Trump Breaks His Silence to Give the Weakest Possible Defense of Matt Gaetz

The brief, carefully worded statement seemed mostly intended to protect himself.

Paul Hennessy/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Nearly a week after allegations of sex trafficking involving Rep. Matt Gaetz—one of Donald Trump’s most flamboyant, unapologetic defenders in Congress—became public, the former president is finally acknowledging the Florida congressman’s existence. But his new statement, clocking in at just 24 words, is far from the full-throated defense Gaetz was likely hoping to receive.

“Congressman Matt Gaetz has never asked me for a pardon,” reads Trump’s Wednesday statement. “It must also be remembered that he has totally denied the accusations against him.”

The statement specifically responds to only a small part of Gaetz’s imploding scandals, and it doesn’t come as a surprise that it involves Trump himself. On Tuesday night, the New York Times reported that Gaetz, in the final weeks of Trump’s presidency, approached the White House for “blanket preemptive pardons for himself and unidentified congressional aides.” The request came as the Justice Department began questioning Gaetz about his alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old. Trump’s response on Wednesday appears carefully worded to note that Gaetz did not ask him personally for such pardons—never mind that the Times never reported that.

As for the allegations of sex trafficking a minor, paying for sex, and other sordid details that have emerged in the past week, Trump merely noted that Gaetz denies them all. That rather milquetoast defense is a good reminder that Trump, who stands credibly accused by more than 20 women of sexual assault and misconduct, also denies the allegations against him.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate