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November 15, 2024
President-elect Trump has sent shockwaves with his recent cabinet nominees. First, he announced the nomination of Pete Hegseth, a Fox News anchor, for the Secretary of Defense. Next, and far more controversially, Trump announced he plans to nominate disgraced Congressman Matt Gaetz for Attorney General. Democrats and Republicans alike were shocked by the pick, and it is leaving many worried about what the next four years will look like.
The New Republic reports retiring West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said “no one could believe it” on the Senate floor when the announcement came from President-elect Trump. The response is unsurprising, considering Gaetz is unpopular on Capitol Hill. Not only was Gaetz responsible for ousting his own party’s Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, but he has been the subject of a sex trafficking investigation (although no charges were filed) and a House Ethics investigation. Beyond his scandals, Gaetz is not uniquely qualified either. Attorney General Merrick Garland is a Harvard-educated a former Chief Judge of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. In contrast, Gaetz’s legal experience is limited to a brief stint in private practice, according to of Kinsey Crowley of USA Today.
Many assert that Gaetz’s nomination will not make it through the Senate confirmation process. Democratic Senator John Fetterman referred to Gaetz’s nomination as “nothing but trolling” in a video with reporters released by Fox News. Perhaps Senator Fetterman is on to something. Trump could intentionally be choosing sensational picks in order to get attention and enrage his political enemies, even if he knows they do not have much of a shot of getting through.
It is possible that Trump wants to exact revenge on the political establishment for, in his view, abandoning him when he lost the 2020 election and made false election fraud claims, which contributed to the far-right movement culminating in the January 6th Insurrection. Of course, nobody can get inside his head, and he could sincerely believe that Matt Gaetz is a good choice for Attorney General, even if virtually nobody else feels the same way.
Despite what is shaping up to be an uphill battle for confirmation, Matt Gaetz appears confident. He resigned from the House of Representatives upon accepting the nomination, though the move might prove premature if Gaetz faces resistance in the Senate. As the country moves forward from the bitter 2024 election, Democrats are definitely not comforted by Trump’s aggressively loyalist-based appointment choices. Nevertheless, whether or not these nominations end up making it through the Senate remains to be seen.
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