WASHINGTON—Unsettled by the direction in which their party appeared to be headed, a small group of Republicans expressed concern Monday that blind worship of former President Donald Trump had begun to erode more traditional GOP values, such as the blind worship of former President Ronald Reagan.

“It’s deeply troubling to me that the Republican Party has devolved into little more than a cult of personality fixated on someone other than Ronald Reagan,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), who observed that the lionization of a man who over the past four years made life worse for millions of Americans was a dangerous distraction from the lionization of a man who did the same thing but in the 1980s.

“It’s disconcerting, with Trump, to see a charismatic entertainer hailed as the ultimate Republican despite a very troubling legacy. That’s supposed to be Reagan’s role. When it comes to the unquestioning acceptance of a man who demonized minorities and made rich people richer at the expense of working families, we must always direct our abject fealty toward the 40th president, not the 45th.”

Later in the day, after meeting with GOP congressional leaders and receiving numerous calls from top donors, Kinzinger acknowledged Trump was indeed one of the greatest leaders our country had ever had.

https://www.theonion.com/republicans-worried-blind-worship-of-trump-overriding-t-1846957120

Source: Daily Beast

When Rep. Matt Gaetz attended a 2019 GOP fundraiser in Orlando, his date that night was someone he knew well: a paid escort and amateur Instagram model who led a cocaine-fueled party after the event, according to two witnesses.

The Florida congressman’s one-time wingman, Joel Greenberg, will identify that escort to investigators as one of more than 15 young women Gaetz paid for sex, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

But what distinguishes this woman, Megan Zalonka, is that she turned her relationship with Greenberg into a taxpayer-funded no-show job that earned her an estimated $7,000 to $17,500, according to three sources and corresponding government records obtained by The Daily Beast.

On Oct. 26, 2019, Gaetz attended the “Trump Defender Gala” fundraiser as the featured speaker at the Westgate Lake Resort in Orlando. Two witnesses present recalled friends reconvening at Gaetz’s hotel room for an after-party, where Zalonka prepared lines of cocaine on the bathroom counter. One of those witnesses distinctly remembers Zalonka pulling the drugs out of her makeup bag, rolling a bill of cash, and joining Gaetz in snorting the cocaine.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/rep-matt-gaetz-snorted-cocaine-with-megan-zalonka-escort-who-had-no-show-govt-job