Tucker Carlson wondered this week if former Repulican Rep. Matt Gaetz had attempted a romantic relationship with Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, prompting the disgraced MAGA lawmaker to reply that he never asked the progressive congresswoman on a date because she’s “not my cup of tea.”
Gaetz, who now hosts his own primetime show on far-right cable channel One America News, also claimed that Ocasio-Cortez had previously been “incredibly chummy” with her GOP House colleagues, but that everything changed after the January 6 Capitol attack.
On top of that, Gaetz also asserted that the New York representative personally praised his successful 2023 campaign to boot then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy from leadership, purportedly telling the former Florida congressman that Democrats “don’t have the guts to do this on our side.”
During the lengthy sitdown between Gaetz and the ex-Fox News star, the two eventually discussed who they thought was the true leader of the Democratic Party, with Carlson calling Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) a “f***ing coward” before pivoting to Ocasio-Cortez.
“If he was real, at least I could respect it. AOC is the same thing,” Carlson sneered.
“AOC is a very different person today than when she got to Congress,” Gaetz replied, leading Carlson to accuse her of being “totally corrupted” and saying that the Israel-Gaza War is “fine.” Gaetz, meanwhile, insisted that Ocasio-Cortez had once patted him on the back over his GOP-led McCarthy coup.
“When we were ousting McCarthy, like, she came up to me and was like, ‘You know, I really respect this because I’ll be honest. We don’t have the guts to do this on our side,'” the former Republican congressman said.
At that point, Carlson wanted to know what Ocasio-Cortez was like privately – and whether Gaetz had ever tried to make the moves on her when they both served in Congress.
“Before January 6th, she was incredibly chummy with Republicans in Congress, would regularly come over to our side, sit down, hang out, talk about her day,” Gaetz responded, only for Carlson to wonder if he ever tried to date her.
“I did not, no,” Gaetz proclaimed.
“Did you try?” Carlson wondered.
“No,” Gaetz answered. “Not my cup of tea. But she, after January 6th, treated us all like we had horns or something.”
That response sparked Carlson – who helped lead the charge on Republicans’ January 6 revisionism – to mock Ocasio-Cortez for claiming that she feared for her life during the Capitol insurrection. “You can’t be in charge of anything if you’re a terrified little girl,” the fired Fox News host exclaimed.
“Yeah, but we are a society that is increasingly built on grievance identity,” Gaetz added. “You are the grievance that you can access.”
Still, while Gaetz called her reaction to the January 6 riots “bad performance art,” he predicted that she would make a “compelling run” for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028, perhaps even defeating California Gov. Gavin Newsom – the early favorite.
Besides the pair’s observations about Ocasio-Cortez, the extensive podcast conversion featured Gaetz claiming that an Israel government agent had been involved in a plot to extort him and his family.
“It was an op to silence me, and Israel was involved, and I hate to say that,” Gaetz – who has largely sided with Carlson and other “America First” conservatives when it comes to criticizing Israel and its war in Gaza – declared. He also told Carlson that “antisemitism used to mean somebody who didn’t like Jews – now it just means somebody Jews don’t like.”
Those remarks prompted self-appointed Trump “loyalty enforcer” and “proud Islamophobe” Laura Loomer – who is Jewish and a self-avowed Zionist – to continue her endless feud against Carlson, which included her referencing the MAGA civil war he sparked with his friendly Nick Fuentes interview.
“He’s trying to have a hostile takeover of the GOP to destroy MAGA & redefine the GOP into modern-day Hitler youth with a drizzle of Sharia Law on top,” she fumed.
Gaetz, who joined OAN after his nomination as Trump’s attorney general fell apart amid renewed scrutiny over sexual misconduct allegations, may now be securely on Team Tucker. However, it was just a few years ago that Gaetz found himself blacklisted from Fox News following “one of the weirdest interviews” Carlson ever conducted.
After it was revealed that Gaetz was under federal investigation for an alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl, an accusation that the former congressman has vehemently denied, he appeared on Carlson’s show in March 2021 to rail against the Justice Department’s sex trafficking probe. At one point, however, Carlson was taken aback by some claims Gaetz made.
“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,” Gaetz declared. “And she was actually threatened by the FBI, 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.”
“I don’t remember the woman you are speaking of or the context at all, honestly,” a befuddled Carlson shot back.
Following that interview, Gaetz would not appear on Fox News for another year, only to finally return to Carlson’s show exactly 365 days later to maintain his innocence amid the DOJ’s investigation. In the end, while Gaetz’s associate Joel Greenberg pleaded guilty to a host of federal charges – including sex trafficking of a minor – and received an 11-year prison sentence, the Justice Department declined to seek charges against Gaetz.
GOP lawmaker mourns death of ‘heart and soul’ of his team
Laura Loomer rages that Tucker is turning the ‘GOP into modern-day Hitler Youth’
Megyn Kelly argues that Bari Weiss and Ben Shapiro ‘are making antisemites’
Texas senator considering 2028 run as non-MAGA option, report says
Billboard telling troops to obey only lawful orders launches near Florida base
Trump’s defense secretary warns ‘more strikes to come’ on Nigeria after targets hit
!["[T]he First and Fifth Amendments Require ICE to Provide Information About the Whereabouts of a Detained Person"](https://images.inkl.com/s3/publisher/cover/212/reason-cover.png?w=600)
