating him.
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“If Dems want to defund the police, they should start w/the FBI.”
The FBI is investigating Matt Gaetz for child sex trafficking after his friend pled guilty to having sex w/a minor.
Gaetz deleted this tweet—hoping no one would notice. You def. shouldn’t RT it. #MattGaetzIsATool pic.twitter.com/aSDLni6lzs
— Dean Wallace
(@deanofdublin) June 24, 2021
“If Democrats want to defund the police, they should start with the FBI,” he wrote.
To be clear, most actual members of the Democratic party are not in favor of defunding the police, and President Joe Biden just revealed a plan to address gun violence that includes increased funding for police departments. The call for the defunding and eventual abolition of police in the U.S. comes from the left of Democrats, but Republicans like Gaetz tend to refuse to acknowledge the difference between these groups.
This social media flub happened at about the same time as the highly-publicized takedown of Gaetz by General Mark Milley, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, after the congressman accused the military of embracing Critical Race Theory and being too “woke.” Gaetz continued to attack the military in tweets containing comments you don’t typically see coming from the right.
“With Generals like this it’s no wonder we’ve fought considerably more wars than we’ve won,” wrote Gaetz about Milley.
Former U.S. Army General Mark Hertling had something to say about this jab, pointing out that Milley has seen exactly as many years of active combat as Gaetz has not.
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This response was so good that it was highlighted on MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour,” in which Brian Williams also got off a few fantastic shots at the embattled congressman.
“Easy enough to lob a comment like that from the cheap seats,” Williams said about Gaetz’s tweets. “To be fair, Gaetz — the same Matt Gaetz who faces potential sex trafficking charges, which he denies — did also tweet today to free Britney Spears, which kind of makes him a freedom fighter.”
Gaetz also attacked the FBI earlier this month, accusing Director Christopher Wray of “ignoring actionable intelligence” on COVID-19 that could have saved lives, saying in a recorded session on Steve Bannon’s “Real America’s Voice” that he can’t just delete that he’s “going to stay on them.” He appears to be determined to make himself look guilty, and we all feel sorry for his lawyers.
*First Published: June 24, 2021, 12:44 pm
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