Setting an example and chilling effects

Bad behavior from the very top... The chilling effect of powerful people getting away with it... Swampy revelations in the court files...

Every organization you can think of gets at least some level of inspiration and guidance from the top. Whether it’s Murphy, the gruff, tatted-up ex-con who used to run the crew I cut grass with when that’s how I made my living, or the CEO of Coca Cola, every organization large and small gets not just its marching orders from its leaders, but its sense of purpose and culture as well.

I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that the culture of the incoming Trump administration is rotten from bottom to top. We’re all presumed innocent in this country — and that’s the way it should be — but there was a time when being accused of attending a drug-fueled sex party with an underage girl and then bragging about your sexual conquests (with photographic evidence) on the floor of the House of Representatives would be disqualifying for a variety of positions within government. But in the second Trump administration, that’s not the case.

That’s how you end up with Matt Gaetz as a nominee for attorney general. Like Trump, Gaetz had a powerful father who got him out of all sorts of trouble. For Trump, his get-out-of-jail free card was in his pocket from the very beginning, in the form of an inheritance he squandered on vanity projects and fraudulent schemes that have resulted in several bankruptcies. In the case of Gaetz, his powerful father bailed him out of a few sticky situations during the younger Gaetz’s time in the Florida legislature. Having never learned the word “no,” Gaetz has gone on to become one of the most obnoxious members of Congress, flaunting his privilege and various misdeeds in a way that would make even Trump blush.

Now, he’s pulled off perhaps his slickest move yet. Faced with the apparent release of a House Ethics Committee report that would have detailed what I wrote about yesterday at Rolling Stone — the sex party Gaetz allegedly attended where he may or may not have spent some quality time with a 17-year-old sex trafficking victim — Gaetz resigned from his seat in the House. This means the Ethics Committee no longer has jurisdiction over Gaetz because he’s no longer a member of the House. (Although there is some precedent for the Committee releasing investigative findings when a member resigns.) The report may still come out, maybe as soon as today, but for now Gaetz appears to have avoided even more scandal.

When the man at the top is a credibly accused rapist, like Trump is, that culture inevitably trickles down within the organization. So it’s really no surprise that Gaetz — with all his baggage, sexual and otherwise — is up for a top post within the Trump administration. Nor is it a surprise that Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, has also been accused of sexual misconduct. Shit runs downhill, as they say.

Perhaps worse than the open flaunting of all this bad behavior that should be disqualifying for top posts within the U.S. government is the signal that it sends to everyday people. Any woman or girl who has been trafficked or pimped out — as is the alleged case for the victim at the center of the Gaetz scandal — will surely think twice about coming forward if they hear about all that men like Trump and Gaetz have gotten away with, whether their abuser is a member of Congress or a guy working at the local tire shop. Of course, this is a feature and not a bug of Trumpism. His entire base is made up of people who desperately would like to get away with all of the things he has — people who labor under the delusion that they, too, can get rich and screw people over if they just try hard enough, or know the right people. People like Trump, and people like Gaetz. 

I’ll have more coming on Gaetz and the swampy crew of pro-Trump insiders that are revealed in court filings related to this case. But for now, check out my appearance on Joy Reid’s show last night, and if you like what you see here, tell a friend. 

***