Gaetz as AG
An indefensible choice.
Via Reuters: Trump taps firebrand congressman Matt Gaetz for attorney general.
President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday named firebrand Republican U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz to be his nominee for attorney general, as he moves swiftly to assemble a Cabinet.
“Matt will end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department,” Trump said in a statement announcing the selection, which would be subject to confirmation by the Republican-majority Senate.
This is a stomach-churning choice.
Gaetz is, at best, a self-important, unserious bomb-thrower who behaves more like a reality TV character than a Congressman.
At worst, he has been credibly linked to drug-use and sex with minors.
He remains under investigation in the House, even if DoJ declined to file charges. Via ABC News: Ethics probe into Matt Gaetz now reviewing allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.
As part of its ongoing investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz, the House Ethics Committee recently issued a subpoena for documents from a civil lawsuit brought by one of the Florida congressman’s longtime friends against several third parties, ABC News has learned.
The subpoena, which has not been previously reported, requests all documents related to Gaetz that are part of a lawsuit brought last year by Gaetz’s longtime friend, prominent Florida lobbyist Chris Dorworth, who alleged he was defamed by several third parties over the course of the yearslong sex trafficking probe into Gaetz, sources told ABC News.
The documents from the lawsuit, which include witness depositions and affidavits, could provide Congress with new details regarding allegations that have dogged Gaetz for years, including the allegation he had sex with a minor who was introduced to him by his onetime friend Joel Greenberg, who pleaded guilty to sex trafficking and is serving an 11-year prison sentence.
That story is from last month.
This is not the type of person you make Attorney General of the United States.
Between this and the Hegseth nomination, I guess we are about to see how far gone the GOP is. I note no one has yet defended the Hegseth nomination. How about for Mr. Gaetz? How long before folks realize what they voted for?
BTW, congrats on the Majority Leader status, Senator Thune.
Plus, I guess that like the president-elect, all of this is not only not disqualifying, but is a get-out-of-jail-free card. Via the NYT:
Representative Michael Guest, Republican of Mississippi and chairman of the House Ethics Committee, told reporters that any congressional ethics inquiries into Gaetz would end if he is confirmed by the Senate and resigns from Congress. He said Gaetz’s case was “not unique” and the committee “regularly” closes investigations when members resign, retire or lose their re-election bids. He said the committee would not rush out a report prior to Gaetz’s Senate confirmation hearings.
“The Ethics Committee will put a report when the investigation is finalized,” Guest said.
“I’ve got to believe that the president is at peace with his selection, and this is who he wants to lead the Department of Justice for the next four years.”
AG is about the best position a habitual criminal can hope for.
Not surprised a convicted felon nominated him for that.
“This is not the type of person you make Attorney General of the United States.”
No, it isn’t. He should not even be considered. But, as most of us expected, Trump will surround himself this time with people who will just go along with his plans and/or the agenda of his associates. The most disruptive people he can find.
So, not really surprising that someone like Matt Gaetz is Trump’s choice.
What is going to be interesting, is how the GOP will deal with this.
The term firebrand just bugs me. Whenever a reporter uses the term I immediately infer that the reporter is just lazy and dumb. Just my personal irk.
In normal administrations, sometimes they float unacceptable nominees as trial balloons just to see how far they can go. Is it possible that’s what’s happening here? (I actually thought that’s what they were doing with Hegseth, but wow.)
But don’t dare call that guy a nickname that references his pederasty or dementia symptoms lol
If you looked up the word panic in the dictionary, you’d see a picture of Kevin McCarthy’s face right now.
Was QAnon just a Russian opp to install an administration of pedos, weirdos, and criminals?
Like March 2020 all over again. Washington, D.C. is entering the Twilight Zone, with a heavy dose of Manchurian Candidate. Rod Serling meets John Frankenheimer (I’m a film school nerd.)
I would love to see the Clinton, Bush, Obama group chat today. Ha!
