Matt Gaetz Withdraws as Nominee for Attorney General

Happy Friday! Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, this week presented Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni with a figurine of himself wielding a chainsaw. 

If we were going to gift someone action figures of the TMD crew, the statuette versions of us would be holding em dashes aloft like a weapon. 

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz on Thursday withdrew his name from consideration to be attorney general in the incoming Trump administration. “While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” he tweeted. “There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General.” Gaetz has faced a House Ethics investigation over allegations of sexual misconduct—including sex with a minor—and drug use. President-elect Donald Trump later on Thursday named Pam Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, as his new nominee. 
• Russia fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile at the Dnipro region of Ukraine on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed. Putin said Thursday that the missile, which he called “experimental,” can travel at 10 times the speed of sound. The strike comes after the United States and the United Kingdom allowed Ukraine to use Western long-range weapons to strike Russian territory earlier this week. “We believe that we have the right to use our weapons against military facilities of the countries that allow to use their weapons against our facilities,” Putin said in a televised address. The missile, though conventionally armed, is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the missile’s usage “a clear and severe escalation in the scale and brutality of this war.” Russia reportedly informed the U.S. of the incoming ballistic missile 30 minutes before the strike, and Ukrainian officials claimed six of the missiles in the barrage were shot down, with only the ballistic reaching the Ukrainian city. 
• Two undersea internet cables were cut in the Baltic Sea this week: one connecting Sweden and Lithuania and another between Finland and Germany. Both Swedish and Finnish authorities have opened investigations into the incidents, and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Tuesday he suspects the cables were cut as an act of sabotage. U.S. officials suggested the cables were accidentally cut by a ship dragging its anchor along the sea floor while Swedish officials identified a Chinese vessel as “of interest” in its sabotage investigation. 
• Lawyers with the Department of Justice late on Wednesday formally asked the D.C. circuit court to force Google to sell off its Chrome web browser after a federal judge ruled earlier this year that Google was violating U.S. antitrust law. The sale would “permanently stop Google’s control of this critical search access point and allow rival search engines the ability to access the browser that for many users is a gateway to the internet,” the DOJ said. It’s unclear whether lawyers from the incoming Trump administration would push for such stringent penalties on Google. 
• The International Criminal Court on Wednesday issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif, whom Israel has said was killed in an airstrike. ICC prosecutors claim Gallant and Netanyahu committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, specifically using starvation as a weapon of war and intentionally targeting civilians. Netanyahu panned the warrants as based on “absurd and false accusations” and a White House spokesperson said the U.S. “fundamentally rejects the Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants” against Netanyahu and Gallant. 
• Sales of previously owned homes rose 3.4 percent in October from the previous month, according to a Thursday report from the National Association of Realtors. Home sales were also up 2.9 percent year-over-year in October, the first yearly increase in three years. The jump in home sales coincided with a dip in mortgage rates in September.  
• The U.S. Treasury Department said Thursday it had sanctioned Russia’s Gazprombank, the last of Russia’s financial institutions to avoid U.S. sanctions because of its involvement in energy markets. The Treasury Department said the bank “is a conduit for Russia to purchase military materiel for its war effort against Ukraine” and that the Russian government uses the bank to pay its soldiers fighting in Ukraine. The bank is now unable to handle any energy transactions that interact with U.S. financial institutions. The sanctions also freeze the bank’s U.S.-held assets. 
• At least 38 people were killed Thursday in northwestern Pakistan when gunmen opened fire on two vehicle convoys. Most of the dead were Shiite Muslims, a minority in the primarily Sunni Muslim country who have frequently been the targets of attacks in recent months in that province of Pakistan, near Afghanistan. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in months. 
• Brazilian authorities on Thursday said they were recommending charges against former President Jair Bolsonaro for “violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d’état and criminal organization” related to his refusal to concede the 2022 presidential election and alleged participation in an effort to stay in power following his loss. The indictment will be referred to the prosecutor-general, who will decide whether to pursue the charges.

Lots of Advice, No Consent

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida didn’t even last a full Scaramucci—that is, 11 days, or the length of time Anthony Scaramucci served as former President Donald Trump’s communications director during Trump’s first term. 

Just eight days after Trump named the Florida congressman as his nominee for attorney general, Gaetz backed out. Trump later on Thursday said he intended to nominate former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to the position instead.

Gaetz’s withdrawal sends an important signal: GOP senators do seem to have a breaking point when it comes to their loyalty to the president-elect, and Trump may not get everything he wants from Senate Republicans—even with a solid GOP majority in the chamber.

