Wichita Eager Editor Dion Lefler said when he first saw Reckoning Kansas’ December “election integrity” event announcement in his Facebook feed, his first reaction was “This can’t be real. It has to be a fake post from Democrats trying to discredit Kansas Republicans.”
“But I checked around and found that [disgraced Florida Rep. Matt] Gaetz himself is promoting his appearance and there is a website selling tickets — $50 for the main event and $200 for a ‘VIP package’ including ‘Exclusive post-event meet & greet with Matt Gaetz’ and ‘Photos with Matt Gaetz.’”
Lefler cited House Ethics Committee reports finding “substantial evidence” that from at least 2017 to 2020, then-Rep. Gaetz is alleged to have regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity; that he reportedly engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl in 2017; that during the period 2017 to 2019, Gaetz allegedly used or possessed illegal drugs including cocaine and ecstasy and that he accepted gifts — including transportation and lodging in connection with a 2018 trip to the Bahamas — in excess of permissible amounts.
The committee also discovered that in 2018, Gaetz arranged for his chief of staff to assist a woman (with whom he engaged in sexual activity) in obtaining a passport, falsely indicating to the U.S. Department of State that she was a constituent. He then “knowingly and willfully” sought to impede and obstruct the Committee’s investigation of his conduct.
With Gaetz’s history, Lefler sarcastically quipped that photo opportunities with him should be a hit.
“It’s not every day you get the opportunity to have your picture taken with the second-most-prominent Republican politician allegedly linked to sexual misconduct with underage girls,” Lefler said. “That’s one you’ll want to frame and hang on your bathroom wall.”
Lefler said he had three immediate questions for Reckoning Kansas event organizers: “1) Who is Matt Gaetz to be advising anybody on integrity of anything? 2) What were you thinking? and 3) What are you smoking, and is it legally available?”
Organizers had not yet returned his calls.
Joining Gaetz for the “orgy of election denial,” said Lefler, are Pastor Lorenzo Sewell of Detroit, a “spiritual advisor” to Trump who spoke at his inauguration and the 2024 Republican National Convention, and Seth Keshel, a retired Army captain “best known for spreading debunked election theories under the nom de guerre ‘Captain K.’”
“If you want to save $50 (or $200), you could skip Reckoning Kansas entirely and just attend a meeting of the Kansas House and Senate Election committees,” said Lefler. “They invite the same sort of fringy flakes spreading the same pseudo-statistical disinformation. And in the Capitol, it’s not just talk; you can watch our legislators actually using that testimony in crafting our election laws. Best of all, the committee hearings are free to attend and probably even more entertaining than listening to Gaetz rant.”
Read the Wichita Eagle column at this link.
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