The Fanni Willis tragedy shows how sex derails political careers, yet pedophiles like Gaetz go free
Sex is one of the most potent urges in human beings. It can be an act that promotes bonding, pleasure, emotion, health, better psychology, and physical healing. While sex has a complex biochemical element (a massive outpouring of dopamine into our brains), there is another aspect to sex that’s recognized in all civilizations.
Oscar Wilde said, “Everything in the world is about sex — except sex. Sex is about power.”That may be oversimplified and crude, but in many cases, sex is a form of exercising power over another. It’s a show of strength.
When there is a sexual scandal among public figures, especially highly visible politicians, it creates a sensation and often, but not always, ends badly.
Take the most recent example of sex in politics concerning Matt Gaetz, a 42-year-old, unpopular Republican member of the House of Representatives and a Trump protector.
The other victim is Fanni Willis, the Democrat Attorney General for Georgia, who was lucky enough to encounter one of the highest-profile cases of the decade when she started prosecuting presidential candidate Donald Trump for election tampering in the 2020 election.
But class, racial, gender, and political divisions put these two sex-related cases in two entirely different arenas.
A House of Representatives investigation found that Matt Gaetz was “regularly” paying for sex, including once with a 17-year-old girl, and purchasing and using illicit drugs as a member of Congress, including sex parties and vacations.
According to the AP, “Congressional investigators concluded that Gaetz violated multiple state laws related to sexual misconduct while in office, though not federal sex trafficking laws. They also found that Gaetz “knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct” the committee’s work.” So far, no one has laid a finger on Gaetz. Like Trump, Gaetz has professed his innocence and said he wants to run for governor or Senator. from Florida
No such good fortune has reached Fani Willis, as we see in greater detail below. The obvious question that should be raised nationally is: Why the double standard?
A Democratic Black female prosecutor prosecuting Trump for trying to steal an election is removed from the case for “the appearance of impropriety.” Witnesses have told investigators that Gaetz engaged in sex with minors, paid them, continued to sit in the House of Representatives, allegedly showed photos of nude women on the House floor, and has never been sanctioned or charged with a crime. Yet, the Republicans must consider Gaetz’s behavior proper.
Comparing these two cases exceeds the double-standard test. This is blatant intentional bias, and it occurs when deliberate unequal treatment is provoked by prejudice or discrimination against a specific person or group. Fanni Willis falls into this category.
Sex Scandals in Washington Are Not New
Sex scandals in Washington and state legislatures are not new. Wikipedia has a list that dates to 1796, which should tell us that politicians—including presidents, senators, and Supreme Court justices—have too much time on their hands when they are not engaged in physical labor or must punch the clock.
Sex in politics is understandable since being a politician is about meeting people and developing relationships to agree on a common cause or political philosophy or convince them that working together benefits all concerned.
Meetings and dinner parties go long into the night, a problem for many politicians who cannot separate their public responsibilities from their urges.
The most recent case, and certainly not the last, involves the Georgia Attorney General, Fani Willis, who had the initial good fortune to present the opening salvo of election fixing and vote fraud against candidate Donald Trump in Georgia.
As a Black female prosecutor, Willis immediately gained national attention for the prominent case. See had sizzling audiotapes showing Trump asking Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to “find” 11,780 ballots for Trump to give the state to Trump. If Trump could “find” those votes, he would have carried the state and won the 2020 election. She also had confessions from lower-level participants who participated in the vote-stealing activities.
Willis was given this case on a silver platter. She had the evidence and a sympathetic audience. If she had won, it would have led to national prominence.
But sex caused Willis to make a huge professional mistake. She had a relationship with this case’s chief prosecutor, whom she hired, dated, and vacationed with. Later, a Georgia Appeals Court said this relationship while the trial was in progress was a “significant appearance of impropriety.”
As a result, the court said Willis could not pursue the election interference case against President-elect Trump because of her relationship with Nathan Wade, the prosecutor Willis hired to try the case.
