Marjorie Taylor Greene, the firebrand Republican congresswoman from Georgia, has intervened on behalf of Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump’s embattled attorney general nominee, by issuing a bizarre challenge to her Republican colleagues.
Amid intensifying pressure for the release of a congressional report into alleged sexual misconduct that could sink Gaetz’s nomination, Taylor Greene demanded similar full disclosure of what she claimed were multiple reports of assault and sexual harassment filed against fellow Republican Congress members.
She also said she had filed one of the claims herself.
“For my Republican colleagues in the House and Senate, If we are going to release ethics reports and rip apart our own that Trump has appointed, then put it ALL out there for the American people to see,” Taylor Greene wrote on X in a post which had received 1.3m views by Tuesday 1pm ET.
“Yes.. all the ethics reports and claims including the one I filed, all your sexual harassment and assault claims that were secretly settled paying off victims with tax payer money, the entire Jeffrey Epstein files, tapes, recordings, witness interviews but not just those, there’s more, Epstein wasn’t/isn’t the only asset. If we’re going to dance, let’s all dance in the sunlight,” she wrote.
She concluded with what appeared to be a veiled threat: “I’ll make sure we do.”
While not elucidating on the seemingly scattershot allegations, Taylor Greene’s intervention exposed the fissures opened up in Republican ranks by Trump’s nomination of Gaetz as America’s top law official.
Republican senators have voiced their opposition in sufficient numbers to torpedo his nomination if they vote with their sentiments in Senate confirmation hearings scheduled to take place once Trump returns to the White House.
Gaetz forestalled last Friday’s scheduled publication of a report compiled by the House of Representatives ethics committee into his alleged misdemeanors by resigning his seat after Trump nominated him.
Nevertheless, fellow Republican members of Congress and senators are demanding its release for consideration in the confirmation process, triggering Taylor Greene’s outburst.
The document is believed to be highly damaging to Gaetz, amid allegations that he paid two women, including a 17-year-old minor, for sex in 2017. It also said that he took drugs, including ecstasy. The allegations formed part of a two-year criminal investigation – subsequently dropped without charges – by the FBI into Gaetz’s possible involvement in suspected sex trafficking.
Lawyers for women who have testified to witnessing Gaetz’s behavior have fed more details of the affair to US media in recent days, increasing the pressure on the nominee and triggering speculation that they could be called as witnesses to hearings which now seem likely to turn into a media circus.
after newsletter promotion
The depth of feeling against Gaetz among his fellow Republican Congress members has been demonstrated in interviews some have given on television.
Max Miller, a Republican member for Ohio, told CNN that he reflected the private sentiments of many in saying Gaetz should not be attorney general.
“I’m looking at him as a member of Congress and the job that he has done here, and it has been abhorrent,” he said. “I’m not the only one who thinks this way. I just say the quiet part out loud, and I wish other my colleagues would have the same courage to do so, but him as a member of Congress, should not be the most powerful law enforcement individual in our country, and everyone knows it, and he’s not going to get confirmed.”
Tony Gonzales, a representative for Texas – who once called Gaetz and other far-right Congress members “scumbags” – said cryptically: “Matt’s kind of a quiet guy. We’re all still trying to get to know who he is, but soon enough, the American people get to know who he is.”
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
