Tipsheet

Trump 'All In' on Matt Gaetz as Attorney General

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  November 19, 2024 10:30 PM

Is the attorney general nomination for Matt Gaetz in trouble? On the Republican Senate side, the man reportedly needs work to clinch 50 votes. The former Republican congressman is a lightning rod for controversy, with a reportedly damning ethics report looming overhead. House Republican leadership is trying to quash it, but we know it will leak, especially since a hacker supposedly obtained a copy this week. 

The New York Times reported that even President-elect Donald J. Trump concedes that Gaetz might not be confirmable:

In his private conversations over the past few days, President-elect Donald J. Trump has admitted that his besieged choice for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, has less than even odds of being confirmed by the Senate. 

But Mr. Trump has shown no sign of withdrawing the nomination, which speaks volumes about his mind-set as he staffs his second administration. He is making calls on Mr. Gaetz’s behalf, and he remains confident that even if Mr. Gaetz does not make it, the standard for an acceptable candidate will have shifted so much that the Senate may simply approve his other nominees who have appalled much of Washington. 

Mr. Trump’s choice to lead health and human services has made baseless claims about vaccines. His selection for defense secretary is a former Fox News host whose leadership experience has been questioned. His nominee for the director of national intelligence is a favorite of Russian state media. 

“Donald Trump is a blunt-force instrument applying blunt-force trauma to the system,” said Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist who remains close to him and was recently released from federal prison for defying a subpoena in the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. 

[…] 

Liam Donovan, a former National Republican Senatorial Committee aide, said that “we’re on a collision course between traditional senatorial prerogatives and the unique power dynamics of the Trump restoration.” 

Now, as Mr. Trump prepares to take office for the second time, he is demonstrating how confident he is that the branches of government will bend even further to accommodate him. 

He plans to test just how far he can go.

Yet, this morning, even with reports of a rocky confirmation, Trump is “all in” on Matt Gaetz:

Trump won the election. Let the man make his picks, vet them, and see what happens. The media is always going to be against whatever he does and whomever he selects for his administration. We won, they lost. Don’t let dying legacy media dictate who gets to lead us, especially given the wholly unqualified clowns we’ve suffered under for the past four years.