Matt Gaetz Is Trump’s Way Of Humiliating Senate Republicans
INSIDE: Tulsi Gabbard ... Pete Hegseth ... John Thune
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
It’s Going To Get Worse Before It Gets Better
In seismic move Wednesday afternoon, Donald Trump announced the stunning decision to make the supremely unqualified, deeply compromised, and unfit Matt Gaetz his attorney general, placing in charge of the Justice Department a man who until last year was under criminal investigation for sex trafficking by the department he would lead.
I thought I had steeled myself for a series of horrific nominations that could not shock or surprise me. I was wrong.
The unfortunately named Matt Gertz, a media watchdog who is frequently confused online with Matt Gaetz, captured the whirlwind of the previous 24 hours:”Matt Gaetz pick is so crazy people have forgotten the Tulsi Gabbard pick which was so crazy people had forgotten about the Pete Hegseth pick. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.”
The selection of Gaetz, who is nearly universally loathed, including among Republicans, caused even the toadyish WSJ editorial board to blanch: “He’s a performer and provocateur, and his view is that the more explosions he can cause, the more attention he can get. … He’s a nominee for those who want the law used for political revenge, and it won’t end well.”
Trump’s pick of Gaetz presents the Senate GOP with a stark choice: either defy Trump or be humiliated into confirming the most atrocious pick for attorney general in the nation’s history.
Will Senate Republicans Roll Over?
The reaction to the Gaetz news among Senate Republicans was rich, but it’s not at all clear that they can muster the resolve to block the nomination of someone even as outrageously flawed as Gaetz. A sampling:
“Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a 50-year veteran of Congress, stood speechless for 30 seconds when reporters grilled him on whether the widely disliked Gaetz deserved to be confirmed.”–Punchbowl
“‘I don’t think he’s a serious candidate,’ Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican who also has broken with Mr. Trump frequently, said of Mr. Gaetz.”–NYT
On whether Gaetz can be confirmed: “That’s what I am wondering,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R., N.D.) told the WSJ: “I need to think about that one.”
Other GOP senators were much more circumspect about Gaetz. In the declaration by Sen. Susan Collin’s that she was “shocked” lay the seeds of so many previous capitulations.
One of Gaetz’s detractors in the House was practically gleeful about the prospect of Gaetz going through a Senate confirmation vetting. “I’m surprised that Matt would do this to himself,” Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) told the NYT. “I want to go get a big bag of popcorn and pull up a front-row seat to that show.”
The Reaction To Gaetz At DOJ
You won’t be surprised by the internal dismay over the Gaetz pick at the Justice Department, which was already braced to be broken, undermined, and eroded by a Trump II presidency.
NBC News has an excellent rundown of some of the reaction:
“OMG”
“truly stunning”
“insane”
“What the f— is happening?!” asked a senior Justice Department official.
“How many other prospective attorneys general had previous experience as the subject of a criminal investigation?”
“absolutely unbelievable”
A quick civics reminder: The attorney general doesn’t just oversee Main Justice and the 94 U.S. attorneys but also the FBI, DEA, ATF, U.S. Marshalls, Bureau of Prisons, and host of other units and programs. Gaetz would be helming the bulk of federal law enforcement.
Gaetz Abruptly Resigns From Congress
Adding to the tumult of the afternoon, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) immediately resigned his seat, apparently to try to short circuit a House Ethics Committee report on his alleged misconduct that was expected to be released within days. The committee, which is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, doesn’t have jurisdiction over non-members, but the consensus appears to be that it could still vote to release its completed report on Gaetz. That would take at least one Republican joining with committee Democrats.
Tulsi Gabbard As DNI?!?!
The U.S. intel community was separately reeling over Trump’s pick of former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, the Democrat-turned-Republican with a soft spot for conspiracy theories and Russia.
A senior former intelligence official told Politico the choice was a “left turn and off the bridge.”
Among Gabbard’s many strange comments and moves over the years was that trip to Syria she took in 2017.
The brain worms are real with this one.
Don’t Forget Pete Hegseth!
Before Wednesday afternoon, Pete Hegseth as defense secretary looked like the Trump pick most likely to run into Senate Republican headwinds. The Pentagon was stunned by the pick, too.
TPM’s Hunter Walker took a dive into Hegseth’s writings while an undergraduate at Princeton, where he crusaded against the “glorification of diversity” and “the homosexual lifestyle.”
House Officially Remains In GOP Control
Enough House races were called to determine that the House majority will be narrow but remain in Republican hands.
Thune Elected New Senate Majority Leader
Senate Republicans elevated the current No. 2, Sen. John Thune (R-SD), to the lead spot.
Jack Smith Seeks To Pause MAL Appeal
Special Counsel Jack Smith has asked the 11th Circuit to pause his appeal of the dismissal of the Mar-a-Lago criminal case until Dec. 2 while the Justice Department figures out next steps in light of Trump’s election. This follows Smith’s similar move in the Jan. 6 case in DC and comes as Smith is expected to wind down the cases and step down as special counsel before Trump’s inauguration.
House Chair Detained For Public Intoxication
“House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul was detained by police at Dulles International Airport earlier this month in an incident that he described as ‘the result of a poor decision’ to mix Ambien and alcohol.”–Semafor
The Toll Of Florida’s Book Ban In Public Schools
WaPo:
“Florida school districts axed about 700 books from school libraries in the 2023-2024 school year, according to a Florida Department of Education list. …
Some of the removed titles that are works of classic literature, including “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess, “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut and “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, according to PEN America’s online tracker.
ICYMI
From over the weekend: “A group of people carrying Nazi flags demonstrated outside a community theater performance of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ in Livingston County, Michigan, in a display of antisemitism.”–CNN
Keeping An Eye On This …
The FBI raided the home and the seized the phone Wednesday of the founder and CEO of Polymarket, the election-betting site where a French national put down tens of millions of dollars on a Trump win. It’s not clear what the FBI is investigating.
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