Sorry to make Monday morning worse, but: Somewhere Matt Gaetz is presumably pretty happy, having gotten surprise married over the weekend. The embattled congressman took a break from his national conspiracy-theory speaking tour to elope with his girlfriend of one-ish years, Ginger Luckey, on Saturday.
According to Vanity Fair, former Rand Paul aide Sergio Gor officiated the ceremony, then went on to DJ for the approximately 40 guests. They included right-wing media personalities Raheem Kassam and Natalie Winters; the bride’s brother and his partner; and, of course, Nestor, the 20-year-old brother of the groom’s ex-girlfriend, whom Gaetz never adopted but who supposedly lives with the Florida representative, making Nestor something like a … beloved roommate? Anyway. All these people and about 30 others “from normal life” got together to eat celebratory watermelon and chicken legs on Southern California’s Catalina Island. Of the union, Gaetz said simply: “I love my wife!”
Speaking of the wife: Who is she? Well, she works at a start-up that “focuses on extending the longevity of produce using only plant-based materials,” per Vanity Fair, which interviewed the couple in July. Apparently the couple hoped this conversation would “expand the public understanding of [Luckey] beyond ‘that poor girl marrying Matt Gaetz,’” and cement her as a sort of an apolitical, Ivanka-type figure. It bears noting that she says she admires both progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and gun-toting anti-masker Lauren Boebert. Also, Luckey and Gaetz met at Mar-a-Lago in 2020, and became engaged at the resort in December with Donald Trump’s blessing. He sent the couple a complimentary bottle of Trump Champagne to congratulate them.
Vanity Fair reports that the elopement comes as “something of a surprise,” given that these two originally planned to get married next August. Hmm. What would make them push up the timeline like that? A desire to do the thing before federal investigators wrap up their sex-trafficking probe into the illicit “encounters” Gaetz allegedly had with a teenager two years ago? A desire to keep Luckey from giving evidence in said probe? Though Gaetz has denied ever paying a woman for sex, his situation looks increasingly bleak. His friend and former “wingman,” Joel Greenberg, took a plea, and has reportedly been supplying investigators with information implicating Gaetz. Vanity Fair believes Gaetz wants to “shift the narrative with a MAGA romance,” which is (1) barf, and (2) unlikely to curry much favor with people who don’t already back him. Good luck with that I guess.