In the aftermath of Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-Fla.) unprecedented move to ally with Democrats and oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from the speakership, fellow Republicans have expressed that they’re not pleased. Some conservatives, like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, have called for Gaetz to be expelled from the House. But one senator appears to have a different idea for how to retaliate against the Florida Congressman: by spilling the proverbial tea all over him.
Speaking to CNN’s Manu Raju on Wednesday evening, Mullin referenced the Justice Department’s 2021 investigation into Gaetz’s alleged sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl. (The DOJ wrapped its investigation and decided not to file charges in February.) “There’s a reason why no one in the conference came and defended him because we had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor, that all of us had walked away, of the girls that he had slept with,” Mullin, who served in the House with Gaetz until being elected to the Senate last November, said. He added, “[Gaetz] would brag about how he would crush E.D. medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night. This was obviously before he got married.”
I, personally, prefer life before I had to hear “Matt Gaetz” in the same sentence as “erectile dysfunction medicine.” But if I had to hear about this, so do the rest of you.
By Thursday morning, Mullin stopped by Newsmax to dish further on Gaetz, doubling down on his allegation that Gaetz showed sexual photos of women to colleagues, and claiming Gaetz mocked his senior citizen base to him. Mullin said of Gaetz’s behavior in the House, “Those aren’t allegations. That’s firsthand, that he told me, that we dealt with on the floor.” According to Mullin, “the first time I ever met this guy,” Gaetz walked up to him and called South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) a “fine [bitch].” (Mullin added that Gaetz did come up to him later to apologize for calling her that but that it was obviously still “completely out of line.”)
These are pretty bombshell allegations from Mullin, building upon anonymously sourced allegations from 2021 that Gaetz shared nude and sexual images of women he was supposedly intimate with and described sexual acts he performed with them, while on the House floor. “It was a point of pride,” one of the unnamed sources told CNN at the time. Gaetz denied those allegations.
Gaetz’s communications director did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Jezebel on Mullin’s colorful claims, while a spokesperson for Mullin declined to comment further. But Gaetz did issue a firm denial to CNN: “I don’t think Markwayne Mullin and I have said 20 words to each other on the House floor,” his statement, read aloud by Anderson Cooper, says. “This is a lie from someone who doesn’t know me and who is coping with the death of the political career of his friend, Kevin. Thoughts and prayers.”
Gaetz’s denial is the latest of many denials of allegations against him that have ranged from trafficking and illegal sexual relations with a minor to a cocaine-fueled night with an escort. His own sister-in-law publicly called him a “creep” for allegedly trying to set her up with a much older man when she was 19. She also called him a “literal pedophile” but quickly apologized for that and said “ephebophile”—which is being attracted to postpubescent teens—was the better term for him.
In 2022, an event Gaetz hosted at a high school in his district was hotly protested by concerned parents and local officials alike. And, more recently, former Trump aide-turned-”Resistance” hero Cassidy Hutchinson accused Gaetz of creepy-ish behavior in her new memoir. She denied Gaetz’ claims that they dated on MSNBC and insisted that she had “much higher standards.”
All of that’s to say: Gaetz has long been ensconced in one scandal after another, but he’s cruised by relatively unscathed with the support of his party, who have thus far seemingly tolerated his every nasty, alleged transgression. His move to oust McCarthy, widely criticized by Republicans, could complicate this—especially if more Republican members take a page from Mullin’s playbook and start airing out whatever dirt they have on Gaetz.
It wouldn’t be unprecedented: During much of last year, in the wake of former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) alleging members of his own party have invited him to orgies and done cocaine in front of him, we were treated to one leaked hit piece about Cawthorn after another until he was successfully primaried by an opponent endorsed by top Republicans. I guess we’ll see what’s next for Gaetz and the seven Republican House members who joined him in ousting McCarthy this week.