During an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) alleged that Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) openly discussed his sexual encounters with fellow lawmakers. Mullin claimed that Gaetz boasted about using erectile dysfunction medication along with energy drinks to enhance his performance.
“He bragged about how he would crush E.D. medicine and chase it with energy drinks so he could go all night. This is obviously before he got married,” Mullin told CNN’s Manu Raju.
The revelation came after Gaetz and seven other Republicans supported the removal of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from his position, prompted by Gaetz’s motion to vacate McCarthy.
In response to Mullin’s accusations, Gaetz dismissed them in a statement to CNN, stating that he and Mullin had hardly interacted on the House floor. Gaetz labeled Mullin’s claims as lies from someone unfamiliar with him, attributing them to coping with McCarthy’s political downfall.
“I don’t think Markwayne Mullin and I have said 20 words to each other on the House floor,” Gaetz said. “This is a lie from someone who doesn’t know me and who is coping with the death of the political career of his friend Kevin. Thoughts and prayers.”
During the interview, Mullin also referenced previous allegations from 2021 that Gaetz had engaged in sexual relations with a 17-year-old girl. Mullin argued that the media ignored these accusations, pointing out that the Justice Department dropped sex trafficking charges against Gaetz in February after investigating since 2020. Gaetz consistently denied the allegations.
Mullin further asserted that Gaetz had shown explicit videos on the House floor, causing discomfort among lawmakers, and emphasized that nobody in the party defended Gaetz during the recent events. The senator suggested that Gaetz’s sudden rise to fame in November of the previous year, when he opposed McCarthy’s potential speakership, contributed to the media’s increased attention.
“There’s a reason why no one in the conference came and defended him ― because we had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor that all of us had walked away, of the girls he had slept with,” Mullin said.
On the same day, Marc Short, chief of staff for former Vice President Mike Pence, said that Gaetz may have come to Washington more for the teenage interns on Capitol Hill than to champion fiscal causes.
Mullin concluded by stating that Gaetz’s pursuit of the motion to vacate was a desperate attempt to cling to his fleeting fame.
See the full conversation below.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin on Matt Gaetz: “We had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor … of the girls that he had slept with. He’d brag about how he would crush ED medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night.”
Gaetz responds: “This is a lie” pic.twitter.com/h55hj0ag29
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 5, 2023
