What More Do GOP Senators Really Need To Know About Matt Gaetz?

INSIDE: Pete Hegseth ... Kash Patel ... Mehmet Oz

(Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.

Will House Ethics Committee GOPers Bury The Gaetz Report?

The House Ethics Committee is set to meet today when it could decide whether to bury its completed report on recently resigned Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), President-elect Trump’s pick for attorney general. The committee is split evenly between Republicans and Democrats so it would take a GOP defection in defiance of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) for the committee to release the Gaetz report.

While new damaging information could be in the report, most of the details of the allegations of Gaetz are already public, and the House Ethics Committee vote is increasingly representative of whether Republicans will be transparent, show any inclination to air their own dirty laundry in the service of battling corruption, and put up any kind of resistance to Donald Trump. I hope you’re not holding your breath on any of these fronts.

Senate Republicans are registering mild interest at most in seeing the House Ethics Committee report, but there is no groundswell among them to make it public.

Meanwhile …

The Weird Gaetz-Adjacent Hack: Nestor Is Back!

In a strange development, a hacker apparently accessed files from a defamation lawsuit that touches on the allegations of underage sex and drug use against Gaetz.

In reporting on the hack, the WaPo offered this gem (emphasis mine):

Florida attorney Joel Leppard said in an interview with The Washington Post last weekend that one of his clients witnessed Gaetz having sex with the minor at a drug-fueled party in July 2017 — and that Gaetz was unaware of her age at the time but subsequently was told she was underage.

This woman and a second woman, also represented by Leppard, testified that they were paid by Gaetz to have sex with him and other individuals who attended these “sex parties.” They were paid through Venmo or other conduits — including the PayPal of Nestor Galban, whom Gaetz has referred to as his “adopted son.

Trump’s attorney general nominee was allegedly using his adopted son’s PayPal account to pay women for sex. By all means, release the House Ethics Committee report, but what more do GOP senators really need to know?

Hegseth’s Prospects For DoD

Republican senators are generally taking the same noncommittal approach on the controversial nomination of Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense as they are for Matt Gaetz as attorney general. Both nominees face sexual misconduct allegations on top of their woeful lack of qualifications, conspiracist tendencies, and extremist views.

Here’s Hegseth on podcast Monday night (yeah, this week) touting “a system of ‘classical Christian schools’ to provide the recruits for an underground army that will eventually launch an ‘educational insurgency’ to take over the nation (h/t Right Wing Watch):

Note the Beavis and Butthead laughter at the end when he disclaims that this is literal warfare.

Nightmare Scenario: Kash Patel At FBI

The Guardian:

Donald Trump is keeping his controversial adviser Kash Patel in the running to be the next FBI director, according to two people familiar with the matter, as the transition team conducted interviews for the role on Monday night at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago club.

The existence of the interviews, made public in a since-deleted post by the vice president-elect JD Vance, underscored the intent to fire the current FBI director, Christopher Wray, years before his current term is up.

Even if Patel is passed over for director, he is still in the running for deputy director of the FBI, according to the Guardian report.

Trump II Clown Show

• Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick: commerce secretary

• WWE co-founder Linda McMahon: secretary of education

• Dr. Mehmet Oz: administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

‘Hostile Takeover’

Behold this nugget in a good WaPo piece on how outside-the-lines the Trump transition team is operating (emphasis mine):

Thus far, Trump has left the job of vetting candidates to Stanley Woodward, a Palm Beach lawyer on his campaign who has represented several Jan. 6 rioters and Trump associates caught up in the classified documents case, according to transition staff who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the decision.

Remember this comes as Trump is bypassing FBI background checks for some nominees.

Senate Republicans will be validating all of this corruption if, as expected, they confirm all or nearly all of Trump’s nominees with minimal fuss.

UPDATE: The Withering Trump Prosecutions

• Hush money case: “Prosecutors with the Manhattan DA’s office made clear in a Tuesday letter: they want to see Donald Trump sentenced over the hush money scheme, even if means waiting until he leaves the White House.”–TPM’s Josh Kovensky

• Jan. 6 cases: “A Trump-appointed judge on Tuesday said it would be ‘beyond frustrating and disappointing’ if the incoming president grants sweeping clemency to most of the defendants charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.”–Politico

• Fake electors cases: “Election interference cases against President-elect Donald J. Trump and his allies are moving forward in Georgia and Arizona, but recent complications in each case have fueled speculation about whether the prosecutions are in more fragile shape than they were before Mr. Trump won the election.”–NYT

House GOP Targets New Transgender Member

The GOP 2024 effort to use transgender people as a so-called “culture war” attack is carrying right over into Congress, where the House GOP is targeting the first openly transgender member, Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-DE):

Trump Turns Health Policy Into A Zoo

• Michael T. Osterholm and Ezekiel J. Emanuel: How RFK Jr. Could Make It Harder for You and Your Family to Get Vaccinated

• NYT: Medicaid May Face Big Cuts and Work Requirements

• AP: What to know about Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump’s pick to lead Medicare and Medicaid

2024 Ephemera

• NYT: Key to Trump’s Win: Heavy Losses for Harris Across the Map

• Natalie Jackon: Trump’s decisive margin probably came from whims of low-information voters

• Slate: This Election’s Surprising Bright Spot for Progressives Is a Very Big Deal

GOP Launches New Power Grab In North Carolina

“Republicans in the North Carolina legislature moved swiftly Tuesday to reduce the authority of statewide offices that will be held by Democrats in the new year, fast-tracking a bill that makes major changes to state government’s structure and functions.”–News From The States

Texas Is A Lab For Right-Wing Education Policy

• “Texas education officials backed on Tuesday a new elementary school curriculum that infuses material drawn from the Bible into reading and language arts lessons, a contentious move that would test the limits of religion’s presence in public education.”–NYT

• University of North Texas responds to new anti-DEI state law by removing dozens of references to race and equity in course names.

New Civil War Death Toll: 698,000

Several dead Confederate artillerymen lie outside Dunker Church after the Battle of Antietam. The church was the location of some of the bloodiest fighting during the battle. September 19, 1862. | Location: Near Sharpsburg, Maryland, USA. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

An analysis of newly released census data estimates the death toll from the American Civil War was 698,000, with a mortality rate twice as high for the Confederacy as for the Union. “This is substantially higher than the conventional historical estimate of 618,000 but lower than the most recent estimate of around 750,000 deaths,” the authors of the new analysis said.

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