Fox News host Howard Kurtz kicked off his Sunday Media Buzz program by highlighting “statutory rape” allegations against former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), President-elect Donald Trump’s failed nominee for attorney general.
In his opening monologue, Kurtz argued a House Ethics Committee report vindicated Gaetz’s Republican opponents.
“The Ethics Report found substantial evidence that Gaetz committed statutory rape by sleeping with a 17-year-old,” the Fox News host noted. “The report says he generally paid $400 for young women to come to Washington or New York for sexual encounters, that he took such illegal drugs as cocaine and ecstasy, that he accepted improper gifts, that he violated federal and state laws.”
“Now, Gaetz paid one woman $5,000 over two years, according to the report,” he continued. “Another said the use of drugs impaired her ability to fully consent.”
Kurtz pointed out that Gaetz admitted sending funds to women he dated and denied having sex with a 17-year-old girl.
“It’s embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank, and smoked more than I should have earlier in life,” Gaetz wrote in one social media post.
