Ohio Republican awards Matt Gates the prestigious yearly award for sleeping with an underage girl. Matt Gates accepted it. I'm going to go to the video and then we will talk about background. [00:00:18] Here it is. >> Speaker 3: Matt Gates, we have an award for you. My name is Michael, I'm with the Strongsville GOP, The 2023 Strongsville GOP award. [00:00:34] >> Thank you, guys. >> Congratulations for your dedication using Venmo to allegedly paying underage girls to have sex with you. >> Thank you all so much. [00:00:55] >> Speaker 1: All right, now let's put the picture up. Now you heard Matt Gates. Matt Gates said thank you all very much. He has accepted the award. Thursday night, December 7, Strongsville, Ohio, that was a Strongsville, Ohio Republican. [00:01:14] The Strongsville Republican Party held a live stream Christmas party where the award for Representative Matt Gates of Florida was given. Video of the event posted by Cleveland scene shows a Strongsville Republican [00:01:30] acknowledgement of Gates was really an insult rather than an actual honor before he was, they say, escorted off stage. No, he was pulled and pushed off stage by a cop. Gates was presented with the surprise award for [00:01:49] his dedication to using Venmo to allegedly have sex with underage girls. As the surprise attendee finished announcing the award, Gates interjected and security escorted the presenter from the stage and [00:02:06] from the building, obviously. News recaps of the event failed to mention the incident. Instead, the local news focused on Gates thoughts on Ohio's political landscape. The far right MAGA rep or the investigator was never charged with anything, [00:02:24] the Department of Justice earlier this year announced it would not bring charges against Gates in connection with a lengthy sex trafficking investigation centering on his friend Joel Greenberg, who pleaded guilty to multiple counts of involving girls under the age of 18. [00:02:42] Now, it is ironic to note that former Speaker McCarthy said that Matt Gates should be in jail for that offense, alleged offense, okay? But it was McCarthy who helped behind the scenes to get [00:03:00] the committee to drop their ethics investigation, or at least to put a pause to it. There's more. Greenberg, in his plea deal, all right, in his plea, admitted that he introduced the minor to [00:03:18] other adult men who engaged in commercial sex acts. The Daily Beast on earth Venmo transaction between Gates and Greenberg, as well as Gates and the 17 year old child. Gates has consistently denied any wrongdoing. [00:03:36] He doesn't deny contact at this point, but he denies any wrongdoing. And DOJ prosecutor cited credibility issues with two key witnesses in their decision to not pursue charges. Now let me also highlight that Gates, while under investigation, [00:03:55] served on the oversight committee that provides the actual oversight and has a lot to do with the budget of the Department of Justice, okay? That's your American democracy. All right, Sharon, thoughts here. [00:04:10] >> Speaker 4: Just as nutty as they wanna be, and it just shows you that Matt Gates is just, he's not ready for primetime. I remember being an anchor in Ohio, Dr. Ritchie, and we had this very annoying restaurant reporter. And one day he showed up at a restaurant and [00:04:27] he was going to give this establishment an F. They had been using a dirty broom to stir soup, if you can believe it, that's what they were doing. And the restauranteur had the sense to, when he offered him the reward, to say, I do not accept. That's what you say if you don't believe. [00:04:44] I mean, we had him dead to right, but that's what you say. You don't thank people for an award that basically says, here's your commendation for abusing underage girls, okay? It's sick, okay? No matter how shiny and hard and stiff the superhero hair is or villain, it's sick. [00:05:05] >> Speaker 1: Yeah, the man accepted the award. Now, I have a local news question for you, because you know their market. So they decided not to run the clip of that very controversial moment. Why do you think they decided not to run it? [00:05:20] >> Speaker 4: Because they're pro-MAGA. >> [LAUGH] >> I mean, there's no reason, either you're telling the story or you're not, okay? >> Speaker 1: Right, and that's part of the story. >> Speaker 4: [CROSSTALK] You're not. If it was Hunter Biden, they would have run it, okay? >> Agree.