Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is picking up a primary challenger — and he believes he knows who is behind it.
In a post on X, Gaetz wrote, the decision of former naval aviator named Aaron Dimmock to mount a primary challenge against him.
“Meet [Dimmock] – the BLM supporting DEI instructor running against me in the Republican Primary,” the Florida congressman said.
He continued, “I knew former Representative McCarthy would be getting a puppet of his to run. I didn’t know it would be a Woke Toby Flenderson!”
He shared an article about Dimmock’s challenge from The Daily Caller,which reported, “Dimmock, a former Navy aviator, filed Friday to challenge Gaetz in the Republican primary for Florida’s first Congressional district on Aug. 20. Dimmock’s LinkedIn page shows that he previously supported BLM and advocated for DEI.”
Gaetz appears to be blaming former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for the challenge.
Last year, Gaetz led the charge to oust McCarthy from the position.
During an event earlier this month Georgetown University Institute of Politics and Public Service Executive Director Mo Elleithee asked McCarthy if the reason he was removed as speaker was because of the concessions he made during negotiations over a bill to keep the government funded.
“That is such a misnomer in life, let me give you the truth about that. And I’ll give you the truth about why I’m not speaker,” he responded.
The former speaker went on:
“It’s because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old. An ethics complaint that started before I ever became speaker. And that’s illegal and I’m not going to get in the middle. Did he do it or not? I don’t know. But Ethics is looking at it. There’s other people in jail because of it.”
His comment appears to be a reference to investigation by the House Ethics Committee into Gaetz involving allegations of sex crimes.
Politico notes, “Its probe comes after the Justice Department last year closed its investigation into the Florida representative without filing charges. The DOJ was examining whether Gaetz paid women for sex and traveled overseas to parties attended by underage teens.”
ABC News reported in February the panel uncovered texts that allegedly showed Gaetz planning a 2017 trip with a woman one of his associates paid for sex. .
Gaetz has denied wrongdoing.
