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Matt Gaetz, who withdrew
his name from consideration as the next Attorney General of the United States
today, had previously resigned from the House of Representatives. At the time,
he claimed it was to facilitate the confirmation process, but of course, we
knew immediately that it was to prevent the release of a bipartisan House
Ethics Committee report on allegations he had used illegal drugs and had sex
with a minor.
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Gaetz was completely on
brand, lying about momentum as Republican senators abandoned him and claiming
his nomination was being treated “unfairly.” Cue the claims in another week
that he was the victim of a Democratic witch hunt, but we know the truth. Gaetz,
completely unqualified and credibly accused of the same kind of conduct the
Justice Department prosecutes, was rejected by members of his own party. Even
they couldn’t stomach Gaetz in the role of the Attorney General.
What’s up next for Gaetz?
He was reelected to the House and could return in January. He said he didn’t intend to
return when he resigned, but that seemed to be conditioned on the AG position,
and, in any event, consistency has never been a virtue for Gaetz. But that
would mean that release of the ethics report would become a live issue again.
Maybe Gaetz brazens it out, or perhaps Trump finds a post for him that doesn’t
require Senate confirmation. It would be great to think we’ve seen the last of
him, but that would probably be premature.
What motivated senators
to finally break with Trump? Likely a sense of self-preservation. As you’ll
recall, Trump started this whole debacle with a demand that Republican senators
permit him to bypass their confirmation vote and go out of session, so he could
secure his cabinet via recess appointments. In essence, Trump wanted to cut the
legislative branch of government out of its constitutional role in governing.
As we discussed, doing that would have meant senators were bending the knee,
and once you start down that path with Trump it doesn’t stop. Ultimately their
opposition to this nominee may have been less about who he was and more about
politicians who have caved to Trump at virtually every pass trying to retain a
modicum of their power (their dignity is long gone).
We’ll find out as they
consider the nominations of alleged rapist Pete Hegseth for Secretary of
Defense (he firmly denies it), anti-science and public health RFK Jr. for HHS,
and Tulsi Gabbard, who is frequently described as being Russia-friendly, for Director
of National Intelligence. None of them would be confirmed by a Senate acting
rationally in the nation’s best interests, but then that Senate would have also
convicted Trump on impeachment charges after January 6. So before we get
carried away and view the rejection of Gaetz as hopeful news about incoming
Senate leadership, let’s see how they handle the remaining noms.
One other nomination may
be in danger too. I haven’t seen this confirmed yet; by the time you read the
newsletter, it probably will be one way or the other, but there were social
media posts claiming Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Education, Linda
McMahon, lied about having a college degree in education when seeking a
position on the Connection Board of Education. She reportedly resigned a day
before she was going to be exposed in the press. If this is true, it’s
disqualifying and will be yet another test for the Senate.
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As for Gaetz, he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His daddy
is a prominent Florida politician and real estate investor, and Gaetz had an
easy walk into politics. Donald Trump, who capitulated to Senate opposition to
Gaetz this morning although he’d been reportedly working the phones for him,
still thinks Gaetz has a “wonderful future” ahead of him.
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By early evening though,
Trump had already made a new pick. That suggests he didn’t really put a lot of
time into vetting former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who held that
office from 2011 to 2019, before going on to positions important to her nomination
like defense counsel for Trump during his second Senate impeachment trial.
Trump more than likely already knew everything he needed to know to select her.
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Bondi has experience as
a prosecutor and with running a large office. And she gets high marks from
Florida lawyers who’ve worked with her for surrounding herself with very smart
people. But Bondi is a 2020 election denier with a long track record—that should
be an absolute disqualifier. How can Bondi say she’ll uphold the oath of office
that attorneys general take? Election denialism may be an article of faith for
Trump supporters, but it should be a death knell for any nomination to be
attorney general of the United States.
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She has a long history of
being aligned with Donald Trump. There were allegations in 2016 that she took
improper political donations from Trump’s charitable organization. The gist of
the story involved what some characterized as a bribe to get her to drop the
investigation into Trump University while she was Florida’s AG. At the time, a
spokesperson for Bondi denied “that a $25,000 donation
from Donald Trump is in any way connected to her office’s decision not to
pursue action against Trump University, despite dozens of complaints in
Florida.”
Most recently, she’s been running the legal arm of the Trump-aligned
America First Policy Institute. That’s the entity that sued the Fulton County,
Georgia, Board of Elections earlier this year for a member of that board who
wanted to have the right to refuse to certify an election based on a personal
suspicion fraud had taken place. The courts rejected the lawsuit, but Bondi’s
loyalty to Trump and willingness to ensure the outcome of the 2024 election
have never been in doubt.
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Bondi looks out into a crowd of Trump supporters, sees
a man holding a “lock her up” sign and says to the crowd, “Stay with me. Lock
her up, I love that!”
Bondi isn’t Gaetz. Gaetz
was completely unqualified to be the Attorney General of the United States. It
wasn’t a close call; it wasn’t a normal nomination. Bondi looks more “normal”
on the surface, and she has the kind of experience you look for for a position
like this. But even if she can competently handle 98% of the Department’s
work—the national security cases, violent crime, drugs, sex trafficking, white
collar cases, and so on—it’s the 2% that we have to be worried about. She
accepted Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 election even though her experience
suggests she knows it wasn’t true. What happens when Trump asks her to engage
in revenge prosecutions? Will she have the grit to say no? As someone who
doesn’t come from DOJ, will she understand the importance of independence, or
might she permit Trump to have direct contact and influence over criminal
cases?
That’s what this
nomination is about: is Trump going to get an attorney general who is willing
to sully the Department’s independence and let it become a political tool for
the White House, or will the Senate draw the line?
Bondi may not be Gaetz,
but she is also not her Florida predecessor as the federal attorney general,
Janet Reno, an experienced state AG who was beloved in her role at the
Department and known for being ethically upright. She knew how to keep her distance from the Clinton White
House, even investigating it and appointing a then-unprecedented number of
special counsels.
A friend texted me this
photo with the message, “I found Pam’s resume. Oh wait, it’s her Instagram. My
bad.” I have been trying so hard to avoid sliding into snark, but this collage
certainly reflects Bondi’s application to be Donald Trump’s Attorney General.
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A friend in Florida gave
Bondi props for surrounding herself with smart people, but said they were
afraid she will try to appease Trump. That’s a big concern to me, too. If Trump
demands it, will Bondi agree to conduct revenge prosecutions and go after people
Trump thinks are his enemies? Will she be willing to target the press or others
who have run afoul of Trump? If so, it doesn’t matter how experienced she is.
Democratic senators will have to extract a commitment from her to reject White
House interference in the work of the Justice Department, but it seems unlikely
that they will get it. The best we can say tonight about Bondi is that she’s
marginally better than the alternative.
At least we’ve now got a
floor on what it takes to be Trump’s attorney general. You can’t be completely
unqualified and credibly accused of using illegal drugs and having sex with a
minor. So, I guess that’s something.
We’re in this together,
Joyce
