Matt Gaetz: Fox News has ‘no interest’ in hiring Republican congressman

Network offers rebuttal of Trump ally's claims about being hired, following controversy

Fox News has said it has “no interest” in hiring congressman Matt Gaetz, who is under fire following a reported investigation for sex trafficking.

The 38-year-old said on Tuesday that claims he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and violated federal sex trafficking laws were “verifiably false”, in an appearance on Fox News.

The allegations were first reported by The New York Times, which was informed of an ongoing justice department investigation into the claims.

Mr Gaetz indicated in an interview with the Daily Beast on Wednesday that he had spoken to a number of outlets about his future, including Fox and a number of others.

“There is not a single conservative television station I haven’t had a passing conversation with about life after Congress,” Mr Gaetz told the outlet.

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Clarifying that he has not “received nor solicited offers from any of them”, the congressman continued by saying that he had spoken “to either executives, producers or hosts at Newsmax, OAN, Fox, Fox Business” and others.

A spokesperson for Fox said: “No one with any level of authority has had conversations with Matt Gaetz for any of our platforms and we have no interest in hiring him.”

It follows a report on Tuesday that confidantes of Mr Gaetz were aware of the congressman’s intention to either retire early from the House of Representatives, or not seek re-election.

As Axios reported before the revelations by the Times, Mr Gatez had been in early conversations with right-wing news channel Newsmax – increasingly favoured by supporters of former President Donald Trump.

The apparent rebuttal by Fox News follows a bizarre appearance by Mr Gaetz on the network on Tuesday night, in which he denied the accusations during an interview with host Tucker Carlson.

He went on to claim that he was the victim of an extortion plot by a former justice department official.