Reacting to a new report from the New York Times that exposed a wide web of payments totaling thousands of dollars allegedly made by Rep. Matt Gaetz to young women, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was taken aback by what now appears to be a mountain of evidence against the Florida Republican.
With Gaetz, accompanied by Vice President-elect J.D. Vance making the rounds meeting with GOP senators to make the case that he should be approved to be Donald Trump's next attorney general, The Times revealed a chart from the DOJ that could help derail the cabinet appointment.
After showing the complicated DOJ graphic that illustrated the stunning number of money transfers Gaetz reportedly had a hand in, "Morning Joe" co-host Willie Geist explained, "The DOJ declined to file charges but the House Ethics Committee was given a copy."
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"The chart does not show what the payments were for and NBC News has not independently verified the document," he cautioned. "A lawyer for two women who testified that Gaetz hired them for sex said their payments totaled $10,000 and they were typically given about $200 to $500 for each encounter."
"In a statement to the Times, the communications director for President-elect Donald Trump claimed the material was classified and leaked to smear Gaetz. According to the Times, there are no classified markings on the documents, no reason there would be. Gaetz has denied all allegations of sexual misconduct."
"Yeah, that's piling up there," co-host Scarborough interjected.
"And again, here's the thing," he advised. "Right now, the speaker and others are trying to be clever, going 'Oh no, we are not releasing the report.' Actually releasing the report would be better than reliving it on the Hill in a senate committee with everbody seeing it. That actually would be the worst-case scenario for the incoming president, the worst case scenario for Republican supporters."
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