Bon – you should look at the bright side – Gaetz has never to my reading shown the vaguest hint of competence. Should he actually be confirmed one should likely be able to count on chaotic bumbling and ineffectual although party political partisan crowd-pleasing showmanship but poor execution.
Really the more clownish things are the better for you all in the end
@Lounsbury:
I also thought of Stalin. Trump is a Putin-puppet, so of course he’d trend Stalinist.
This is the dangerous clownery that John Kelly, Mark Milley, and his cabinet and staffers warned about.
Trump won’t need to appoint a special prosecutor now to go after the “Biden Crime Family”. His new Attorney General will make it the DoJ’s top priority, after he’s fired all the existing staff and got the Project 2025 replacements installed.
@Kathy:
I’m more surprised by people being surprised about this at all.
I mean, I was expecting exactly this kind of behaviour from El Felon.
@Min: @Lounsbury: The AG is the most powerful law enforcement officer in the US. He will have a huge amount of power, and he has a SCOTUS that would bend the law as much as possible for him. He can harass citizens to please Trump. Just because he’s an incompetent numnuts doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous as hell in that position.
@Min:
I’ve been expecting this since 2017.
At least they ought to have the decency to rename the office Fixer General.
@Lucysfootball:
Oh, I am aware of just how dangerous he could be. But isn’t that the reason why Trump would want someone like him in that position?
As I said above, I believe the test here is for the GOP. Will they go along with this?
@Min: Sorry, I wasn’t responding to you. I was responding to Lounsbury’s comment, which was “Really the more clownish things are the better for you all in the end”. I assume most of the people in this forum care about the country, and having a hyper-partisan, suspected sex offender as AG is something that strikes me as very scary.
@Lucysfootball:
More of less scary than President?
In Gaetz’s defense, he is quite familiar with legal investigations. Can we get MTG in charge of the Space Force?
@Min:
50/50 chance with Matt.
He could be too much of a clown. Preoccupied with his coke-fueled barely legal parties and with legalizing weed nationwide. That’s a dangerous situation, but in the way that if we survive it you go, well, at least we have legal weed.
He could also be Sinister enough to try to bring down Trump’s most powerful enemies, but a) there’s just too many most powerful enemies and b) this would initiate an internal revolt across a bunch of agencies.
How many different high profile cases and class actions could the court system handle at one time? I see Matt as the type of guy who’d get bored with the dense inertia of American legal bureaucracy. He’d rather just gossip and throw a pool party.
Bread and circuses? More like crack and wh*res. I say confirm him, who cares anymore. The truth is these people probably have no idea how to run a department. And yes it takes real talent to run these big departments.
Ken Paxton must be so jealous right now.
@Raoul:
What @Gustopher said the other day was “touch the stove.” Not “stick your head in the blast furnace.”
@Gustopher:
She’s heading to the FDA. They are in charge of Nuts.
@Lucysfootball: Trump won.
Ergo there will be appointments you rather do not like and consider dangerous.
A lazy clownish bungler is given that situation better than something else.
and a generally clownish band of not particularly competents is better for you than the alternative, which would be the competent persons of the same orientation.
Your choice architecuture does not involve other choices – so you should look to what the actual choices which do not clearly involve the soi-disant adults.
You are then better served by clownishness than competent focus.
@DK: dangerous clownery if it is involving the nuclear weapons.
Well, at least this gets him out of Congress.
What a joke we’ve become.
I wonder what the recently banned Paul L would say about Gaetz, having complained about JFK appointing his brother as AG. Gaetz experience as a lawyer was two years as an associate in a small-town Florida law firm i5 years ago where there is no evidence he ever tried a lawsuit.
What I wouldn’t give to laugh in Susan Collins’ and Lisa Murkowski’s faces right now. Collins is a brain-dead fraud, but Murkowski has struck me as a much more shrewd operator. How the hell are those two gonna deal with this clown show?
@a country lawyer: FWIW, Paul L. Has not been banned.
