Ex-Mike Pence aide says he thinks Matt Gaetz will be in prison for child sex trafficking by 2024

Gaetz attended pro-Trump Turning Point conference as he and Trump face different investigations

A top aide to Vice President Mike Pence had a scathing response to Congressman Matt Gaetz after the latter suggested at a right-wing conference that Mr Pence would never be elected president.

Marc Short, Mike Pence’s chief of staff, has remained one of the vice president’s closest advisers since leaving office and has traveled with Mr Pence as the former official makes occasional appearances at Republican events and rallies while endorsing his own slate of anti-Trump candidates in the party.

On Monday, Mr Short appeared on CNN just hours after he apparently testified before a grand jury convened by the Justice Department as part of the agency’s investigation in to January 6, and fired back at the Florida congressman for a remark Mr Gaetz had made over the weekend.

The remark in question came as Mr Gaetz spoke to young right-wing activists at Turning Point USA’s annual conference.

“Let me just say what everybody here knows: Mike Pence will never be president,” Mr Gaetz said. “Nice guy, not a leader.”

Mr Short responded to the clip, which drew laughs and cheers from the pro-Trump crowd, on Monday evening.

“Well, I don’t know if Mike Pence will run for president in 2024, but I don’t think Matt Gaetz will have an impact on that,” Mr Short said. “I’d be surprised if he’s still voting.”

“I think it will be more likely that he’ll be in prison for child sex trafficking by 2024,” the aide continued. “And I’ll actually be surprised if Florida law enforcement still allows him to speak to teenage conferences like that.”

The jaw-dropping clapback from Mr Pence’s longtime aide would seem to be out of left field were it not for the ongoing investigation that the Justice Department is pursuing involving Mr Gaetz and a former confidant and friend, Joel Greenberg, who has supposedly been cooperating with authorities. At the centre of it is an accusation that the pro-Trump congressman paid for the travel of a 17-year-old girl across state lines for sexual purposes; Mr Gaetz has strongly and repeatedly denied that and any other accusations of sexual misconduct.

But the investigation has not gone away and remains in front of a grand jury which according to media reports last week heard the testimony of Mr Gaetz’s ex-girlfriend under a reported immunity deal. Mr Gaetz’s former friend, Joel Greenberg, is set to be sentenced on a trafficking charge resulting from the probe later this year.

Mr Pence is thought to be considering a 2024 run for president even given the GOP field’s overwhelming continued support for Donald Trump; the ex-president, meanwhile, has broken political ties with his former VP completely in response to Mr Pence’s refusal to aid in his attempt to overturn the 2020 election.