But first, his selection had rocked Washington—and apparently even Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, who was out of earshot when another aide convinced Trump to name Gaetz. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she was “shocked” upon hearing about the pick last week. There was reportedly an audible gasp in a room where House Republicans were meeting when they read Trump had selected Gaetz.  

Why? Trump had chosen Gaetz to lead an agency that had for two years investigated him for alleged child sex trafficking, though the Justice Department ultimately declined to charge the congressman. And at the time of Trump’s decision to nominate Gaetz, the House Ethics Committee was investigating whether he had “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.” Gaetz has maintained his innocence. Republican senators last week generally demurred on whether they would support his nomination, opting to defer to the Senate’s “advice and consent” role.

But after meeting with Republican senators on Wednesday—accompanied by Vice President-elect and sitting Sen. J.D. Vance—Gaetz announced yesterday that he would end his quest to become the top law enforcement officer in America. “While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” Gaetz tweeted. “There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General.  Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.”

The same day, Trump announced that Bondi, who served as Florida attorney general from 2011 to 2019, would be his new nominee. “For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans – Not anymore,” Trump said in a statement. “Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again. I have known Pam for many years — She is smart and tough, and is an AMERICA FIRST Fighter, who will do a terrific job as Attorney General!” 

Bondi worked in Trump’s first administration and led the legal arm of America First Policy Institute, a think tank dedicated to promoting Trump’s agenda. In the aftermath of Election Day 2020, Bondi parroted Trump’s false claims of fraud and said at a press conference with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani that the then-president had won Pennsylvania before the state, which eventually went for President Joe Biden, had been called.

The president-elect on Thursday morning reportedly called Gaetz, who had remained bullish about his chances, to tell him it was game over after more senators than he could afford to lose had apparently indicated they wouldn’t support the nomination. With Republicans holding a 53-47 majority in the Senate, Gaetz could only afford to lose three Republican senators, with Vance around to serve as the tie-breaking vote. “The Senate also has a responsibility for advice and consent—and in this particular case, I think there was advice offered, rather than consent,” GOP Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota told Politico.  

Some senators with whom Gaetz met yesterday to make his case apparently did not get advance warning of the announcement. “I learned about it the same way everyone else did, by reading the statement,” Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas—who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, before which Gaetz would have testified—told reporters Thursday. “I assume it was because there were challenges in Senate confirmation. I had a good and productive meeting with Matt Gaetz yesterday.” Asked whether those “challenges” came up during the pair’s meeting, he added: “The topic of our discussion will remain between us.”

One thing that almost undoubtedly came up during Gaetz’s meetings with senators was the contents of a yet-to-be-released report on the House Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz.

The investigation was reportedly nearing completion last week, though it’s unclear whether the report would have been released publicly. Complicating matters, Gaetz resigned the same day Trump announced his nomination, which would typically mean the end of a House Ethics investigation.

Senators of both parties said they were interested in the results of the inquiry as part of their “advice and consent” role. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called on the Ethics committee to “preserve and share” the report with his own panel. His Republican fellow committeeman, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, told reporters he wanted to see “everything” with regard to vetting Gaetz.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, though, said he did not support releasing the report on the grounds that Gaetz was no longer a member of Congress. “That is not the way we do things in the House, and I think that would be a terrible precedent to set,” he said last week. 

But Democrats have argued that there is precedent for releasing a report on a member after he has resigned from the House. Democratic Rep. Bill Boner of Tennessee resigned in 1987, but the Ethics Committee two months later released its report on an investigation into allegations he’d accepted bribes and misused campaign funds. The panel argued then that “the general policy against issuing reports in cases such as here involved is outweighed by the responsibility of the Committee to fully inform the public regarding the status and results of its efforts up to the date of Representative Boner’s departure from Congress.”

On Wednesday, members of the Ethics Committee—an even number of Republicans and Democrats, unlike most House panels that have a partisan majority—considered the report’s release at a meeting but concluded without a decision to make it public. “There was not an agreement by the committee to release the report,” GOP Rep. Michael Guest, the committee’s chair, told reporters after the gathering. Axios reported that the 10-member committee was divided on party lines over whether to share the report, short of the majority support needed to take that step.

But there are always leaks. With the fate of the report’s release in limbo, press reports painted an ugly picture of Gaetz’s character. The day after his nomination, ABC News reported that a woman testified to the committee that Gaetz had sex with her when she was 17 years old. Gaetz apparently announced his withdrawal from the confirmation process after CNN had contacted him for comment on a report that the woman testified to the Ethics committee that he actually had two sexual encounters with her at the same party when she was a minor.

