Normally, stories of this nature, trending towards the intimate or the salacious, do not register much on my radar. They might be political in nature due to who is involved, but as far as private interludes being impactful in the broader scheme, I usually do not bother. I still am not sure why I was supposed to care when Lauren Boebert was groped in the dark at a stage production. When a candidate for state office in Virginia was discovered to have run a live sex show online, I was not outraged. I only saw it as a reference point for whenever Democrats attempt to condemn Republicans over similar issues – such as Boebert copping a feel during “Beetlejuice.”

And so when another such instance this week reared up (ahem), I was not in a rush to cover it. Now, however, it has taken on some significance. Our story begins on Monday when proven prevaricator Cassidy Hutchinson appeared on an MSNBC program with recidivist raconteur Rachel Maddow. That these two would be coming together for a discussion that led to fable inception was inevitable.

In one segment of their talk, the discussion led into the topic of whether or not Hutchinson, as rumored, had ever been romantically involved with firebrand Florida Representative Matt Gaetz. Maddow recounts an episode supposedly taking place at Camp David when members of Congress were in attendance, and Gaetz made a clumsy come-on to Cassidy. When asked to comment on this by the show, Gaetz questioned Hutchinson’s character as a proven liar and alluded to a relationship the two briefly had. Cassidy shot this down vehemently.

"I will say, on behalf of myself, I never dated Matt Gaetz. I have much higher standards in men. And Matt, frankly is a very unserious politician." -Cassidy Hutchinson leaves nothing to question about her regard for Rep. Matt Gaetz pic.twitter.com/MGzSzl33IU

— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) September 26, 2023

Well. As I said, this would normally warrant little attention. However, details from The Daily Caller showed Gaetz and Hutchinson engaged in intimate talk while in bed on FaceTime. Henry Rodger, writing on this discovery, states that: “A source close to Gaetz confirmed the authenticity of the screenshot.”

Okay, Mr. “Above It All,” you are probably saying, this is still nothing more than he-said-she-said pillow games – why do you care?! In truth, I don’t, but there are a few relevancies involved in this development:

• The reason Maddow brought up the Camp David anecdote - and why Hutchinson was on the show - is that she has a new “tell-all” book just released. As the press fawns over her “revelations” about the Trump administration, she has just proven herself an invalid source by even deceiving over a trivial personal matter.

• Her continuation of this practice of deceit only does more to undermine her testimony for the J-6 Committee and impugns the character of that body further. She appears incapable of delivering anything approaching accuracy.

• That the press is loathe to challenge her or question details after her performance in front of the committee just goes to serve as more evidence the press complex in this country is more beholden to a narrative than the facts.

At CNN, a lengthy rundown of Hutchinson’s book was made based on her interview with Jake Tapper. Nowhere in this glowing review is there any mention of the glaring errors from her testimony that came to light. And buried deep in one of the penultimate paragraphs, we see this connective tissue with the network:

With so many uncooperative witnesses, how did the committee know what to ask Hutchinson to get her to disclose her damning testimony while she was still represented by the attorney paid for by Trump world? It turns out, Hutchinson writes, that she coordinated with [Alyssa] Farah, who is now a CNN political commentator, telling her everything she knew. Farah spoke with committee vice chair Liz Cheney, who then knew what to ask Hutchinson during the committee’s third closed-door deposition with her.

And there it is. They cannot call her version of events into question when they were directly involved in provoking that very testimony. Also, since exposing her flawed witness comments would undermine the anti-Trump narrative at the network, it becomes all the more reason to gloss over Hutchinson being a regular source of inaccurate information.