For Republicans, President-elect Donald Trump’s victory came as a deliverance from a four-year national nightmare. After the most tumultuous election cycle in memory, supporters were both tremendously relieved and very excited.
The Trump-Vance administration is quickly taking shape. Trump has already announced his picks for most Cabinet positions. Some, such as Pete Hegseth’s nomination for Defense Secretary, came as a surprise, but it didn’t take long for most to see the rationale behind this decision.
But even Trump’s most ardent supporters were stunned by his nomination of former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) for attorney general.
The pick came as a lightning bolt. One moment, we were reveling in the symphony taking place before us, and the next, we were jolted awake by a sour note.
It will be an honor to serve as President Trump’s Attorney General! pic.twitter.com/dg0iQ0bA6Y
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) November 13, 2024
Why is the Gaetz pick so controversial?
Gaetz has made a lot of enemies in Washington, D.C. In fact, there were times he may have been the most reviled man in the GOP. For example, after winning back the House majority in the midterms, Republicans set about electing a speaker in January 2023. Gaetz led a small group of Republicans who withheld their support from frontrunner Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in order to extract concessions. Following a humiliating public spectacle, and McCarthy’s agreement to some extraordinary conditions, he won the speakership on the fifteenth ballot.
One of the concessions was a change to a parliamentary rule called a “motion to vacate the speaker’s chair.” Under the new rule, a single member of the Republican caucus could “force a vote to remove the speaker.”
After actively thwarting McCarthy’s agenda throughout the year, Gaetz introduced a motion to vacate in October 2023. His action resulted in McCarthy’s ouster as Speaker, and thrust Republicans into more chaos as they decided on a replacement.
Additionally, Gaetz was the subject of a DOJ investigation into allegations of child sex trafficking and illegal drug use. Although that probe ended in February 2023 without Gaetz being charged with a crime, Axios reported in June that the House Ethics Committee confirmed “it had picked up where the Justice Department left off.”
Gaetz “denied all allegations against him and framed the DOJ investigation as an effort to extort him.”
Hours after Gaetz was nominated for attorney general on Wednesday, he abruptly resigned from Congress. Punchbowl News revealed that the HEC was scheduled to vote on releasing a “highly damaging” report about its findings on Friday. CNN later confirmed the story.
Rep. Michael Guest (R-MI) told reporters that the HEC “only has jurisdiction over sitting members of Congress.” As a result, when a lawmaker resigns, any open investigations end.
Still, does anyone think that Senate Judiciary Committee members won’t demand to see this report during their vetting process? Or that it won’t leak?
So why did Trump choose Gaetz?
Cornell University law professor and founder of Legal Insurrection William Jacobson weighed in during a Thursday radio interview. He sees the pick as “a big middle finger by Trump towards the Department of Justice based on what they’ve done to him.”
Prof. Jacobson continued, “This is the same institution that in the infancy of the first Trump presidency tried to destroy him. Remember James Comey … set Trump up at a meeting at the White House a day or two into the first term, knowing that Trump wouldn’t have lawyers around him and used that as an excuse to get CNN to leak the phony Steele dossier.
“I think this is him saying, it’s going to be my Department of Justice. I’m not going to let it destroy me again.”
In a post on X, independent journalist Jesse Kelly wrote that while he understands why people are critical of this pick, “[W]e need disruptors now. Not polite people. We need people who are going to go in and make bad people uncomfortable. If he can get confirmed, I love it. Turn that dog loose.”
Sen. John Fetterman said, “It’s just kind of like a God-tier kind of trolling just to trigger a meltdown.”
Can Gaetz survive a Senate confirmation hearing?
It looks doubtful. Concerned with retribution for waging an endless lawfare campaign against Trump, no Democrat will support him.
Andy McCabe, who was fired from the DOJ for leaking classified info to damage President Trump and then lying about it under oath, being worried that Matt Gaetz might “disrupt” things at the DOJ is a ringing endorsement for his nomination. https://t.co/FP5LVKKhoy
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 14, 2024
And Gaetz can only afford to lose three Republican senators. The Wall Street Journal reported, “People familiar with discussions among Senate Republicans said that far more than three of them are prepared to vote no.”
Punchbowl News reporter Max Cohen spoke to Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) on Wednesday. In a post on X, Cohen wrote: “Susan Collins tells me she is not on board with Gaetz as AG” and that she was “shocked at the nomination.”
Tillis told Cohen, “It’s gonna take a lot of work to get to 50 [yes votes].” However, he indicated that he would give Gaetz an “honest look.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told reporters he would like to review the HEC’s report during the confirmation process.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said, “I don’t think it’s a serious nomination for the attorney general. … I’m looking forward to the opportunity to consider somebody that is serious. This one was not on my bingo card.”
Not even Trump ally Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) could muster up much enthusiasm for Gaetz during a Newmax interview.
Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey wrote that a recess appointment “is looking like the only path” forward for Gaetz. “And since it’s clear that the recess would be mainly for Gaetz, it’s not going to happen,” he added.
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This is a time for those who call themselves Republicans in the senate, to get off their duffs and support their president. If they don’t, even Ted Cruz, ask them if they would rather just change their party affiliation, betray their voters and be done with it. This is why we lose. It has to stop, and the only path forward is to deal with those disruptors on our political team. Enough is enough. So many Republicans, senate or House, tend to wantto be the same thing as those on the left, just stand in front of a camera and make themselves into some godlike person, which is hypocrisy at its worst.
I voted all along the primary in 2016 for Cruz, but this stuff has to stop. The country doesn’t need it, nor do we, the people.