Matt Gaetz Says Masks Are Turning Children Into “the Menendez Brothers”

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who is currently under investigation for allegedly having sex with an underage girl, has some concerns about American children. The Congressman took the stage at CPAC Saturday to talk about how masks were “retarding” their “emotional learning” and turning them into a “generation of little sociopaths who act more like the Menendez brothers.” Remember the Menedez brothers? They killed their parents in 1989.

Gaetz’s speech was the fourth in a series titled “Fire Fauci.” But this all came up, obviously, because of Ukraine. “If Russia wanted to destabilize Ukraine,” Gaetz said, “Putin didn't need to send tanks. We could have just sent Dr. Fauci!” The rationale here was that modern kids “fear Dr. Fauci more than some other incarnation of Dr. Strangelove.” Probably because that classic feature film came out in 1964. But time is a flat circle, which is why Gaetz kept talking about the Cold War:

My parents did nuclear fallout drills in school over missiles that fortunately never arrived. Today, students are drilled to wear masks over a virus that threatens their overall health less than the mask itself. We are retarding social, emotional, learning, empathy and caring. We are raising a generation of little sociopaths who act more like the Menendez brothers. That's a much bigger fear than post Omicron-Covid.

Gaetz denies the sex allegations against him, which also include paying for sex and sex trafficking; he claims it’s all an elaborate conspiracy to extort his father. But two of his buddies implicated in the whole ordeal, Joel Greenberg and Joseph Ellicot, have already reached plea deals with the Justice Department for related charges — Ellicot pleaded guilty to drug use and fraud; Greenberg for sex trafficking. And Gaetz’s ex-girlfriend testified before a Grand Jury in January in exchange for immunity. I’m not a parent, but I can’t help but wonder if this might have had some impact on the emotional learning of some of the minors allegedly involved — more so than masking, at least.