• shalafi@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      He’s my congressman, and I’ll be the very last to defend him, but a 17-yo is hardly a “kid”. So stop the bullshit. There’s plenty to nail him to the wall without lying.

      “engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift,”

        • shalafi@lemmy.world
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          Look, if you didn’t lose your virginity until your 30s, maybe a 17-yo is a child to you. By the time I was 18, my gf (17) and I had fucked every way we could figure out. She was no child.

          • Draces@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Was Gaetz 18? Also no one cares what you did, if you fucked a child it wouldn’t make it right. What a weird argument

          • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 month ago

            If you’re from Florida as you say you would know what he did was absolutely illegal, and what you did was legal. Florida always has had age gap laws defined around consent so long as the guardian doesn’t disagree with their relationship. (Called the Romeo and Juliet laws).

            They specified a 16 or 17 year old could sleep with up to a 23 year old if all parties are agreed (guardian permission would usually be needed). 24 Rape.

            Everyone I knew in school knew that, because if a 17 year old sneaks in to party with a fake ID people at 18 were already worried., and 21 were extremely cautious)

          • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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            1 month ago

            He was 40 when she was 17, trafficked across state lines for sex and money.

            Not the same thing as a Romeo and Juliet relationship. This was child prostitution.

          • auzy@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            1 year difference is a bit different to half a lifetime difference and one is a kid. He likely groomed her

            Furthermore, he’s meant to be creating the laws. It’s even worse to be fucking kids when you’re in a position of power, and infinitely worse as AG

      • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        That’s really going out of a limb for the worst reason. I can’t believe I have to say that if someone in their late thirties has sex with a 17 year old, that’s gross on multiple levels and summing it up as fucking a kid is highly appropriate

      • GiuseppeAndTheYeti@midwest.social
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        1 month ago

        You claimed that you would be the last to defend him, then defended him? Like what?

        Being in your thirties and having sex with someone nearly half your age is wildly inappropriate. There’s so little that you would have in common as far as life experiences go. The years from 18-25 are some of the most influential in life and leaves people vulnerable to grooming. Experts claim that the brain hasn’t even fully developed in most adults until 25 years old. Finding people in that age attractive as a 35 year old is fine. Watch porn to your hearts content, but pursuing a relationship or sexual encounter with someone in early adulthood is just weird. It doesn’t need to be illegal to be fucking weird or predatory. In Gaetz’s case it just so happens to be all three.

        • jj4211@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          You claimed that you would be the last to defend him, then defended him? Like what?

          4D chess move, now no one else can defend him because he already called ‘last’.

        • aStonedSanta@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          Didn’t his buddy get arrested for creating fake IDs for underage girls also? Or some shit like that. Lol

          • jacksilver@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            It’s in the article, it was his friend Joel Greenberg who was charged with a number of crimes, including trafficking the girl tied to Gaetz.

            DeSantis though, had pictures taken of him while drinking with high school girls he was teaching at the time (only added this cause I confused this one with Gaetz). I love snopes mentions the girls were probably 18 because it was right before graduation, as if no one was born in the summer / non seniors wouldn’t ever be at a graduation party.

            https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/02/08/desantis-photo-grooming-girls-alcohol/

    • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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      1 month ago

      Yeah, people act like politics is governed by some strictly enforced rules that can never be violated. They can kind of just do whatever they want and the worst they’ll get is a tsk tsk.

    • Botzo@lemmy.world
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      You mean “and then he became the US Attorney General.”

      That has to be a hell of a damning report.

        • Botzo@lemmy.world
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          That’s why the recess appointments are so important to them. And Thune has already signalled he is happy to bend the knee.

  • can@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    The publication reported that the House Ethics Committee loses jurisdiction over a former member once they leave Congress.

  • kingshrubb@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    Will the info in the investigation ever come out? That could damage his chances of being confirmed as AG?

    • ATDA@lemmy.world
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      The ethics committee geneally doesn’t release investigations that don’t result in action.

      They have the ability to but are also exempt from foia requests. Call whoever is closest to the investigation in your house reps and demand it. They’ve been released them in the past after social pressure.

      • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Saving clicks:

        Republicans

        Chairman Michael Guest, Mississippi

        David P. Joyce, Ohio

        John H. Rutherford, Florida

        Andrew R. Garbarino, New York

        Michelle Fischbach, Minnesota

        Democrats

        Ranking Member Susan Wild, Pennsylvania

        Veronica Escobar, Texas

        Mark DeSaulnier, California

        Deborah K. Ross, North Carolina

        Glenn F. Ivey, Maryland