Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) defended former Rep. Matt Gaetz‘s nomination to be Attorney General under President-elect Donald Trump.
Schmitt was reportedly on Trump’s short list for the position before the president-elect announced he’d chosen Gaetz. The decision to nominate the Florida representative came as a shock to many, but Schmitt expressed his confidence in the decision.
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“We need an attorney general that is gonna actually get that department focused on what it should be, which is protecting the American people, protecting their constitutional rights. That’s what government’s supposed to do,” Schmitt said when asked about Gaetz on Sunday Morning Futures. “Its mission is to to protect our rights, not to infringe upon them and settle these petty political scores that the we’ve seen Merrick Garland do. It’s been a stain on the Justice Department. It’s been the worst four years that agency has ever seen, and we need somebody that’s going to go in there, shake things up, and get it back to where they should be.”
When host Maria Bartiromo asked Schmitt why he publicly pulled himself out of the running for AG, he told her his “heart is in the Senate.” As Schmitt is only two years into his first term, he expressed his desire to see out the end of it. Instead, he plans to vote to nominate all of Trump’s nominees as a senator.
“I think we need reformers. I think we need disrupters. I think we need people who want to see real change in these agencies,” Schmitt said. “And so we need real reformers up and down the cabinet.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) was also on the program and agreed with his fellow senator that Gaetz was the right choice.
“We need a fighter. We don’t need somebody who’s going to wade their weigh-in, feel their way around. Matt Gaetz has been there. He’s seen everything. He’s been up close and personal. He’s talked about it on the House floor,” Tuberville said. “He’s been in the Judiciary Committee. He’s not gonna be new to this. He understands it. He’s a lawyer. He’s very good on his feet. He knows how to interrogate people.”
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In addition to Schmitt, the likes of Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), former Trump administration official Jeffrey Clark, and former acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker were suspected to be in the running for AG.
During his first term as president, Trump had two Attorneys General, with Jeff Sessions serving until November 2018, and then William Barr.