Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who is currently being investigated by the feds over allegations of sex trafficking involving a 17-year-old, seems to have found himself kicked out of his idolized leader’s orbit.
CNN reports that ex-President Donald Trump’s aides recently denied Gaetz’s request to meet with him at Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s resort in Palm Beach, Florida. Additionally, the aides have reportedly warned Trump against sticking up for the Florida Republican, who publicly volunteered to resign from Congress to defend Trump in the impeachment trial in February.
Both Gaetz and Jason Miller, one of Trump’s top advisers, denied on Sunday evening that the GOP congressman had asked for a meeting.
Gaetz called CNN’s report “a total lie” via Twitter, claiming he had been “welcomed” at Trump’s Doral resort in Miami a few days ago.
“No such meeting was denied nor sought,” he wrote.
Miller similarly insisted that the report was “complete fake news.”
“No such scheduling or meeting request was ever made, and therefore, it could never have been declined,” the adviser tweeted.
Trump has said little in defense of his top bulldog amid the federal investigation, sparing only a two-sentence statement last week in which the former president claimed that Gaetz “never asked” for a pardon (the statement came out after the New York Times reported the congressman has asked for a last minute blanket pardon for unspecified crimes) and that “[i]t must also be remembered that he has totally denied the accusations against him.”
CNN also reports that Trump did not mention Gaetz during a portion of his speech to donors over the weekend in which he gave a shout-out to his acolytes, including Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
