Matt Gaetz just made clear why he’s not going to survive this
With two inside witnesses now formally cooperating against him, Matt Gaetz is all but certain to be indicted and arrested on federal criminal charges before much longer. The trouble in the meantime is that he’s still a sitting Congressman.
This led a number of observers to worry that Gaetz might be able to abuse his position in the House of Representatives to somehow get himself off the legal hook or gain a strategic advantage heading into trial. While it’s wrong that Gaetz is still sitting on a House committee that oversees the same DOJ and FBI that are criminally investigating him, I’ve never worried too much about it. If the Republicans controlled the House committees, it would be one thing. But as things stand, Gaetz would need to be awfully clever to get anywhere – and he’s the opposite of clever. Gaetz just more or less proved me right.
When Matt Gaetz recently had the opportunity to use his position as a Congressman to question FBI Director Christopher Wray, he didn’t manage to make any headway. Now Gaetz is fully blowing the opportunity, by pushing the lunatic conspiracy theory that FBI operatives were somehow behind the January 6th Capitol attack.
To be clear, not a single person outside Gaetz’s deranged base will believe this. So Gaetz is merely playing to his own fans, instead of trying to win over the American mainstream. And that sucks for him, because his only chance of surviving this would be if he could somehow convince the mainstream that he’s being framed, or that he’s the real victim.
Matt Gaetz is pinned against the proverbial wall right now. It would take a herculean effort for him to save himself. Instead he’s busy proving why he’s not going to be able to save himself.
