Comic Bill Maher sat down with former GOP congressman Matt Gaetz and gave him an opportunity to respond to the salacious unproven allegations that he had sex with an underage girl, the basis of an intense smear campaign.
On the latest edition of his “Club Random” podcast, the HBO host welcomed the self-described firebrand who was President Donald J. Trump’s initial choice to be the nation’s next attorney general but was forced to withdraw when some GOP senators balked at his nomination, vowing not to confirm him.
During the wide-ranging and at times animated interview, Maher asked the ex-lawmaker point blank whether he ever had sexual relations with the teenage girl, something that if true, would certainly have led to him being criminally charged by former AG Merrick Garland’s hyper-politicized Justice Department.
Bill Maher defends Matt Gaetz from accusations by admitting the Biden administration ‘had nothing’, and scolds ‘media hacks’ for smearing Gaetz:
Maher: “People want to know two basic things. One. Was he ever with an underage girl?”
Gaetz: “No.”
Maher: “If the justice Department… pic.twitter.com/iazVblIsHS— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) January 26, 2025
“So, people want to know two basic things. One, was he ever with an underage girl?” Maher asked.
“No,” Gaetz responded.
“Okay. I know you said that, and if the Justice Department had any evidence – and again, if people are going to attack me – I’m not defending Matt Gaetz. I’m telling the truth as to what it is and if you don’t want to hear the truth, you’re the hack,” Maher said, explaining to his critics that Garland’s DOJ would have jumped at the chance to take down a prominent congressional Trump ally if there was any truth to the allegations.
“The Justice Department, this is Biden’s Justice Department declined,” he continued. “I can’t believe Biden’s Justice Department wouldn’t have wanted to get you if there was something. So, the fact that they said we got nothing tells me something, that they had nothing.”
The accusation was the key component of a House Ethics Committee investigation with the report by a panel packed with Democrats and allies of bitter deposed ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy being leaked to the media after Gaetz had already withdrawn from consideration as attorney general and resigned his House seat.
“I have a lot of enemies on the Republican side,” he later told Maher, referring to the former speaker as the “golden goose” that he “killed” when he led a successful revolt that toppled McCarthy.
“Kevin McCarthy raised a billion dollars in special interest money and distributed that among a couple hundred Republicans. That makes you a lot of f**king friends,” Gaetz said.
The two also got into a heated discussion about Maher’s Democrats and their selective outrage about election denialism with their referring to Trump as “not a legitimate president.”
(Video Credit: Grabien)
“Okay. Let me address it. You’re right. This past week we had a wonderful January 6th, the last time we had a Republican president elected and Democrats did not object to the electors — do you know the last time that was?” Gaetz asked.
“This is the kind of bullshit…,” Maher shot back.
“Well, look, it was 1988. It was 1988. The last time they didn’t object to a vote,” Gaetz said, giving the host a history lesson. “They objected to George W Bush winning Ohio.”
“Objecting is different than calling the Justice Department and pressuring them to do things that even his own Justice Department wouldn’t do. It’s different than calling the guy in Georgia and saying, Find me 11,000 votes,” Maher said, spewing Democrat talking points. “It’s different than going to court with all these ridiculous cases that were left out of every courtroom. It’s different than actually sending fake electors. Don’t give me bullsh*t and we’ll be friends, bullsh*t me? No, we’ll still be friends but then I’ll think you’re a hack instead of someone who could actually have an honest conversation and admit this asymmetry exists.”
Gaetz replied by pointing out the anti-Democratic, Nancy Pelosi-led putsch to steal the 2024 nomination from Biden and give it to Kamala Harris without holding a primary.
“I don’t believe it’s asymmetrical at all. When you look at the way the Democratic Party used an authoritarian bum rush to get Joe Biden out of the race and replace him with Harris, what was it?” Gaetz asked. “Was that the great sacrifice to the virtue of democracy and the great rejection of authoritarianism? Was swapping her out for him like in some Mississippi square dance?”
“I’m just going to end this part of our discussion by saying, you know, I think you’re just looking in your eye, talking to you, not the media guy I saw. You’re a lot brighter than I thought you were,” Maher responded, a resounding statement of how the media has created a completely false version of Gaetz.
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