According to the New York Post, even though Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is facing allegations of the sex trafficking of a minor, the MAGA Congressman still has his eye on a 2024 presidential bid with a caveat: As long as former President Donald Trump does not decide to run. And Trump certainly misses being in the spotlight. And even though the twice impeached one-term president has been deplatformed on social media after inciting the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection, he has made noises about a run in 2024.
And Gaetz is in a lot of hot water right now, but that hasn’t apparently fazed him.
“I support Donald Trump for president. I’ve directly encouraged him to run and he gives me every indication he will,” Gaetz said in a text to the outlet on Wednesday. “If Trump doesn’t run, I’m sure I could defeat whatever remains of Joe Biden by 2024.”
A source familiar with Gaetz’s thinking told The Post that Gaetz’s “entry in the race could be beneficial to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a fellow Trump ally who has been seen as an early front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination should he get in the race.”
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“He [DeSantis] might like someone else on the debate stage who can torch his opponents and lay down ground cover for him,” the source said, adding that Gaetz “clearly been vetted and smeared like a presidential candidate.”
It’s unclear what Gaetz meant by “whatever remains of Joe Biden.” President Biden is enjoying a healthy favorability rating and one that Trump never reached.
Gaetz’s close associate Joel Greenberg, a former Seminole County, Florida, tax commissioner, struck a deal with federal prosecutors to reduce his criminal case and entered a guilty plea in court. The MAGA Congressman’s ex-girlfriend — a former Capitol Hill staffer — is reportedly going to cooperate with federal authorities, too. That’s not a good look for a presidential hopeful. And Gaetz has very few friends on his side of the aisle, aside from the Jewish Space Lasers Congresswoman. I’m pretty sure that Biden would love to run against Gaetz. Biden defeated Trump in the popular and electoral vote, and Gaetz is just a second-hand store version of the former president.
Featured image via Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia
