Could This Be the Real Reason Why Trump Nominated Matt Gaetz As Attorney General?
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has been nominated to be our next attorney general. It’s triggered all the right people, as he would take a baseball bat to the Department of Justice. It’s a clear sign that the era of gangster antics from the rogue officials and agents here is over. Gaetz is indeed the king of controversy. He wallows in it so that this confirmation fight will be bloody. It just is since there are more than enough squishy Republicans who could make this fight a slog.
There have been many theories as to why Gaetz was selected. Is it 4-D chess? Is it a ploy to get Gaetz to resign from Congress? He did so yesterday, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson. Even Politico thought the ploy of Gaetz leaving would make it easier for Trump to select who he really wants to be a stretch. Yet, it might be one massive loyalty test (via Politico):
Once Gaetz’s selection was announced, the chatter among top Republicans on Capitol Hill quickly turned to four questions:
1. Was Trump aware of the coming Ethics report on its Gaetz investigation?
The committee was planning to vote Friday on whether to release the report, as Punchbowl first reported. But if “Gaetz is no longer a member of the House, the report likely won’t be formally released,” as Olivia Beavers and Jordain Carney report.
Frankly, it seems implausible to us that this won’t come out — if not on Friday, then during Gaetz’s confirmation hearings (assuming, of course, that Trump doesn’t try to end-run around those with recess appointments to the Cabinet). The House leaks like a sieve, and the Senate Judiciary Committee is definitely going to want to see at least the underlying evidence in the report.
2. Is this for real?
Pretty much every Hill Republican we spoke with thinks there’s something strange going on here. One theory we heard over and over from bewildered Republicans is that perhaps by picking him, Trump is giving Gaetz an out from the Ethics report (which seems possible), and that Gaetz is returning the favor by becoming a sacrificial lamb who will ease the way for Trump’s eventual pick for AG (which seems like a stretch).
A separate theory we heard goes like this: Maybe Gaetz is resigning only from this Congress — so as to stymie the Ethics probe for now — with an intent to be seated for the next Congress come January. We find that very hard to believe, both because it doesn’t sound like it would realistically slow the Ethics report’s release, and because House Speaker MIKE JOHNSON has already spoken to Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS about holding a special election right away — which there would be no need for if Gaetz were planning to be seated in January.
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Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr
