Alan Ritchson, the star of the hit TV series “Reacher,” went to the same high school as Matt Gaetz and apparently doesn’t have fond memories of the former GOP lawmaker.
“That motherfucker. We are adversaries,” the actor told GQ in an interview published Wednesday.
“It’s shocking to me that the panhandle of Florida continues to vote for somebody — knowing everything we know about him and the promises that he’s made behind closed doors about pardoning certain criminals — he’s just not a good dude!” he continued.
He added, “There’s part of me that wants to get into politics to outdo somebody like him for good, and there’s part of me that’s like, I’m not duplicitous enough to succeed in politics.”
Ritchson, whose acting credits include “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and “Blue Mountain State,” lived in Niceville, Florida, for a big chunk of his childhood and graduated from Niceville High School in 2001.
Gaetz graduated from the same school a year earlier.
The right-wing firebrand now hosts a show on One America News Network.
HuffPost reached out to the conservative network to seek comment from Gaetz but did not immediately receive a response.
Gaetz resigned from Congress in November after President Donald Trump nominated him to become the attorney general.
Gaetz withdrew as the nominee just over a week later amid intensifying controversy over sexual misconduct allegations and other accusations of inappropriate behavior.
In December, the House Ethics Committee released a report that claimed Gaetz, who denies wrongdoing, had paid a 17-year-old girl for sex and consumed illegal drugs while in office.
The report listed over $90,000 in payments to a dozen women that the committee “determined were likely in connection with sexual activity and/or drug use.”
In a statement about the report before its release, Gaetz said he had never had sexual contact with anyone under 18.
“It’s embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life,” he wrote.
Gaetz had been plagued with scandal for years before Trump picked him to lead the Justice Department.
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In 2020, the Justice Department opened an investigation into the then-lawmaker for allegedly sex trafficking a 17-year-old girl in 2017, but prosecutors eventually decided not to pursue charges.
