stolen from reddit, re gates interview
0:15 - Tucker acknowledges that this is a breaking story and there are very few details known so far. He has no background on the story so far, and not even any informed questions he can ask (his own words.)
That seems like good journalistic practice, doesn't it? Inviting an accused predator on to give his side of the story, when you don't even know the details of what he's accused of, and can't ask informed questions.
0:45 - Gaetz says the allegations are a lie and the result of someone trying to extort millions of dollars from his family. He says his father was contacted by a former DOJ official who tried to blackmail them. Gaetz's family went to the FBI and they had his father wear a wire. He calls on the FBI to release those recordings, and he identifies the alleged blackmailer by name.
3:45 - Gaetz says the prosecutor who was extorting him claimed he could make the investigation go away, that he had contacts within the Biden administration, that he could get Gaetz a pardon from Biden.
4:00 - Gaetz says he's not the only person on-screen right now who has been accused of sexual misconduct as a way to smear them and remove them from the political conversation.
4:40 - Tucker clarifies that what Gaetz is referring to is a mentally ill viewer, whom he had never met, who accused him of a sex crime some 20 years ago.
5:00 - Tucker asks Gaetz the specifics of the allegations.
5:10 - Gaetz says the only thing he knows on that score is what he was able to read in the New York Times story. (Which seems odd? If you're claiming that a guy is trying to blackmail you, wouldn't the guy have given you some specifics of what he is blackmailing you over?)
Gaetz spends almost no time trying to answer Tucker's question here, and immediately pivots to telling a story about how he had dinner with Tucker and his wife 2 years ago. He only brings this up because the girl he brought to that dinner, he says, was later strong-armed by the FBI in an attempt to get her to give evidence against Gaetz in a pay-for-play scheme.
6:00 - Tucker says he has no memory of that dinner.
6:10 - Tucker asks who the 17 year old girl is who is referenced in the allegations.
6:30 - Gaetz claims the girl doesn't exist.
it really seems like tucker said freak it and decided to let gaetz freak himself over hard by just talking and exposing himself, knowing gaetz is a freaking moron and would do that.