Less than 24 hours after Matt Gaetz announced he was giving up his bid to become the next attorney general, the Northwest Florida Republican made clear that he will not return to Congress in the next session beginning in January.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Now that it’s accepted that what is in the ethics probe is so damaging that he’s pulling a Paul Ryan…

    It’s important to remember that the actual criminal case likely gathered the same information, and that Biden’s DOJ helmed by his AG decided to drop charges.

    “We have just spoken with the DOJ and have been informed that they have concluded their investigation into Congressman Gaetz and allegations related to sex trafficking and obstruction of justice and they have determined not to bring any charges against him,” Gaetz’s lawyers, Marc Mukasey and Isabelle Kirshner, said in a statement.

    https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/15/politics/matt-gaetz-justice-department/index.html

    And I know people think it’s mean to keep kicking a geriatric president when he’s a lame duck.

    But it’s important everyone remembers how much we fucked up by running an ineffectual moderate when the opposition are literal fascists.

    If we get an election in 2028, we can’t afford to do this again.

    We need someone that will actually fight back. Just winning the election and not holding anyone accountable obviously doesn’t fucking work.

    • meeeeetch@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Trump’s campaign was big on vengeance, and the various unjust kangaroo courts that are going to spin up are going to be a nightmare.

      But I’m not sure Merrick Garland’s prosecution is going to get much sympathy from the left.

      • very_well_lost@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        But I’m not sure Merrick Garland’s prosecution is going to get much sympathy from the left.

        I mean… he’ll really only have himself to blame. Garland was better equipped than anyone else in the country to hold Trump and his criminal cohort accountable for their literal treason, but he decided to drag his feet and avoid making waves. And for what? To avoid the appearance of the DOJ being “political”?

        Well he’s about to find out exactly how political it can be.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Silver lining is he’s going to go after all the neoliberals because they’re in leadership positions.

        I’m not near enough optimistic to think it’ll happen, but there’s a path forward where if trump does start prosecuting people like Pelosi or Schumer… That the neoliberals cut bait and run, it’s like natural selection, the only Dems who will stay in office or run for it will be ones knowing it puts a target on their back. But willing to fight anyways.

        Moderates don’t have it in them to lead, and they’re too proud to follow.

        But making life hard for elected Dems usually gets them out of the way at least.

        Literally the last time trump was elected it happened, Donna Brazil managed to get an interm leadership position to where she could see the books, because everyone in on Hillary’s bullshit resigned when she lost.

        If it wasn’t for that, we wouldn’t have known for sure how rigged that primary was.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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      29 days ago

      running an ineffectual moderate when the opposition are literal fascists

      A mound of cat food should have handily won over a serial felon suspected of espionage.

      Don’t blame the career justice lawyer and politician for assuming people to have more brains than a bowl of tapioca.

      The only solution now is to rile up MGT so she gets Texas to secede and open the door for California/cascadia and new England. The Flatlanders are sick in the head and need to be quarantined.

        • ChronosTriggerWarning@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Hear hear from the 505.

          turns slow circle, taking in Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska and Wyoming off in the distance, and completing the circuit on Utah

          Well, fuck.

    • Telorand@reddthat.com
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      1 month ago

      And I know people think it’s mean to keep kicking a geriatric president when he’s a lame duck.

      I’m okay with it when it’s for legitimate reasons, and I think you have some legitimate ones. He did some real good on infrastructure and renewables, but he still fucked up in a lot of other ways. What’s annoying is when people say he was either infallible or the very embodiment of evil.

      We should accept the good while condemning the bad, because most people are more complex and nuanced than the caricatures presented by the internet.

      But to your last point, I agree that we will continue to lose to the Donald Trumps of the world if we don’t have someone willing to publicly promise to fight and hold the entire rotten establishment accountable.

    • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
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      30 days ago

      How much “we” fucked up

      Uh, what was i supposed to do? I cant exactly eliminate the dnc on my own

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        30 days ago

        Humanity is a team sport, I wasn’t even just talking about Dem voters with that “we”

        I meant all of us

        • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
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          30 days ago

          Ah, we must be playing a different game. From everything ive seen humanity is a death cult

      • Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world
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        29 days ago

        Hey, if you talk shit on the DNC, I got your back, if you got mine.

