Trump's Trials - Matt Gaetz, Trump's pick for attorney general, withdraws

Episode Date: November 21, 2024

Trump's Trials is now Trump's Terms. Each episode, host Scott Detrow curates NPR coverage of the incoming Trump administration. This episode: despite what he called "excellent meetings with Senators," former congressman Matt Gaetz said Thursday he is withdrawing from consideration to lead the Department of Justice. NPR's Susan Davis speaks to Here & Now host Scott Tong.Support NPR and hear every episode sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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That's on Here and Now Anytime, wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Scott Tong in Washington, D.C. Former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz has withdrawn his name from consideration as President-elect Trump's next attorney general. On X, Gaetz wrote, quote, while the momentum was strong, it is clear my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump fans transition. There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle." End quote. Yesterday the House Ethics Committee declined to release a report

that detailed Gates attending sex and drug parties with a minor. With us now is NPR political correspondent Susan Davis. Hi Sue. Hi, how are you? I'm well. You're busy. Gates called this a Washington scuffle. In the end, how big a fight was this to try to get him through? You know, it wasn't much of a fight because it didn't even really rise to the level of the committee process yet. But I think from the moment that Donald Trump announced that Matt Gates was going to be his nominee for attorney general, it was very apparent that this was going to be an uphill

battle in the Senate. From the get-go, you had Republican senators privately voicing serious reservations, not just about the qualifications he would bring to the job, but obviously the litany of scandals and provocations that surround him and questions about character. So, I think that there's an element of relief among the Senate Republicans that a protracted conflict with the president-elect is now off the table. But the question now, Scott, is who does Donald Trump now name to replace him? Well, as for Gates, he was projecting confidence,

or he said he was confident when he was meeting senators yesterday, and the House Ethics Committee did not agree to release that ethics report. So why did he withdraw today? S. You know, generally speaking, when it is clear that a nomination is not going anywhere in the Senate, they pull out before they go through the process. Again, a Senate confirmation process, especially for a role like Attorney General, the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the United States, historically involves pretty extensive FBI background checks. It would require a televised public hearing,

which would put him under oath and on the record being asked questions about any number of his activities, including the allegations in the ethics report involving sexual conduct with a minor, which is alleged. And we should note that Matt Gaetz has publicly and consistently denied those allegations, but they have certainly clouded his nomination and his reputation on Capitol Hill. And then ultimately it goes to the floor for a Senate vote and there was just nothing indicating that he could muster the 50 votes that it was gonna take to be confirmed. All 47 Democrats were clearly gonna vote against him. His best chance was Vice President Vance being a tiebreaker. And we should note Vance was up on the hill with Matt Gaetz this week trying to use his power and his relationships with senators to make the case for it.

I think it's quite clear that that case just was not very compelling to the senators who had doubts about him. Not to kind of add to the speculation, but was there any sense, is there any sense in the reporting that there was more news out there that Matt Gaetz was trying to get ahead of? I'm not sure it's about more news. I think that there was still going to be an ongoing fight about this House ethics report that was unfinished because Matt Gaetz, recall, resigned from the House before the ethics

committee could finish its work. He also very publicly put out a statement a month ago or so saying he would no longer participate in the investigation. And the questions about whether or how this report could be publicly released were not going to go away. You had senators like John Cornyn of Texas and others saying that the Senate should be able to have access to that report. There was questions about whether a member could ultimately leak it, whether the public had a right to know. That question was not going to go away.

And there was no way, I think, to appease Senate Republicans to go forward with a process unless they had access to a document that Matt Gaetz frankly didn't want them to have. And withdrawing as the nominee for attorney general also likely puts that ethics committee report fully to rest. I don't think the motivation of the house now to release it isn't really there. House ethics does not have jurisdiction over former members of Congress. We have seen members of Congress in the past resign in order to get ahead of that ethics process. So I think that that was a very key detail here, the future and fate of that report. And briefly, so who might then be the next Pickford attorney general? We know that Trump has tapped his personal lawyer, Todd Blanch, to be the deputy AG.

Yeah, I mean, we don't know. It's hard to tell because I think senators were really surprised by the selection of gates. So where Trump goes from here, we don't know. What we do know is that the president-elect is very intent and focused on the Justice Department as a part of the government that he thinks needs to be, in many ways, uprooted and reformed.

The sense is that the Trump administration wants someone who's going to be a change agent inside the Justice Department. So probably someone, again, from outside the box or at a minimum, someone who has seen as a loyalist to the president and someone who agrees with the problems he sees in the Justice Department is a likely candidate. I think they've probably learned a lesson

from this failed nomination so far and potentially will probably focus on someone who might have a chance to get through the Senate. Yeah, very quick question. And Matt Gaetz resigned his House seat. Any chance he can get it back for this next Congress? Yeah. I mean, he said in his resignation letter that he did not intend to take the oath on January 3rd, but he could still technically do that. But again, if he re-enters Congress as a member of the House, I think that Ethics Committee report goes back onto the table and it becomes subject to ethics investigation once again. All right.

NPR's Susan Davis. Sue, thank you. You're so welcome. And before we wrap up, a thank you to our NPR Plus supporters who hear each show without sponsored messages and of course, who help protect independent journalism. If you are not a supporter yet, you can visit plus.npr.org to find out how you can get a ton of podcast perks across dozens of NPR shows, like bonus episodes, exclusive merchandise, and more.

Again, that's plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detro. Thanks for listening to Trump's Terms from NPR. This week on our podcast, Here and Now, Anytime, have you had a frustrating conversation about politics with someone you disagree with lately? Most Americans have, according to a Pew survey from before the election, so I'm going to guess that number has only gone up. We're kicking off a series on finding common ground called Conversations Across the Divide. Listen now on Hear and Now Anytime wherever you

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