Who will play Matt Gaetz? It was the question many a Saturday Night Live fan asked themselves this week. Would it be Alex Moffat, whose Joe Biden has been relatively MIA? Or perhaps “Weekend Update” co-anchor Colin Jost, who gives off strong frat boy energy?
We soon got our answer. SNL opened its latest edition with Oops, You Did It Again, a Vegas-set talk show hosted by Chloe Fineman’s Britney Spears spotlighting “the social pariahs of the week,” and was last weaponized against Ted Cruz following his Cancun fiasco. After appearances by Chris Redd’s Lil Nas X and Kate McKinnon’s (hilarious) Pepe Le Pew, we were treated to Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, played by… Pete Davidson.
Referring to Gaetz as “a full-on sex pest,” Spears grilled the creepy congressman about his recent controversies. The New York Times reported that Gaetz is under investigation for allegedly being in league with an accused sex trafficker, having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl, and possibly violating sex-trafficking laws by paying for her to travel across state lines. Furthermore, CNN reported that Gaetz is said to have showed nude photos of women he’d bragged about sleeping with to fellow lawmakers on the House floor.
“Giggity-giggity-goo!” Davidson’s Gaetz exclaimed, channeling Family Guy’s resident sexual predator Quagmire.
“You were dating a 17-year-old and brought her on trips across state lines?” asked Britney, adding, “Prostitutes say you took ecstasy and had sex with them in Florida hotel rooms? And your Republican colleagues in Congress say you showed them nude photos of women you were sleeping with?” “Which is not a crime… just… horrifying!” Gaetz replied. “That’s ridiculous. People are just targeting me because I defended Donald Trump!” (Gaetz was, strangely enough, the only representative in Congress to vote against a 2017 human trafficking bill.)
When Spears asked Gaetz, “What has Trump done in your defense?” the congressman, who spends nearly all his time kissing Trump’s ass on television (and being creepy toward his daughter), came up empty. “Giggity-squat!” Gaetz responded.
As The Daily Beast’s Asawin Suebsaeng reported, Trump has been closely following the Gaetz scandal but his associates have been begging him to stay out of it—for now.
As for the SNL cold open, Fineman’s Spears wrapped things up by saying of Gaetz: “Judge him by his face.”
“Uh-oh,” uttered Davidson’s Gaetz.
