Matt Gaetz drops out of AG race
Turns out, GOP Senators did not want to to be forced to vote for him
Donald Trump, the President-elect and former President from 2017-2021, brazenly suggested that he would use presidential recess appointment power and bypass the vetting process to install his chosen boot lickers, ass kissers, and servile sycophants.
To press that point home, Donald Trump announced he would nominate Matt Gaetz, a former Member of Congress from Florida (he had just quit), to be Attorney General.
The push back from the Left and from within the Senate GOP caucus had been a deafening scream of fear, shock, and a Saul Alinsky-like rationalization to defeat Pedophile Matt and his sex addicted persona.
If you're curious why Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration, don't fall for the Ethics Report tango that was going on between Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and the Senate. And don't buy into this is “the Political Left attacking Trump” crap.
The Fourth Estate, which has sold Donald Trump's mental acuity and troubling indicia of dementia as mere quirks and eccentricities, decided Matt Gaetz was low-hanging fruit as both the Left and Gaetz’s detractors on the Right were hungry to see him fall. That’s it.
Matt Gaetz, who was reelected with over 65% of the vote, had no intention of serving out his current term nor of being sworn in for his 5th term as Florida's 1st District Representative. He was going to resign before the House Ethics Report was released to save his political future. The AG nomination just made it easier.
That all said, the fear and dread that the truly offensive Matt Gaetz might become Attorney General with political blowback scorching Republicans in the House or Senate created a heightened level of concern among Idealists and Pragmatists on the Left.
Most Realists took their bearing from The Nation’s legal commentator, Elie Mystal, who wrote that Gaetz was going to do whatever Trump wanted and that that limitation was the least objectional possibility. Specifically:
“Matt Gaetz is an unserious person. He’s not known as being particularly savvy; he’s not a calculating man who knows how to maximize power, like Barr was. He’s not an inside operator with powerful friends, like Jeff Sessions was. He’s not even a dedicated Christian warrior like former attorney general John Ashcroft, or a constitutional scholar like former acting attorney general and Republican super-lawyer Paul Clement. He’s just… a guy. A “bro.” A creepy dude who allegedly shares pictures on the House floor of women he’s had sex with. The DOJ is the most powerful and dangerous executive branch—the institution that can be weaponized against average citizens’ basic domestic freedoms—and Trump is handing it to a guy who cannot fully comprehend the terms of service of his Venmo account.”1
If Matt Gaetz had gotten in through a recess appointment and a bypass of the vetting process (both of which Trump indicated he would do), the House would have borne the enmity of the public.
With no recess appointment and no vetting, the Senate would suffer the public's rath.
His withdraw let’s everyone off the hook, but gives notice to incoming Trump Administration that the gloves are off finally as far as the press is concerned. By the press, I mean newspapers and the like. The TV news circus continues to play bait and switch with its journalistic bona fides.
Of course, there are still 3 absolutely crazy nominations still on deck to contend with and my guess is 2 of the 3 will fail.
And it won't be the one that needs to fail.
More tomorrow.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/matt-gaetz-attorney-general/