A whistleblower and a suspected sex trafficker walked into a political debate…
What sounds like the setup to a likely offensive joke turned out to be data scientist Rebekah Jones’ way of pointing out a glaring hypocrisy in what is going down in Florida right now. Specifically: In the way that she is being treated for speaking out against Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ questionable handling of the coronavirus pandemic while Matt Gaetz, who is under investigation for possible sex trafficking as well as for obstruction of justice in that investigation, is carrying on like it’s just another beautiful day in the Sunshine State.
On Tuesday, Jones announced via Instagram Stories that she was planning to challenge Gaetz for his congressional seat, stating:
“I had hoped that someone in the Republican Party would step up and primary him, and I’ve yet to see that happen. And so, if it takes me going home to Florida to run against Matt Gaetz, then I will do it. If it means getting one child sex trafficker out of office, you’re damn right I’ll do it.” Jones also spoke to NBC News about her announcement, telling them that, “I hope I do better than a sex trafficker. It’s absurd that he’s still in office. Someone like that should not go unchallenged.”
While Gaetz, who is somehow not above cracking jokes even though he’s being accused of sex trafficking a minor, basically told Jones to come at him when he tweeted, “Looks like I’m running against Florida’s Fauci…”
Looks like I’m running against Florida’s Fauci…https://t.co/p1DVia8N6w
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) June 9, 2021
Wow. A world-renowned doctor who has served as the chief medical advisor to seven presidents and proven himself over and over to be a man of the utmost integrity whose only goal is to see as few people killed by the pandemic as possible is now an insult? Good one, Matt!
Well, it turns out that Jones—who worked for the Department of Health and helped to create and maintain Florida’s COVID-19 dashboard, but was fired in May 2020 after refusing to (in her words) “manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen”—wasn’t really serious about challenging Gaetz. It was simply her way of trying to illustrate the criminal way in which she has been treated since blowing the whistle on DeSantis and his shady disciples while Gaetz remains unscathed (at least officially, for now).
In a follow-up to her announcement, she posted a statement to Instagram which explained:
“In suggesting a run in Florida 1, I was pointing out the hypocrisy in DeSantis writing a law to prevent the silencing of government critics, while simultaneously celebrating my suspension for sharing a news article that exposed the lies he made that cost so many Florida lives.
I truly believe there is someone good in the Panhandle — Republican, Democrat, or no party — who can and should keep this pervert from writing laws regulating his own sick behavior.”
Gaetz is probably working up a doozy of a sick burn for that one as we type this.
(Via Yahoo! News)