'Things don't look good' for Matt Gaetz despite using the Trump playbook to stay in office: ex-GOP lawmaker
According to a former Republican Florida lawmaker who served in the House with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), the embattled congressman who is under investigation by Florida authorities, the Justice Department and now the House Ethics Committee is in a bad place and his attempts to ride it out likely won't work.
Speaking with MSNBC's Lindsey Reiser, former Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) said Gaetz appears to be using the Trump playbook and refusing to resign, which may not save him.
"The issue is that it is part of a growing scandal," Curbelo began. "There is a federal branch, executive branch investigation which, of course, started many months ago, but now there will be a committee process in the House, and what tends to happen in those processes is you get more leaks. It tends to be a little more political, even though the House Ethics Committee tries to do a good job and is balanced with an equal number of Republicans and Democrats. Still, it's far more political than what you would see from the Justice Department, so this only threatens to grow the scandal for Congressman Gaetz to make this more difficult on him and his family."
Asked, "What do you make of Gaetz's handling out of this?" Curbelo said it all leads back to Trump.
"One of the reasons Matt Gaetz is in this controversy is because of he got so deep into Trump World," he explained. "I tell people when Matt Gaetz got to Washington in 2017 there were actually a lot of Republicans that were hopeful he would be a voice for younger generations of conservatives. He has some pretty forward-leaning views on cannabis reform, for example, equal rights, for the LGBTQ community."
"Now in order to defend himself from the scandal he is using the Trump playbook," he continued, "Which is don't back down, don't feed anything, don't admit any flaws or wrongdoing. We will see if this works out for him. Right now things don't look good for him."
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