WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump upended Capitol Hill late Wednesday when he tapped firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to be attorney general.
While some of Gaetz’s former GOP foes are warming to the thought of him as the nation’s top cop — even as other Republicans seem to be quivering before Trump — other lawmakers say they can’t even discuss his nomination because Gaetz is still being investigated over allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor.
“Actually, I probably can’t comment. I am on the Ethics Committee and need to be very careful because of an ongoing investigation,” a member of the 10-person House Ethics Committee told Raw Story in a text message Wednesday.
The committee is still investigating whether Gaetz “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct,” according to a rare release in June from the secretive panel.
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While rank-and-file members of the ethics panel remain mum, the committee’s chair, Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS), seems to be falling in line.
“I have great trust in President Trump and those people that he will surround himself with and put his confidence [in],” Guest told Fox News on Wednesday. “So, I’m sure that Trump and his transition team, have taken into consideration, all the good and bad, surrounding every one of the candidates that they’re looking at appointing. And so, I do not question President Trump’s appointment at all.”
While Trump pressured incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and his opponents to grant him recess appointments, some Senate Republicans have already changed their tunes on Gaetz and are willing — with caveats, of course — to support him as attorney general.
“I completely trust President Trump’s decision-making on this one,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said Wednesday on CNN. “Still, he’s got to come to the Senate and sell himself.”
Before winning his Senate seat, Mullin served for a decade in the House. He’s been an outspoken Gaetz critic and ally of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, especially in the wake of the “Gaetz Eight” ousting the former speaker last year.
But the tune Sen. Mullin’s singing now is a far cry from the one he was belting to Raw Story and other outlets at the end of last year.
“I don’t think he knows who he really is. He’s just that guy that’ll do and say anything to be relevant, and there’s no foundation to him. So there’s no limitation. You can’t predict somebody like that,” Mullin told Raw Story last December in the wake of McCarthy’s ouster. “There’d be nothing that would make me happier than to never see his face again.”
Still, even with former #NeverGaetz Republicans like Mullin hopping aboard this new Trump train, some of Gaetz’s current fellow House Republicans say the announcement by Trump is a head fake as he tests the bounds of his mandate.
“This is obviously a throwaway nomination,” a member of the Intelligence Committee replied. “Has no chance in the Senate.”
“The American people voted for change, and that is what they will get,” former Rep. Scott Taylor (R-VA) told Raw Story in a text message. “Matt Gaetz is sharp as a tack and will do a fine job.”
Matt Gaetz didn’t reply to Raw Story’s request for confirmation or comment. He has called the investigations against him “lies” intended to “smear” him.
