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TRUMP’S SELECTION OF MATT GAETZ FOR AG SPARKS BIPARTISAN CONSTERNATION

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Bipartisan shock – and consternation – greeted President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement that sex-scandal tainted, mega MAGA Trump supporter Rep. Matt Gaetz was his pick for Attorney General. The pick reportedly generated negative reaction on Wall Street, among a big chunk of Republicans, Democrats and former Trump cabinet members.

Some Senate Republicans contend the nomination is doomed, but the operative question is now: will Gaetz and others undergo traditional hearings in the Senate or will Senators forgo their Advise and Consent role and allow Trump to do a vote-less recess appointment on his often exotic appointees?

Gaetz’s own allies don’t think this is a great idea. Some 30 Senators are reportedly ready to oppose the pick. According to CNN, “insiders” felt horror over the pick.

In an editorial, Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal blasted the Gaetz nomination and the reported recess appointment scheme:

Republicans regained the U.S. Senate last week with a decent majority, 53 seats, so it was strange the other day when President-elect Trump issued a pre-emptive demand that his own party let him make recess appointments, “without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner.” It’s easier to make sense of this brainstorm now that Mr. Trump says his nominee for Attorney General is the regrettable Rep. Matt Gaetz.

The Constitution restrains the President’s appointments by giving the Senate the power to confirm, or not, his nominees. Hamilton in Federalist No. 76 writes that this provides “an excellent check upon a spirit of favoritism in the President, and would tend greatly to prevent the appointment of unfit characters.” If Mr. Gaetz is nominated, Republican Senators would think hard about voting no. Hence, Mr. Trump’s interest in bypassing them.

Because the Founders had to travel to and from the national capital by horse, they also granted the President the power “to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate.” Such appointments are temporary but can last about two years. The point was to prevent the President from being left short-handed. “Until the beginning of the 20th century,” according to the Congressional Research Service, “the Senate was, on average, in session less than half the year.”

And:

Mr. Trump seems to be asking Republicans to help him exploit this exception by making it into the rule for presidential nominees. “We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY!” he posted on Truth Social. The prospect is that Mr. Trump might try to bully the Senate to go into a recess, so he can unilaterally make Mr. Gaetz the Attorney General, maybe until the end of 2026. He could fill other vacancies across the federal government in the same way, with no need for confirmation hearings or votes.

The idea is anti-constitutional, and it would eliminate one of the basic checks on power that the Founders built into the American system of government. If Mr. Trump gets away with it, the next Democrat to win the Oval Office would whoop through left-wing nominees. Whoever holds the Presidency would gain unilateral power to name cranks and cronies to offices of immense authority. Or maybe Mr. Trump’s attempt to eviscerate the Senate’s constitutional role would go to the Supreme Court.

In another editorial the WSJ wrote:

This is a bad choice for AG that would undermine confidence in the law. Mr. Trump lauded Mr. Gaetz’s law degree from William and Mary, but it might as well be a doctorate in outrage theater. He’s a performer and provocateur, and his view is that the more explosions he can cause, the more attention he can get. “It’s impossible to get canceled if you’re on every channel,” he once said. “If you aren’t making news, you aren’t governing.”

Mr. Gaetz has no interest in governing. When Republicans took control of the House in 2022, it was with a small margin. Rather than work to get things done, Mr. Gaetz sabotaged Speaker Kevin McCarthy before finally leading a rebellion to oust him. Eight Republican malcontents plunged the GOP into weeks of embarrassing paralysis, since Mr. Gaetz had no alternative that could command a majority. Finally Speaker Mike Johnson emerged.

Mr. McCarthy has intimated at times that he thinks Mr. Gaetz is primarily motivated by personal grudges related to an investigation into his conduct. According to an ABC News report from April, the House Ethics Committee obtained a sworn statement from a woman who says in 2017 she “attended a party in Florida that Gaetz also attended,” where there was cocaine and “bedrooms that were made available for sexual activities.”

Fox News contributor Ben Domenech gave this blunt view of Gaetz:

I realize that we are occasionally given to hyperbole about the untoward nature of politicians, but let me be clear: Matt Gaetz is a sex trafficking drug addicted piece of shit. He is abhorrent. His eyes are permanently rimmed with the red rings of chemical boosters. In person, he smells like overexposed Axe Body Spray and stale Astroglide. The fact that he boasted on the floor to multiple colleagues in the House of Representatives of his methods of crushing Viagra and high test Red Bull to maintain his erection through his orgiastic evenings is perhaps the least offensive of his many crimes against womanhood and Christian faith. The man has less principles than your average fentanyl addicted hobo. He likes them underage and he’s not ashamed about it. Matt Gaetz isn’t just your average extreme Florida MAGA Man, he’s a hypocritical ass with the worst Botox money can buy, pursuing an ever-thinner nose and higher cheekbones at every opportunity like a Real Housewife gone mad for fillers. Every Republican in Washington has an opinion about Matt Gaetz, and 99 percent of those opinions are “Keep Matt Gaetz away from my wife/daughter/friend and anyone I care about.” He is a walking genital, warts included as a bonus. If I was merely attempting to count the number of women I know who have had bad experiences with Matt Gaetz, I would run out of fingers and toes. If you vote for him to be the Attorney General of the United States, you don’t just need your head examined, you need to be committed to a mental institution. The man is absolutely vile. There are pools of vomit with more to offer the earth than this STD-riddled testament to the failure of fallen masculinity.

The BBC:

Donald Trump’s nomination of congressman Matt Gaetz to be his attorney general has arrived like a thunderclap in Washington.

Of all the president-elect’s picks for his administration so far, this is easily the most controversial – and sends a clear message that Trump intends to shake up the establishment when he returns to power.

The shockwaves were still being felt on Thursday morning as focus shifted to a looming fight in the Senate over his nomination.

Trump is assembling his team before he begins his term on 20 January, and his choice of defence secretary, Fox News host Pete Hegseth, and intelligence chief, former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, have also raised eyebrows.

But it is Gaetz making most headlines. The Florida firebrand is perhaps best known for spearheading the effort to unseat then-Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy last year. But he has a history of being a flamethrower in the staid halls of Congress.

In 2018, he brought a right-wing Holocaust denier to the State of the Union, and later tried to expel two fathers who lost children in a mass shooting from a hearing after they objected to a claim he made about gun control.

His bombastic approach means he has no shortage of enemies, including within his own party. And so Trump’s choice of Gaetz for this crucial role is a signal to those Republicans, too – his second administration will be staffed by loyalists who he trusts to enact his agenda, conventional political opinion be damned.

Gasps were heard during a meeting of Republican lawmakers when the nomination for America’s top US prosecutor was announced, Axios reported, citing sources in the room.

Republican congressman Mike Simpson of Idaho reportedly responded with an expletive.

What to watch: if Republicans give Trump his wish and axe hearings for recess appointments how will they spin it? It would mean Congress surrendering one of its constitutional powers and obligations.