The Appeals Court noted the “appearance of impropriety that existed when DA Willis exercised her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring.” The Appeals Court cared more about the “appearance of impropriety” than Trump’s actual election interference and his attempt to steal the 2020 election.
The bottom line is that Willis went from being a national hero to a disgraced prosecutor overnight. She played right into the hands of right-wing pundits who see her downfall as everything from the pitfalls of affirmative action to the foibles of an inept female Black prosecutor. These are the same slurs used against Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Willis case is more mournful to Democrats because she had the evidence to show Trump’s flagrant action to steal the election in Georgia from Biden.
Willis Is Just Another Public Figure Who Succumbed to Sex
Willis showed poor judgment and immediately deflated the hope that Trump would finally face prosecution in Georgia.
Willis now joins a lengthy list of public figures whose sexual escapades ruined or tainted their promising careers and reputations. A partial list of these politicians is below:
• Elliott Spitzer was elected governor of New York in 2006 by the most significant margin of any candidate. He served two years before he was caught patronizing a prostitution ring.
• Anthony Weiner represented New York’s 9th congressional district from 1999 until his resignation in 2011. He resigned after being caught in a sexting scandal.
• Bill Clinton. News about the affair between President Bill Clinton and intern Monica Lewinsky broke in early 1998 while Clinton was in his second presidential term. In a messy investigation that led to his impeachment, Clinton served out his presidency but ruined his reputation.
• Gary Hart, in the late 1980s, said he led a boring life but was caught in a tryst with Donna Rice.
• Mark Foley, then a Republican congressman in Florida, resigned after it was revealed he had sent sexual messages to underage male pages.
- Bob Livingston, who served as a representative from Louisiana from 1977 to 1999, resigned after he admitted his infidelity at about the same time he was slated to succeed Newt Gingrich to become Speaker of the House.
- Republican Senator from Idaho Larry Craig was arrested after he allegedly solicited sex from an undercover cop in a men’s bathroom. Craig has a long political career, having served in the Senate from 1991 to 2009 and in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 1991.
- John Edwards was a prominent Democrat Senator representing North Carolina from 1999 to 2005. He ran for president (and later Vice President under John Kerry) in 2004 and 2008. In a repeat of Trump’s affair with Stormy Daniels, Edwards was “indicted by a federal grand jury on June 3, 2011, on six felony charges of violating multiple federal campaign contribution laws to cover up an extramarital affair to which he eventually admitted.” according to Wikipedia.
- Jack Ryan, a Republican Senate candidate in Illinois, dropped out of the race after it became public in his divorce case that he pressured his wife to perform public sex acts in clubs.
Then, there is a list of politicians who have been accused of sexual misconduct—proven or not—that resulted in them leaving their political posts under pressure. This list stems from the Me-Too Movement and can be found here.
Sex is a powerful human urge. Are these cases any worse than those seen in the general population? Probably not. But we learn about them faster and more frequently than what is transmitted around the neighborhood.
Comparing Fani Willis to Gaetz
Willis had an excellent opportunity to convict Trump, but like many politicians named here, she made terrible choices. She should have expected that Trump’s lawyers and investigators would examine her life in detail. Instead, she made it easy for them to raise ethics and conflict-of-interest issues that any first-year law student could identify.
Her loss is Trump’s gain. It now looks like he will escape prosecution for a blatant attempt to steal the election. Fani, you let us down.
But the Gaetz sexcapades are more heinous. Gaetz is unrepentant, a spoiled, wealthy white man who could not find a job in the public sector without his rich father’s help. He is a pedophile who pays for sex, yet he wants to run as a Republican for governor or senator from Florida. Floridians and the Republicans may deserve Gaetz. Yet while Willis was accused of
However, the prejudice against Fani Willis, compared to the white glove treatment Gaetz received, should settle the argument that there is one justice system.
