After Matt Gaetz left his seat in Congress to become Donald Trump’s attorney general only to pull his name from contention, speculation has abounded as to what the now-jobless Gaetz — who remains embodied in allegations of sexual abuse — will do with his life.
Shout-out videos on Cameo apparently weren’t cutting it for the MAGA loyalist, who has now taken up a job as a host for the pro-Trump network One America News (OAN.)
In a statement released Tuesday, One America News announced that “powerhouse Matt Gaetz will be joining OAN’s prime-time lineup in January.”
Gatez will be hosting a one-hour, primetime show creatively titled The Matt Gaetz Show, which will air weeknights at 9 p.m. ET.
OAN touted their newest addition as a “leading voice in defending President Donald Trump and advocating for an unapologetic America-first agenda.”
In the press release announcing the show, Gaetz said that he “couldn’t be more thrilled to join OAN’s forward-thinking team and be part of this revolutionary expansion.”
But a gig at a lower-tier right-wing television network won’t wash away the circumstances of Gaetz’s exit from Congress and decision to bow out of his bid to lead the Justice Department. His resignation came days before the House Ethics Committee was scheduled to release a report detailing the findings of an investigation into allegations that he had a sexual relationship with an underage girl, and was involved in a salacious ring of “sex parties” involving prominent Florida politicians. The allegations doomed his confirmation prospects, and Republicans and Democrats are still battling over whether to make the report on them public.
In the world of right-wing news, OAN has emerged as a Fox News alternative that leans even harder into Trump sycophancy and propaganda than the conservative news giant. OAN was instrumental in spreading voter-fraud conspiracy theories in the aftermath of the 2020 election and saw a spike in viewership after Trump and his supporters grew outraged when Fox became the first major network to, correctly, call Arizona for President Joe Biden.
In 2021, Dominion Voting Systems — the same election hardware and software company that forced Fox News to pay a $787.5 million settlement over their election conspiracies — sued OAN for a minimum of $1.6 billion in damages. The lawsuit remains in litigation.
The network was dropped from DirectTV’s channel lineup in 2022. OAN attempted to sue the satellite TV provider, alleging that the company’s decision was “part and parcel of a larger, coordinated, extremely well-financed political scheme to take down [OAN CEO Robert] Herring and unlawfully destroy its ability to operate in the media business.” The lawsuit’s central claims were dismissed in June 2023.
As Trump’s second term begins to take shape, Gaetz seems determined to maintain an influential profile despite his lack of a congressional seat. A nightly TV show may be just the thing to keep the notoriously television-midend president-elect’s attention, but it may not be Gaetz’s ultimate end goal.
Gaetz has teased that he’s open to running for governor in his home state of Florida when current Governor Ron DeSantis’ term expires in two years. Earlier this week, Forbes identified a recently created political action committee, the Florida Firebrand PAC, with suspected links to Gaetz’s existing campaign network.