It’s not just salacious personal allegations that followed Gaetz into the confirmation process: He also has no shortage of enemies in his professional life. His reputation as a firebrand in the House of Representatives meant he had vanishingly few political allies—especially after he led the effort to oust then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year. Following Thursday’s announcement, Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, a Republican in a swing district, invoked McCarthy in a celebratory social media post. “Justice has been served,” he wrote. On Wednesday, Lawler also handed out bottles of water to the members of the press waiting for the House Ethics meeting to adjourn. 

Gaetz’s political maneuvering may have also contributed to his poor showing in the Senate. Earlier this year Gaetz endorsed Rep. Matt Rosendale in the Republican primary race for Montana’s Senate seat. “I’m 100% sure Mitch McConnell has a candidate in the Montana GOP Primary,” he said of the outgoing Senate majority leader. “And 1000% sure it isn’t Matt Rosendale. Fire Mitch.  Support Rosendale.”  

Months earlier, National Republican Senatorial Committee chair Sen. Steve Daines, who also represents Montana, backed Tim Sheehy, who ultimately advanced to the general and unseated the incumbent Democrat, Sen. John Tester. The move likely angered the current and incoming GOP Montana Senate delegation.

Daines was terse when asked about Gaetz’s dropping out on Thursday. “I respect his decision,” he told TMD. Any thoughts on why he decided to withdraw? “I respect his decision,” Daines repeated.

As has often been the case during his career, McConnell got the last laugh. Asked about Gaetz’s decision to take himself out of the running on Thursday, McConnell said, “I think that was appropriate.”

Worth Your Time

• Regardless of the outcome of the war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has already suffered a “strategic defeat,” Carl Bildt, the former prime minister of Sweden, wrote for Project Syndicate. “For the past two decades, his own myopic, destructive policies have forced Ukraine to turn toward the West for support and solidarity,” Bildt argued. “Time after time, the Kremlin’s heavy-handed efforts have backfired, leaving Ukrainians even more determined to align themselves with the West. Contrary to what some Western commentators and Kremlin propagandists claim, this was never a case of the West expanding eastward as part of some malevolent plot. It was the Ukrainians who were making the strategic moves, which reflected Putin’s efforts to curtail their sovereignty. … The only certain outcome of his misadventure will be the hatred that Ukrainians now bear toward Russia. This will have long-lasting consequences, and it already represents a major strategic defeat for Russia. Responsibility for the situation starts and ends with Putin. The West could never have achieved what Putin has: Ukraine’s total alienation from Russia.” 
• What can a mother and daughter learn from taking violin lessons together? “Two years ago, my then-five-year-old daughter started taking violin lessons. This was entirely my idea,” Maria Baer wrote for Plough. “I spent my childhood desperately wishing to play the violin, only to be plopped in front of a piano instead (which I loved, nonetheless). So, renting that little one-eighth violin (it looked like a doll’s instrument) and placing it gently in my girl’s hands every Monday after school was absolutely an attempt to live vicariously through her.” Then she decided to join her. “Along with the notes and the posture, my girls and I are learning the intangibles—like feeling a little silly doing something but then doing it anyway. And what it feels like to fail at something, over and over, before we get it right even once. Mostly, we’re learning how to be frustrated, discouraged, bored, and just generally uncomfortable—and how to keep practicing anyway.” 

Presented Without Comment

The Hill: Trump Selling $11,000 Signed MAGA Guitars

Also Presented Without Comment

NBC News: Man Who Spent $6.2 Million on Banana Duct-taped to Wall Says He’s Going to Eat It 

In the Zeitgeist

“Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls recently was certified “Diamond” by the Recording Industry Association of America—meaning it was sold or downloaded more than 10 million times. In honor of that milestone, here’s a throwback to an iconic, rain-soaked performance of the hit 20 years ago: 

Toeing the Company Line

• In the newsletters: Nick wondered whether authoritarianism with the “patina of legitimacy” was better for America than naked power grabs, and Will expressed some optimism for tech policy in the new administration. 
• On the podcasts: Kevin filled in for Jonah on The Remnant joined by Frank Bruni of the New York Times. 
• On the site: Mike reports on Florida as the epicenter of politics, Kevin wonders whether Trump will be able to hold his coalition together, and Andy Smarick explains the confirmation process.

Let Us Know

Were you surprised Gaetz withdrew?