Former Democratic California Rep. Katie Hill said Friday she thought it was “gross” that Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz invoked her name in his Washington Examiner op-ed published Monday.
Excited to join @erinburnett on @outfrontcnn in the 4pP / 7pE hour to talk more about my lawsuit against the Daily Mail, the dangerous consequences for any woman pursuing life in the public eye, and what we can do about it from here. Hope you’ll watch!
— Katie Hill (@KatieHill4CA) April 9, 2021
“I think it’s gross,” Hill told CNN anchor Erin Burnett. “Every motive for him defending me – and I wrote about this in my own op-ed – was, at the time it meant a lot, it mattered, anybody defending me mattered because I felt very alone. I felt like I didn’t have the defense that I wanted from my own Democratic colleagues and so the fact that he spoke out to me had an impact.”
Hill became the subject of public scrutiny in 2019 after she had an affair with a campaign staffer, and her ex-husband shared intimate images of her without her consent.
Gaetz is accused of having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old, and he reportedly showed other lawmakers photos of nude women he had slept with. (RELATED: Katie Hill: Gaetz ‘One Of The Few Colleagues’ To Defend Her But Must Resign If Allegations Have ‘Fraction Of Truth’)
In his op-ed, Gaetz wrote, “I defended Rep. Katie Hill’s ‘throuple’ when her own Democratic colleagues wouldn’t. I just didn’t think it was anyone’s business.”
At the time of Hill’s scandal, Gaetz tweeted, “Who among us would look perfect if every ex leaked every photo/text?”
Hill told Burnett, “Knowing now that that could have been just because he was trying to kind of cover up for whatever his own indiscretions were, and be able to use my name and invoke that defense later on, it’s just gross especially now that we know the investigations were going on way back then. So yeah, it is gross.”