Then Rep. Katie Hill resigned from Congress in 2019, after allegations that she had engaged in inappropriate sexual relationships with staffers—an ethical breach that was complicated by her ex-husband’s sharing nude photos of Hill with media outlets without her consent as part of a smear campaign against her. At the time, one of the few members of Congress to publicly support Hill was, curiously enough, Matt Gaetz.
And in recent days, Gaetz has repeatedly invoked his defense of Hill as part of his public relations campaign to defend himself against allegations that he had sex with an underage girl and possibly violated federal sex trafficking laws, paid women for sex, and showed nude photos of women he slept with to his colleagues. “My lifestyle of yesteryear may be different from how I live now, but it was not and is not illegal. I defended Rep. Katie Hill’s ‘throuple’ when her own Democratic colleagues wouldn’t. I just didn’t think it was anyone’s business,” Gaetz wrote in an op-ed recently.
How does Hill, a victim of nonconsensual porn, feel about Gaetz using her name in his own defense, especially considering that Gaetz is alleged to have shared nude photos of women he had slept with, likely without their consent? Well, Hill has finally spoken out, and she has one message for her former friend and colleague: resign, bitch!
In an op-ed published in Vanity Fair, Hill noted that Gaetz has been accused “of the same crime of which I was a victim: the nonconsensual sharing of intimate images.” Hill added, “Sharing intimate images or videos of someone without their consent should be illegal, plain and simple.”
And while she wrote that she appreciated Gaetz’s support of her in the past, Hill believes that “if there is even a fraction of truth to these reports,” it’s time for Gaetz to go. Via Vanity Fair:
Let me state it as clearly as possible: If, despite his denials, Matt Gaetz did have sex with a minor, if he did provide girls and young women with drugs and money and gifts in exchange for sex, if he did ask these girls and young women to recruit other women for the same purpose, and if he did show his colleagues images of nude women without their consent, he needs to be held responsible. Some of these actions are criminal and some of them should be. All are morally reprehensible and unacceptable for a lawmaker.
If there is even a fraction of truth to these reports, he should resign immediately.
Since Hill resigned from Congress, she has been working to include the SHIELD Act, a bill that would make it a federal crime to non-consensually share intimate photos of another person, in the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act. In her op-ed, Hill noted that Gaetz voted against the bill. And it’s not the first time Gaetz has opposed legislation meant to curb the sharing of nonconsensual porn. According to a Republican who serve with Gaetz in the Florida legislature, Gaetz was the main opposition to a bill that would have outlawed nonconsensual porn—and his reasoning was particularly vile.
Via the Orlando Sentinel, emphasis my own:
Former state Rep. Tom Goodson, a Republican from Brevard County, spent three years sponsoring legislation to outlaw nonconsensual pornography — sometimes called “revenge porn.”
And Goodson said Monday that Gaetz was the chief opponent to that legislation. Goodson said he remembered a meeting in which Gaetz said that if someone sends an intimate image to their romantic partner, then that image becomes the partner’s property to use however they want.
“Matt was absolutely against it. He thought the picture was his to do with what he wanted,” Goodson said. “He thought that any picture was his to use as he wanted to, as an expression of his rights.”
Hill isn’t the only former friend to abandon Gaetz—no one in MAGA world is rushing to his defense, either. As a former Donald Trump campaign aide told Politico of Gaetz, “Anyone that has ever spent 10 minutes with the guy would realize he’s an unserious person.” Another “Trump confidant” described Gaetz’s strange interview with Tucker Carlson as “an absolutely embarrassing train wreck.”