Former congressman and accused sex trafficker Matt Gaetz made a bizarre return to Capitol Hill on Tuesday as part of the Pentagon’s new MAGA-friendly press corps.
Gaetz, wearing a jacket embroidered with “Representative Matt Gaetz,” joined a ragtag cast of MAGA influencers and conspiracy theorists filling the seats vacated by major news outlets at Kingsley Wilson’s Pentagon briefing.
It was the first Pentagon press briefing since the DOD instituted a new rule requiring journalists to obtain the agency’s approval before publishing information, prompting veteran Pentagon journalists from outlets such as The Atlantic, The New York Times, and the Associated Press to leave the Department.
Gaetz, who joined pro-Trump news outlet One America News Network as an anchor in January, was in the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth-approved pool alongside far-right influencers Laura Loomer, Jack Posobiec, and Joey Mannarino.
The former congressman asked about the U.S.’s role in shaping a hypothetical Venezuela without its current president, Nicolas Maduro. He also posed a follow-up question, asking if the U.S. considers every member of Maduro’s government a “narco-terrorist.”
Wilson did not directly answer Gaetz’s questions, responding instead by bragging about the U.S. military’s strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats.
His questions come at a time when tensions between the United States and Venezuela are boiling over. Last week, Trump threatened Venezuelan airspace as reports suggested Hegseth ordered the U.S. military to kill all survivors of a Sept. 2 strike on a suspected Venezuelan drug boat with a second drug strike.
The MAGA newcomers wasted no time celebrating their first Pentagon press briefing Tuesday. Loomer gleefully posted on X, “The Pentagon Press Briefing is about to begin at 11 a.m. EST! I’m here in the front row, eagerly waiting to ask questions!”
Their debut came a day after the group was ushered into its new workspace—where several members bragged on X that they’d snagged Washington Post reporter Dan Lamothe’s old desk, only to be quickly corrected.
Vanity Fair’s Washington correspondent Aidan McLaughlin mocked them: “New Pentagon press corps is botching their first big story.”
“We were told it was WaPo,” one of the members of the new guard, right-wing content creator Cam Higby, posted. “The point is: we’re in, you’re out.”
The 43-year-old Gaetz resigned from Congress in November 2024 after Donald Trump—then president-elect— nominated him to become attorney general. At the time, Gaetz was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for child sex trafficking and statutory rape allegations.
He withdrew his nomination for the position—that eventually went to Pam Bondi—after several Republican senators demanded the results of the investigation. In December 2024, the House Ethics Committee released a report saying there was “substantial evidence” that Gaetz violated Florida state laws, including those prohibiting statutory rape, procurement of prostitution, and illicit drug use.
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