Fox News has made clear that it has no plans to hire Rep. Matt Gaetz, despite the Florida Republican suggesting he had been in talks with the network about his “life after Congress.”
According to a new and exclusive report from Mediaite, Fox News said in a statement that Gaetz is not up for a job at the network or any of its affiliates.
The statement comes amid a budding scandal over allegations that Gaetz was once engaged in what CBS News described as an “inappropriate sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl.”
“No one with any level of authority has had conversations with Matt Gaetz for any of our platforms and we have no interest in hiring him,” a spokesperson for Fox told Mediaite on Wednesday.
“Many conversations”
The statement from Fox came just hours after Gaetz told the left-leaning Daily Beast that he has had “many conversations with many people about life after Congress.”
The Republican congressman said that these talks have involved “executives, producers or hosts at Newsmax, OAN [One America News], Fox, Fox Business, Real America’s Voice, and probably others I’m forgetting in this moment as I focus intently on refuting false accusations against me.”
According to Mediaite, OAN’s CEO told the Daily Beast that Gaetz “is a great congressman,” and should “stay” in Congress.
“Verifiably false”
It all comes amid accusations against Gaetz that were first detailed in a New York Times article published Monday. The report claimed Gaetz is being investigated over possible violations of “federal sex trafficking laws,” including that he may have had a “sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him.”
Gaetz addressed the matter in an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday, during which the congressman dismissed the claims as “verifiably false” and said they were concocted by a former Justice Department official to blackmail his family.
“It is a horrible allegation and it is a lie,” Gaetz said, according to a transcript from Rev. “People can look at my travel records and see that that is not the case.”
Gaetz also declared that the Department of Justice and FBI are in possession of “audio recordings” that “will prove [his] innocence.”
Mediaite reports that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) agreed Wednesday that Gaetz should be removed from his committee assignments if the allegations prove true. Fellow Republican Reps. Jim Jordan (OH) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA) have each stood by their colleague in the House, however, with Greene describing the claims as “another witch hunt,” according to Mediaite.
The post Fox News says it has ‘no interest in hiring’ Matt Gaetz amid budding scandal first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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