Memo to Matt Gaetz: If you are looking for a Fox News gig as a lifeline in case you need to resign from Congress over sex-trafficking allegations, it’s probably not a good idea to throw its top host under the bus.
As NewsHounds reported earlier today, Fox host Tucker Carlson tried to help Gaetz rehab himself last night only to be told, “I'm not the only person on screen right now who has been falsely accused of a terrible sex act.” Later, Gaetz suggested that Carlson had some kind of inside knowledge of the situation: “I can say that actually, you and I went to dinner about two years ago, your wife was there, and I brought a friend of mine, you'll remember her and she was actually threatened by the F.B.I., told that if she wouldn't cop to the fact that somehow I was involved in some pay for play scheme, that she could face trouble.”
Not surprisingly, Carlson was not pleased. He said about the sex-crime allegation, "You just referred to a mentally ill viewer who accused me of a sex crime 20 years ago, and of course, it was not true. I never met the person." As for the double-date dinner, Carlson said, “I don't remember the woman you're speaking of or the context at all." After the interview, Carlson called it “one of the weirdest interviews I've ever conducted” and said, “I don't think that clarified much.”
Today, The Daily Beast provided this quote from Gaetz, followed by a response from Fox:
“There is not a single conservative television station I haven’t had a passing conversation with about life after Congress. I have neither received nor solicited offers from any of them. But yes, I’ve talked to either executives, producers or hosts at Newsmax, OAN, Fox, Fox Business, Real America’s Voice and probably others I’m forgetting in this moment as I focus intently on refuting false accusations against me.”
A Fox News Media spokesperson said in response: “No one with any level of authority has had conversations with Matt Gaetz for any of our platforms and we have no interest in hiring him.”
But you never know. If Gaetz beats the rap and can successfully spin the investigation as a witch hunt or a hoax (even though it began under Bill Barr's DOJ), Fox might hire him in a nanosecond. After all, the network has already served as a second home to Gaetz. The Daily Beast notes that Gaetz has appeared on Fox an average of 90 minutes a month over the past 12 months and he has been a guest host on Outnumbered. On March 4, Hannity suggested on the air, “I could see a show here: Pete [Hegseth] and Matt Gaetz. There’s something there.”
Hannity ends his show tonight by pitching a show between Matt Gaetz, a sitting congressman, and Fox host Pete Hegseth. pic.twitter.com/WGdaBlU9sj
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) March 5, 2021