        And I’m not saying from some right winger insane asylum talking points. I’m saying the DNC is impotent and constantly confuses a left wing agenda with middle of the road upholding the status quo.

    • Bassman1805@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      The one benefit of the doubt is that the court of public opinion is a much easier conviction than a court of law. And if you fail to get a conviction in the court of law, that’s easy ammo for Gaetz to call the whole thing a witch hunt.

    • pyre@lemmy.world
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      29 days ago

      if anything people don’t kick the geriatric lame duck enough. mind that he helped the republicans in this election by insisting on running until it was super late. that’s pretty bad for an extremely apathetic nation like the US. some people didn’t even know he dropped out and found out when they saw the ballot on election day.

    • dohpaz42@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      It’s unfortunate that Gaetz gets to walk away and live his life as a free man. But part of me has to believe that there is a good reason; as in maybe they dropped the charges because he’s considered a little fish, and they are going to use him to go after the bigger fish. Either way, fish stink, and so does our so-called “justice” system.

        • dohpaz42@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Yes well, reality often does not match up with fantasy. But fantasy can sometimes make reality a little more palatable. You know: ignorance is bliss and all.

      • normalexit@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        I imagine it more like the DOJ offered to make any potential consequences go away if he rejected the job offer. They don’t have a master plan or anything, they are just doing damage control at this point.

  • MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Prosecute this mother fucker. If what he did is this bad, he needs to be in jail. You have to be doing some serious heinous crime to be unqualified for the GOP.

    • whithom@discuss.online
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      1 month ago

      Yeah. They have a document on US soil that was (apparently) hacked and contains such damning evidence that a career politician would run away. That’s some fucking evidence.

      It’s probably not as bad as what trump has done, but Matt doesn’t have the clout to bang a child and get away with it.

  • Clent@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    The first good thing Trump had since being elected. Indirectly and on accident, as it always will be.

  • Zink@programming.dev
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    1 month ago

    Wow, somebody got a damn stern behind-the-scenes talking to.

    It sure would be a shame if there were any justice in the world and documents leaked. Or if the law actually applied to these fuckers.

  • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    He just looks like a creepy guy in this picture. Is there some kind of genetic requirement to actually look creepy when you are a creep?

  • Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world
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    29 days ago

    Jesus, this asshole had been a plague on politics for years and just the slightest amount of sunlight shone on him and he bursts into flames. The Trump effect is truly crazy.

    Edit:

    We might be taking for granted what this really tells us. Conservatives are so isolated just by being too vile to interact with they are truly oblivious to what’s going on around them. For what ever reason negative Gaetz shit appeared in their feed somehow and he wilted immediately. Maybe it was MTG blowing him up but how ever it happened there is a soft spot we’ve overlooked.

  • Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    The special election for his seat is scheduled for April 1st. The date is certainly appropriate.

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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    29 days ago

    Shit! I just flushed! 😞

    Ah duck! There goes another Trump appointee! What a waste! And that was solid and brown 🤎!

  • Timecircleline@sh.itjust.works
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    30 days ago

    What a terribly written article. I reread it a few times and still can’t figure out who Kirk is supposed to be.

    Edit: My bad, guys. I’m just not good at reading.

    • oozynozh@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      “I’m still going to be in the fight, but it’s going to be from a new perch. I do not intend to join the 119th Congress,” Gaetz said on Friday in a livestreamed interview on the Charlie Kirk Show.

      Seems like they’re referring to Charlie Kirk?

    • Psythik@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      As someone with ADHD, I absolutely hate when articles do that. They’ll mention someone’s full name once, then then refer to them by their last name for the rest of the article, so that I can easily forget who they’re talking about. Drives me nuts.

      The only workaround I know of for this issues is to Ctrl+F the last name to make it easier to find the one spot where their full name is mentioned. I wish people would be more considerate of those with ADA-recognized disabilities such as ADHD and mention their full name every time.