RyGuy and joe have been. As has RyGuy’s attempt to sneak back (JimJude)
Are you guys ok? You do realize that appointments made by Democrats would be under attack if the tables were turned.
Nothing has happened yet but apparently the world has ended. and all you are doing is speculating.
Jezebel reports much skepticism in GOP, no chance of confirmation.
(I gather this assumes no recess appointment.)
“Jezebel”
https://x.com/NewsWire_US/status/1856808084817035444
@Jack: This is where you are either in serious denial or are simply wrong.
Maybe worse, you think these are acceptable?
This is not normal at all.
There was no freak out over Rubio, for example.
Defend the Gaet pick. Defend the Noem pick. The Gabbard pick. The Hesgeth pick.
This detached positioning is tiresome.
I have been honestly trying to give you a huge benefit of the doubt, but if you want to be taken seriously, be serious.
Gaetz apparently is confident of his confirmation. He has resigned from Congress without waiting for confirmation.
His district includes the Pensacola Naval Air Station and Eglin Air Force basis so with the large active duty and retired military personnel, it is probably a safe Republican seat, but it will be open until a special election can be held
@charontwo:
1. It’s not going to matter. He’ll be the AG even if they don’t confirm. Hell, especially if they don’t confirm.
2. They will all kiss the ass.
@Jack:
You know what would be awesome. If we could lock Gaetz and Merrick Garland in a box together and drop it in the ocean. Those two fart sniffers deserve each other.
And in other news, Merrick Garland was re-nominated for Attorney General by Donald Trump. Leftist bloggers and their commenters immediately declared Garland to be totally unfit for the position, a Trumpist puppet and threat to humanity………
@a country lawyer:
It’d be pretty interesting if, given the reminder of the nonsense we’re reliving, if that district flipped.
@Steven L. Taylor:
Or at least interesting or amusing. Like, take your victory lap bro. 4 more years of sore winner tears is gonna be wretched.
@Jack:
Um, I’m pretty sure most of us think Garland sucks. I’d be shocked if anyone seriously defended him. But at least he was qualified.
@Jack: First, that would a truly shocking outcome.
Second, you are simply wrong.
I am trying not to be insulting, but are you really this ignorant of how bad these appointment are?
@Jack:
You have not an ounce of honesty or integrity. Setting aside the obvious fact that you lack the intellect to engage in any debate that does not involve money.
@Steven L. Taylor: Yes, MAGA folk know Matt Gaetz is unqualified for the gig. That’s why they’re desperately flinging out everything except, “Here are the reasons Matt Gaetz is qualified: [insert qualifications here].”
If one has no positive defense, what else can one do but complain about the reaction?
Many Trumpers don’t know how to pivot to the happiness and positivity of winning, because they’re still raging with anger, disappointment, and resentment. A decade of grievance will do that.
You’re right of course, but then again Donald Trump is (was?) not the type of person you elect to be President of the United States.
Trump was re-installed to the Presidency, and given Congressional majorities because the vast majority of his voters want him to ‘burn it down,’ and he is letting us know who and how they will help him do this.
So for a while we’re going to be getting used to a refrain of:
” ________________ is not the type of person you make ___________________.”
Not often a fan, but every once in a while Andy Borowitz nails one.
@Beth: BOOM!!!
@Michael Reynolds:
MR never disappoints.
@Beth:
I can’t speak for Murkowski, but I’m pretty sure Collins would say ‘she’s very concerned’ and then she’d vote to confirm, saying ‘he should get a chance to grow into the job.’
My guess is that Gaetz will never get through the confirmation process, unless the FBI’s work is somehow compromised.
He resigned his seat to stop the release of an ethics report that was set to come out tomorrow. If he thinks the rigorous background screening done on appointees is similar to the House Ethics Committee, he is in for a surprise.
@Steven L. Taylor: “I have been honestly trying to give you a huge benefit of the doubt, but if you want to be taken seriously, be serious.”
I know you have, and respect you for the integrity you bring to this site — but keep in mind that despite all of Frodo’s sympathy for Gollum and attempts to treat him as a brother, the hobbit ended up stuck in a giant spider’s web because Gollum led him there.
