While feuding with his fellow MAGA Republican, Texas Representative Dan Crenshaw, former Florida GOP Representative Matt Gaetz got slammed with a brutally honest community note by X users.
Gaetz and Crenshaw were feuding on X Friday and Saturday over the Republican Party’s stance on Israel.
Crenshaw posted:
"If your ‘conservatism’ flirts with antisemitism, it’s not conservatism. We’re defenders of truth, not blind tribalism. You can’t save Western Civilization while echoing its oldest hatreds."
Gaetz took a shot at Crenshaw in response, posting:
"If your ‘conservatism’ flirts with interventionism, it’s not conservatism. We are defenders of America, not globalism. You can’t save Western Civilization while echoing the lies of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu."
Crenshaw replied:
"If your 'conservatism' flirts with underage girls it’s not conservatism."
Gaetz resigned from Congress in November 2024 with designs on being MAGA Republican President Donald Trump's Attorney General.
But ethics complaints and an investigation into Gaetz transporting a 17-year-old girl across state lines for sex made the already embattled Trump—facing his own allegations of sex trafficking minors with his longtime friend Jeffrey Epstein—drop Gaetz like a hot potato.
Gaetz responded:
"Rep Crenshaw — unable to defend his policy views — resorts to a debunked smear."
"Get that $7k bro…"
@mattgaetz/X
But X users stepped in with a context community note for Gaetz, debunking his own false claim. Gaetz was never cleared—he was just never charged, unlike some of his associates, and resigned from Congress before he could be sanctioned.
X users wrote:
"Claims aren’t debunked. A bipartisan House Ethics Committee found 'substantial evidence' that Gaetz paid for sex and that he had sex with a 17-year-old in 2017."
"The committee lost jurisdiction to sanction Gaetz after he left the House, but published its findings anyway."
@mattgaetz/X
As with all X community notes, links to sources to fact-check Gaetz were included. Among them was the House Ethics Committee report on Gaetz.
It stated the House Ethics panel found "substantial evidence" that Gaetz:
- "regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity with him” between 2017 and 2020, including a 17-year-old girl
- "used or possessed illegal drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy"
- "knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct the Committee’s investigation of his conduct.”
People dunked on Gaetz in the comments.
Gaetz had resigned from Congress in an effort to avoid having the Ethics Committee report released after Trump announced Gaetz would be his nominee to lead the Department of Justice. The disgraced MAGA Republican even filed a lawsuit to block the release of the committee's findings.
Gaetz claimed in his 40-page court filing that what was in the House Ethics report would cause “immediate, severe and irreversible” damage to his reputation.
The report was released in December, tanking Gaetz's chances for Attorney General in an administration that campaigned on promises to release the full DOJ and FBI files gathered on Jeffrey Epstein leading to his indictment and arrest in 2019 during Trump's first term.
Trump has yet to make good on his promise.
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