On Tuesday evening, just hours after the New York Times reported that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is under federal investigation for sex trafficking for an alleged affair he had with a 17-year-old girl, Gaetz appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show and tried to suggest that he was the victim of a smear campaign to extort money from his father, a wealthy attorney.
In other words, Gaetz tried to cover up his own crime by lying and creating a bullshit conspiracy theory. That’s what Republicans do because that’s what Donald Trump is so fond of doing.
But as he spun his BS story, Gaetz mentioned that Carlson had also been charged as a sex offender, remarking:
“I‘m not the only person on screen right now that has been falsely accused of a terrible sex act.”
The reference Gaetz made was to a sexual harassment filed against Fox News.
Carlson bristled at Gaetz’s comparison:
“You just referred to a mentally ill viewer who accused me of a sex crime 20 years ago and, of course, it was not true. I never met the person. But I do agree with you that being accused falsely that being accused falsely is one of the worst things that can happen and you do see it a lot. Let’s go back to the investigation you say it was or is underway. There was an investigation. What is the basis of that investigation? What is the allegation that really not very clear from these news stories.”
Clearly, what Gaetz was engaged in was classic deflection: Bring up an allegation to cover your own. The technique is popular with liars.
After the interview, Carlson made it clear to his viewers that he wasn’t sure what to make of what had just transpired:
“You just saw our Matt Gaetz 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, as 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 following it.”
Oh, it was weird all right. It was a complete clusterfuck and the only purpose it served was to give Gaetz a platform for his lies.
Gaetz is innocent until proven guilty. But his wild tale certainly suggests he’s hiding something.