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As last week got underway, Matt Gaetz was Donald Trump’s choice to be the attorney general of the United States. As this week got underway, the Florida Republican was an unemployed former congressman with a Cameo account.
Sometimes, when the mighty fall, they fall quickly.
Indeed, one of the many extraordinary elements of the Gaetz fiasco was the speed with which it began, unfolded, and collapsed. It was on Nov. 13 — just one week after Trump won a second term — when the president-elect announced that he wanted the scandal-plagued and manifestly unqualified GOP lawmaker to serve as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. Eight days later, Gaetz withdrew from consideration. The next day, Trump announced that a different Florida Republican — former state Attorney General Pam Bondi — would be his new choice for attorney general, and much of the political world moved on.
Perhaps, however, it moved on a bit too quickly. The developments came and went at such a pace, against a backdrop of many other controversial nomination announcements, that there was little time for accountability — which is a shame, because some accountability is in order given the severity of this debacle.
For Trump, this was both an important and humiliating post-election failure. He not only selected someone who had no business serving in the position, he did so while abandoning a responsible vetting process. Just as notably, the president-elect invested real political capital into these efforts, reaching out to several individual senators in the hopes of persuading them to back Gaetz to lead the Justice Department. It didn't work.
For Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, the embarrassment was just as severe. In his first post-election task, the Ohio Republican urged his fellow GOP senators to support Gaetz, even taking a personal and hands-on role, bringing Gaetz from office to office as part of the lobbying effort. Vance, we now know, failed spectacularly.
But the humiliation extends to some on Capitol Hill, too. Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, for example, suggested he was prepared to vote to confirm Gaetz, and even senators who knew better left little doubt that they were ready to put partisan interests above the nation’s interests. The New York Times reported two weeks ago:
“He’s smart — clever guy,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said of Mr. Gaetz, adding: “I usually support presidential picks to be in their cabinet. I’ve done that for both sides. That’s my disposition.”
I realize that political cycles move quickly, but Graham’s willingness to back Gaetz should leave a scar on the senator’s record that does not fade.
As for others on Capitol Hill, there might be a temptation to think the system worked. A president-elect made an obscene choice for attorney general; responsible senators from both parties balked; and the utterly insane nomination fight ended before it began in earnest.
But that interpretation seems overly generous. Gaetz walked away because he didn’t have — and wouldn’t have — the votes needed to advance, but it’s not as if the Senate GOP conference spoke with one voice. The New York Times reported last week:
Mr. Gaetz told people close to him that after conversations with senators and members of their staffs, he had concluded that there were at least four Republican senators in the next Congress who were implacably opposed to his nomination: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and the newly elected John Curtis of Utah. With a 53-member majority, four defections would be enough to defeat the nomination.
I’m glad there were four Senate Republicans who balked, but let’s not celebrate too heartily: There should’ve been 53 Senate Republicans who balked.
Those GOP senators who were prepared to toe the party line shouldn’t be forgotten anytime soon.