When President Trump announced the nomination of conservative congressman Matt Gaetz for the office of the Attorney General (AG) about two weeks ago, the D.C. establishment and its media affiliates raised a storm of opposition. Not only Democrats and leftist talking heads in media went into meltdown mode but some Republicans also started preparing for denying the firebrand Florida congressman the required confirmation votes in the Senate.
President Trump named Congressman Matt Gaetz as his prospective AG in a social media post on Wednesday (November 13, 2024).
Gaetz welcomed the nomination and responded on X with thanking Trump. But the announcement hit the establishment hard and instantly evoked shockwaves of opposition. Jake Tapper opened his show on CNN that night by commenting that naming Gaetz as his AG pick tells us what Trump is like without guardrails.
The media storm used every legacy mouthpiece of opposition they could find to protest Gaetz’s AG nomination. MSNBC had former National Security Advisor John Bolton over to bash Gaetz as a person lacking character and totally incompetent to become the AG.
https://x.com/BehizyTweets/status/1856864920379232725
Conservative voters and commentators on social media enthusiastically defended Matt Gaetz’s nomination for heading the Department of Justice (DOJ), rejecting the allegations of sex with a minor and use of illegal drugs as just another witch hunt of a fierce conservative voice. On Thursday (November 19), Elon Musk called Gaetz the Judge Dredd that America needs “to clean up a corrupt system and put powerful bad actors in prison.”
In February 2023, the DOJ cleared Gaetz of the allegations by deciding not to charge him. Conservatives have pointed to this fact as proof that the federal government has no real evidence to back up the allegations against Gaetz. As one popular conservative posted on X, the smear against Gaetz is a repeat of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of attempted sexual assault by a woman without any evidence.
Since the allegations were leveled against Gaetz, a congressional probe has been ongoing by the House Ethics Committee but has not been made public. Trey Gowdy, former congressman from SC and current Fox News commentator, attacked Gaetz on his show as “fundamentally flawed” and unqualified for the job.
Defenders of Gaetz bashed Gowdy as an establishment talking head with conservative commentator Steve Bannon asking Gowdy why he left the House so abruptly and not become a judge or run for any other significant office. He added that before going after Gaetz, Gowdy needs to clean up his own mess.
Beyond the fight on media and social media over Gaetz for AG, the federal law enforcement machinery reportedly started bracing for defense against possible accountability by Gaetz as the next AG. Leftist channel NBC News reported on Sunday (November 17) that multiple senior officials, both former and current, at the DOJ and FBI started contacting attorneys “in anticipation of being criminally investigated by the Trump administration.” The story cited three unnamed “people with knowledge” as the source of this information.
The question of how Gaetz, who resigned from the House soon after receiving his nomination, would be appointed the AG when Trump takes the White House next year remained open. Several Republican senators expressed reservations over voting to confirm Gaetz as the next AG, indicating a rebellion against Trump’s nomination. Both leftist and right-wing media were abuzz about the possibility of a recess appointment for Gaetz – which works by adjourning the congress via a presidential order and then appointing a nominee by presidential authority. As reported in Newsweek:
President Barack Obama made 32 recess appointments, ex-President George W. Bush made 171 and former President Bill Clinton made 139 while the Senate was on recess.
Fox News reported that President Trump would likely need the assistance of House Speaker Mike Johnson to achieve a recess appointment for Gaetz.
And then came the big news from Matt Gaetz himself – his announcement of withdrawing from the AG nomination. On Thursday, November 21, Gaetz posted to X that he met with the Senators the day before and concluded that his confirmation was “unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition.” So he withdrew from the AG nomination in the interest of the Trump admin’s effort to get the DOJ ready on Day 1.
The announcement hit millions of Gaetz supporters hard with disappointment and condemnation of the compromised Republicans in the Senate. It came as a setback to the MAGA momentum for accountability and draining the swamp. But the end signified that the swamp is powerful enough to strike down Trump’s picks that could become a serious threat to their power and control. Trump almost immediately nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as his next AG. So far the Republicans appear rather quiet over this pick. Fox News host Jesse Watters commented that Bondi has a much better chance of getting confirmed.
