Former Florida Department of Health data analyst Rebekah Jones, a critic of Gov. Ron DeSantis, said on Tuesday she intends to see Rep. Matt Gaetz kicked out of office, even if it means she has to run herself.
Jones, 31, teasing a bid Tuesday in an Instagram video, not long after she made headlines for being suspended from Twitter.
“I had hoped that someone in the Republican Party would step up and primary him, and I’ve yet to see that happen,” Jones said in the video. “And so, if it takes me going home to Florida to run against Matt Gaetz, then I will do it. If it means getting one child sex trafficker out of office, you’re damn right I’ll do it.”
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Gaetz, a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, has been roped into a federal investigation looking into whether he had a sexual relationship with an underage girl and paid for her to travel with him, among other matters. The Florida Republican has denied all allegations of wrongdoing and refuses to step down from his seat representing the state’s first district, covering most of the western Panhandle.
Harlan Hill, a spokesperson for Gaetz, asserted the congressman has not faced charges, attacking Jones on her own personal history.
“Congressman Gaetz faces no criminal charges,” Hill told NBC News. “Ms. Jones cannot say the same.”
Jones, who currently resides in Maryland, has played up the attacks against Gaetz.
“It’s absurd that he’s still in office. Someone like that should not go unchallenged,” Jones told NBC News.
Jones helped create and update Florida’s COVID-19 dashboard. However, she was fired in 2020 from her role as dashboard manager for Florida’s Health Department after she questioned the state’s COVID-19 response. Jones claimed she was told to alter data on the dashboard to protect the reputation of DeSantis’s administration, although the department said she was fired for repeated violations of an agency policy barring communication with the media.
After being fired, Jones filed a confidential whistleblower complaint with the Florida Commission on Human Relations.
In January, Jones was arrested and booked into jail on charges related to hacking into the state’s computer system, though she denies such accusations. State law enforcement raided her Tallahassee home on a warrant, recovering her personal computer, according to a report by the Miami Herald.
Jones was suspended from her Twitter account this week for “platform manipulation and spam,” according to her account information. Jones claims Twitter has received an appeal for the suspension.
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The Washington Examiner reached out to Gaetz’s office for comment.