@Jack:
“Marco Rubio Next Secretary of State”
‘Mike Waltz Next National Security Advisor”
“Elise Stefanik Next UN Ambassador”
All of those nominees were defensible, if not to my tastes, and I said so. The nominees since have been abominations.
@Jack: Yes, it is true that any Trump appointment will generate a negative reaction here. and generally there is knee-jerk frothing from the commentariat (not however the bloggers who do not merit such accusation in the least).
However, mere empty-minded knee-jerking against the Left side in approving a clear clown, well that rather makes you as bad as you think they are.
A modicum of modest critical thinking about one’s own side from time to time can be quite salutory even if one thinks the opposition are not honest or accurate in the least in their self-evaluation.
Not that I expect any of the strong partisans of either side of the ideological spectrum to actually engage in such reflexion…
@DK: well I shall maintain my general sense that I am happy for the incompetence as it is preferable (ex nuclear codes) over competence in such circumstances.
on other hand I find it genuinely puzzling the blindness of ideoogical partisans – although I suppose it all comes down to pure tribal-sport-team rabid cheering and booing- to the self-harm to their own agenda done by grossly incompetent propositions.
Then of course I was rather surprised in a way that the Republicans did not exploit after 2020 side opportunities to put a knife in Trump – in European context we would have rather expected such. Even in the context of Pr Taylor’s well taken observations about weak party structure. Self-interest.
Now they have bought themselves a clown-show with a side order of Putin-agenda serving.
@Lounsbury:
Except that this is not true.
James’ post on the Rubio pick was not negative and even the comments section is quite mild on the topic, with most of the conversation being around the pick rather than about Rubio himself. There is some very light criticism at worst.
Some of the other early picks were met with “mehs” at worst.
Noem and especially Hegseth, Gaetz, and Gabbard are simply in another category.
Give credit where credit is due.
@wr: Indeed.
@James Joyner:
Exactly.
@Steven L. Taylor: My comment was aimed at the commentariat. And I see no reason to modify it. I noted, I note that the Bloggers – that is you and James merit not even that ((not however the bloggers who do not merit such accusation in the least) – so for you both I did indeed give credit but as it seems it was not clear, I do so clarify, I had in mind only the commentariat (and I believe it is sufficiently clear will provoke negative comment does not mean eery single one of them either)
@Lounsbury:
I think I see what you did there… I think… that was a little bit of a circumlocutious path you opted to take. That said, I just realized that’s because the first parenthetical is also a quote.
That said, I’m just checking, am I’m included in the “bloggers”?
@Steven L. Taylor:
Definitely. John Ratcliffe as the new CIA director falls into that category for me.
And frankly, I prefer Rubio to Pompeo at State.
@Matt Bernius: I cerainly did not have you in mind re the Commentariat side in any case although having read OTB for ages I tend to default to thinking of Taylor and Joyner out of habit more than anything.
I am simply enjoying these comments.
you folks haven’t figured out WHY Trump was elected. Either that or you’re ignoring why he won both the popular vote, the electoral college and swept the house and senate.
You don’t understand yet.
he had to beat the RNC, DNC, Pelosi, both Clintons, Harris (He beat her so bad it was practically domestic violence), Mitch McConnell, and anyone else that stepped up to toe the line.
more importantly, the people support him. a LOT of people.
you’re worried about Republicans getting rid of Trump? that wouldn’t work out well for them.
folks have had a belly full of people like you. You’ve removed our rights, destroyed our way of life and sneered while you did it.
I will warn you now.
These people who voted for Trump, did so for him to DISMANTLE the government. Get rid of the unelected dictators that have run roughshod over working people.
If he can’t get it done, you REALLY don’t want to learn the other method to do this job.
Before you scoff at what I’ve told you, remember that you all had Harris to win by a landslide.
but those 15 million fake votes just weren’t there this time around.
TEKEL