Donald Trump might have to give up on his first Attorney General nominee, Matt Gaetz, who we’re now learning as the new week starts reportedly participated in drug-fueled orgies that included underage girls during his first term in Congress.
Gaetz resigned his seat in Congress after Trump nominated him to the Cabinet post, which was probably a bad idea, considering that 30 Senate Republicans have since expressed an unwillingness to vote in favor of his appointment to the post overseeing the day-to-day operations at the Department of Justice.
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U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine spoke with reporters last week before the most recent allegations against Gaetz were made public, and both had already expressed serious misgivings about the nomination.
“My head’s spinning,” was Warner’s initial reaction to Gaetz, before adding later: “I don’t think he understands the basic functions of this department.”
“Let’s see how this vetting and process goes through,” Warner said. “What I am concerned about is that by throwing out unserious individuals for some positions, that (Trump) is going to put such a fear in the government workforce, that the most talented in our workforce, the folks who’ve got the most expertise, they decided time to hang up, retire, leave.”
Gaetz’s candidacy for the Attorney General post does seem to be a troll from the president-elect. The Justice Department, under the current AG, Merrick Garland, investigated the allegations against Gaetz and decided against pursuing a prosecution, though that seemed to be a political decision more than a prosecutorial one.
The bipartisan House Ethics Committee was due to submit its own report on the allegations against Gaetz that is now seemingly off the table with Gaetz having resigned his House seat.
“Matt Gaetz as Attorney General is unacceptable,” said Kaine, adding later, in a conference call with reporters, that the Gaetz nomination “is an effort by President Trump to determine whether Senate Republicans have a gag reflex or not.”
“He’s seeing how much he can bully Senate Republicans by appointing people that privately they find completely unacceptable, but will they publicly vote against them?” Kaine said.
There would seem to be a similar issue with Trump’s pick to be the Director of National Intelligence, former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who has come under fire from politicians from both sides of the aisle for amplifying obvious Russian misinformation about the war in Ukraine.
“I know former Congresswoman Gabbard. There have been lots of reports about some of her ties to countries that are very unfriendly to the United States,” said Warner, who is the current chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, though he will revert back to being the ranking member when the next Congress assembles in January.
Which is to say, Warner will play an important role in the review of Gabbard’s nomination to be the Director of National Intelligence.
“That’s why we do, particularly for this role, there’s a background investigation. That’s what is done with every nominee, whether you’re a Democratic president, Republican president. I think it needs, there needs to be a thorough vetting,” Warner said. “I’ve got a lot of questions about Ms. Gabbard, but that’s why we have an advice and consent process, that’s why we have these hearings, even for the Director of National Intelligence. At least most of it is done in the public, and some of these claims of her ties the adversaries like Russia and Syria, there’s got to be both knowledge and explanation of that.”
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Chris Graham
