Conservatives Must Defend Matt Gaetz To The End
".......................We should have learned this lesson from Donald Trump's first presidential run and time in office. From Crossfire Hurricane, to the pee-tape dossier, to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, unsupported and unbelievable accusations leaked to the public hampered Trump's ability to advance his agenda. Time and again the charges proved unfounded, and yet in advance of the 2024 election, the lawfare continued. The country, however, had wised up by then and recognized the various criminal and civil charges leveled against Trump for what they were: an effort to interfere in the election.
Why then is anyone giving credence to the accusations against Gaetz, especially given the FBI - after thoroughly investigating the matter for two years - decided not to charge Gaetz? Rather, career prosecutors for the Department of Justice concluded there were credibility problems with "the two central witnesses" to the case.
Earlier this week, The Federalist's editor-in-chief, Mollie Hemingway, detailed not just the DOJ's conclusion that the women's stories would be unconvincing to a jury, but the many additional problems with the entire hoax. Take, for instance, the fact that a jail-house informant revealed that his cellmate, Joel Greenberg, was behind the woman's claims that she had sex with Gaetz when she was 17. And Greenberg himself had admitted to "fabricating allegations against a schoolteacher who was running against him to be a tax collector," with Greenberg sending "letters to the school falsely claiming the teacher had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student."
....................While
some
on
the
Right
may
prefer
not
to
defend
the
former
playboy,
the
only
way
to
end
the
growing
use
of
salacious
lies
as
a
political
weapon
is
to
condemn
the
information
operation,
prosecute
those
responsible,
and
ostracize
the
members
of
the
media
responsible
for
advancing
the
hoax.
Like
it
or
not,
that's
precisely
what
conservatives
must
do
in
response
to
the
attacks
on
Gaetz.
Had Republicans adopted this approach when the Left came for the blemishless Brett Kavanaugh, it wouldn't need to defend Gaetz against the false accusations now. But whether Gaetz's bachelorhood looked vastly different than Kavanaugh is of no moment: What matters is that the enemies of both men used lies to manipulate politics. And our Republic cannot allow that tactic to stand.
Photo credit Matt Gaetz on Youtube