Matt Gaetz left stunned after being quizzed by Tucker Carlson about dating AOC

Former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz was caught off-guard when asked whether he had a romantic relationship with fellow representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Tucker Carlson was the one to air the inquiry, roughly two years after his former Fox News colleague Greg Gutfeld floated the idea of a hypothetical romance between the two on a May 2023 episode of The Five.

Gaetz, 43, was married at the time and Ocasio-Cortez was engaged to her fiancé, Riley Roberts. Gaetz slammed the hopeful speculation as ‘childish.’

Still, Carlson, 56, popped the question the second time the New York congresswoman came up in conversation during an interview Monday. 

Gaetz and Ocasio-Cortez became unlikely allies during their tenures in congress, working together in various bipartisan efforts before Gaetz’s resignation late last year.

Ocasio-Cortez, 36, is a democratic socialist and Gaetz is an outspoken member of the MAGA faithful.

‘Did you ever date her?’ Carlson asked on his web show.

‘I did not, no,’ Gaetz simply said.

Carlson followed up: ‘Did you try?’

‘No, and uh, not my cup of tea,’ the former Florida lawmaker answered. 

He went on to explain the extent of their relationship, claiming that Ocasio-Cortez had previously been ‘incredibly chummy’ with her GOP House colleagues prior to the insurrection on January 6, 2021,

After that, she ‘treated us all like we had horns or something,’ Gaetz said.

Carlson then brought up how Ocasio-Cortez claimed that she suffered ‘trauma’ due to being present when the Capitol was stormed.

Gaetz panned the reaction as ‘bad performance art,’ less than a year after his nomination as Donald Trump’s attorney general fell apart after it was revealed he was under federal investigation for an alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl.

‘You can’t be in charge of anything if you’re a terrified little girl,’ Carlson quipped. 

‘Yeah, but we are a society that is increasingly built on grievance identity,’ Gaetz noted.

He did concede his old colleague could stage  a ‘compelling run’ against California Gov. Gavin Newsom for the Democratic presidential nomination if she wanted.

‘I think she will be formidable as well,’ Gaetz said.

The hardline Republican resigned from the House in November 2024 after Trump announced his attorney general nomination.

Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration after members of his own party refused to back him.

Within weeks, the House Ehtics Committee released a report from its 2021 investigation into allegations of sex trafficking and other improprieties by Gaetz.

The Justice Department declined to seek charges against Gaetz at the time, but did charge his associate Joel Greenberg with federal sex trafficking of a minor, for which he received an 11-year prison sentence.

Gaetz now hosts a show on One America News, a conservative cable station.

He and wife Ginger Gaetz gave birth to a baby boy in August. The two tied the knot in 2021.