On Tuesday, as the first day of hearings began for the House Select Committee on January 6, a group of four Republican lawmakers decided they’d go to the Department of Justice building and protest the treatment of people arrested following the Capitol insurrection, whom they claim are “political prisoners.”
In attendance were Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Matt Gaetz (FL), Louie Gohmert (Texas), and Paul Gosar (AZ), The Hill reports:
“(Greene, Gaetz, Gohmert, and Gosar) were holding a news conference outside the DOJ to protest the treatment of individuals arrested in connection to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, when counterprotesters arrived on the scene.
“One protester repeatedly blew a whistle during the event, and other demonstrators were holding signs that read ‘Jan 6th was an inside job, vets for democrats’ and ‘Traitors + Rapists: Sit Down,’ the latter likely referring to Gaetz, who is under investigation for an alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl.”
The counterprotests were so loud and raucous that at one point a man announced:
“The left is interrupting the press conference, we need to end it.”
As the crowd was dispersing, a reporter repeatedly asked Gaetz:
“Are you a pedophile?”
Gaetz couldn’t walk fast enough to get away from the scene, and the question he was being asked came just hours after his future sister-in-law, Roxanne Luckey, posted a series of videos on TikTok in which she lambasted the Florida congressman, calling him “a literal pedophile.”
Gaetz is currently under federal investigation for allegedly being sexually active with an underage girl he trafficked across state lines, a crime which can carry a penalty of life in prison.
Gaetz, Greene, Gohmert, and Gosar are all trying their best to deflect attention from the fact that many in their party supported and continue to support the domestic terrorists who stormed the Capitol earlier this year. But all the distractions in the world won’t be able to paper over the fact that the current GOP is under the thrall of a monster named Trump and believes violence is more valuable than democracy.
