Lawrence: Gaetz ethics report shows Trump has the ‘worst moral’ judgment in staffing government

The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

Lawrence O'Donnell, MS NOW

Politics, Washington, Congress, News, Ms Now, President, Versant Media, Policy, Versant, Government, Senate

4.5 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tonight on The Last Word: The House Ethics Committee releases the Matt Gaetz report. Also, Senate Judiciary Democrats release a Supreme Court ethics report. And President Biden commutes dozens of death row sentences to life without parole. Rep. Glenn Ivey, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, and EJ Dionne join Lawrence O’Donnell.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Well, the House Ethics Committee today released a report unlike any in the history of the House Ethics Committee.
0:09.4	The Ethics Committee unanimously believes that former Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gates rate a 17-year-old girl in Florida. The committee, quote, found substantial evidence,
0:26.4	substantial evidence of that rape. That victim is named in the Ethics Committee report as
0:34.4	victim A, as reported previously on this program by an attorney for a teenager
0:40.7	who was paid to have sex with Matt Gates, that teenager witnessed Matt Gates having sex with the
0:50.0	17-year-old. Minutes after Matt Gates entered a party and immediately upon meeting the 17-year-old.
0:58.5	The committee report says the committee received testimony that Victim A and Representative Gates
1:04.2	had sex twice during the party, including at least once in the presence of other party attendees.
1:12.6	Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Representative Gates that evening, which she understood
1:18.6	to be payment for sex. At the time, she had just completed her junior year of high school.
1:25.6	Victim A acknowledged that she was under the influence of ecstasy during her sexual encounters with Representative Gates
1:33.3	at the July 15th, 2017 party, and recalled seeing Representative Gates use cocaine at that party.
1:43.3	Last month, Elon Musk was part of a group on Donald Trump's plane
1:49.4	who convinced Donald Trump to choose Matt Gates to be Attorney General of the United States of America.
1:57.9	In that passage of the Ethics Committee report, Matt Gates is described as committing
2:03.1	state and federal crimes, the state and federal crime of using cocaine, the state crime of rape
2:12.4	of a 17-year-old girl in a state where the age of consent is 18. And Elon Musk said, Gates will be our hammer
2:21.3	of justice. Elon Musk wanted the first man in the history of the House representatives described
2:27.4	as a rapist in a House Ethics Committee report to be the Attorney General of the United States of
2:33.1	America.
2:40.2	When Donald Trump made the most inappropriate choice of Attorney General in history,
2:46.3	Donald Trump said Matt Gates, quote, distinguished himself in Congress.
	...

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