Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz is among the GOP contingent that isn’t fighting President Joe Biden mainly on the legislative front. Like his sometime anti-Biden teammate Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has called for Biden’s impeachment, Gaetz has been largely focused on hitting Biden on the character front instead.
Gaetz has been among those in the MAGA wing of the GOP suggesting an unsubstantiated version of the president as a man with a sexually predatory past and also as the head of a criminal syndicate that MAGA adherents refer to as the “Biden Crime Family.”
That “crime family” narrative includes messaging like this:
“It is very concerning. And they’re trying to make the excuses that it’s for the protection of the American people,” Ms. Greene said. “What is he protecting the American people from? The truth? I think that’s really what we’re looking at here.”
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) May 30, 2023
Read the full story in @WashTimes:…
The accusation of Biden’s alleged sexual misconduct — which opponents consider MAGA’s ‘Plan B’ to hurt Biden — centered on a witness/victim named Tara Reade, who has long told a diffuse story that Biden acted inappropriately to her in 1993.
In their excitable investigations into Biden’s alleged misdeeds, Rep. Greene and Rep. Gaetz interviewed Reade, after which Gaetz produced the astonishing description of her as “one of the most credible witnesses I have ever interviewed in the practice of law or during my time in Congress.”
Yeah, well she defected to Russia yesterday. Back to her handlers. (This Gaetz post was 3 weeks ago) pic.twitter.com/L0aNUR6eOq
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 31, 2023
Former Republican Ron Filipkowski threw that quote back in Gaetz’s face on Twitter today, after news broke that Reade has left the U.S. — “defected” — for Russia, where she held a press conference. Filipkowksi characterized Reade’s flight as her going “Back to her handlers.”
Speculation on the left side of the aisle, boosted by her departure, is that Reade was a Russian asset meant to cause Biden, a supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia, trouble at home.
Those sticking hard to the MAGA narrative however, continue to read the story as a condemnation of Biden, with more than one commenter implying that Reade must have left the U.S. because of threats from Biden associates.
Filipkowski, a Florida lawyer and former Marine, also tosses out Rep. Greene’s assertion about Reade and her accusation. The witness will no longer be available to American courts, congress members, or juries.
She’s now living in Russia. pic.twitter.com/d9ekJGoM0t
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 31, 2023
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