NEW: In 2014, long before becoming the subject of a federal sex trafficking investigation, Matt Gaetz pushed Florida to enact what he called a "scorched earth" policy toward sexual predators. by @rbravender ($) @thisisinsider businessinsider.com/matt-gaetz-sex…
Gaetz, then 31 years old, served as chair of the Florida House of Representatives' Criminal Justice subcommittee. He cosponsored bills that increased the mandatory prison time for convicted sexual offenders, calling it some of the most important work his subcommittee would do.
Now that Gaetz himself is under fed investigation, his record is getting renewed attention. Insider watched 11+ hours of archived hearings in the Florida House to understand how the up-and-coming pol talked about issues like sentencing sex offenders & sex trafficking.
Gaetz said in 2014 that he wanted a "scorched earth" policy for sexual predators in Florida. He stood in a crowd behind the state's then-Gov. Rick Scott when Scott signed a sweeping package of sexual predator legislation that year.
He also ran a campaign ad touting his work on the issue during his brief run for state Senate the following year:
During committee hearings in '14, Gaetz also referenced issues that would later become controversies for him. In a session about limiting the public release of police mug shots for people who weren't convicted of crimes, Gaetz brought up his own mug shot from an '08 DUI arrest.
"If anyone Googles my name, the first image that will appear is my mug shot from my arrest, and I'm of the view that that is part of who I am," Gaetz told his fellow lawmakers.
"I made bad decisions and it resulted in arrest & that is sort of something that we all live with. And I think increasingly we're all living our lives online, particularly this youngest generation going through school now...
...and the things that occur will be available for the public to see in one form or another," Gaetz said. His DUI arrest came up again in '19 as part of a fiery debate during House impeachment hearings against Trump when he criticized the past substance abuse by Hunter Biden.
.@rbravender also dug up this: At the end of a March 2014 hearing, Gaetz introduced his "good buddy," Nestor Galban, to his committee colleagues.
"This week, during spring break, my good buddy Nestor Galban is shadowing me. Nestor please stand. Nestor has been in the United States for 6 months now. His English is improving, and my Spanish is not improving," Gaetz joked during a moment of "personal privilege."
Galban's relationship with Gaetz has been scrutinized since the Florida congressman announced publicly in 2020 that he had been raising Galban — the brother of his ex-girlfriend — as his "son."
https://twitter.com/mattgaetz/status/1273644503656730631?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1273644503656730631%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Fmatt-gaetz-sex-offender-legislation-scorched-earth-2021-4
Subscribe for the full @rbravender story on Matt Gaetz's FLA legislature days. You can watch several video clips too from those hearings too. Click from here to sign up: businessinsider.com/matt-gaetz-sex…
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