Insiders said the charm offensive went well.
Matt Gaetz spent Wednesday in Washington, D.C., with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance meeting the key Republican senators he would need to secure his confirmation as Donald Trump‘s controversial attorney general.
‘Feedback from the senators on the meetings was very positive,’ said a source close to Vance.
And a day earlier Trump had made clear he had no plan B if it came to a test of strength. ‘No,’ he told a reporter when asked whether he was reconsidering his choice.
But that all unraveled spectacularly on Thursday, when Gaetz announced he was withdrawing from consideration amid the fallout from a federal sex trafficking investigation.
Neither Gaetz nor Trump is known for bowing to negative headlines or public outrage.
But sources close to Trump said it was becomingly increasingly clear that Gaetz was unlikely to make it through the Senate confirmation process with the first wave of appointments. If at all.
‘At best this was going to be complicated and drag on into February, March,’ said one source. ‘And a strong A.G. is central to everything Trump wants to get started on on day one … immigration, overhauling the D.O.J. …’
Matt Gaetz was on Capitol Hill Wednesday for what insiders described as ‘introduction meetings’ with key Republican senators who would decide whether he would be confirmed as Donald Trump’s U.S. attorney general
He was accompanied by Vice President-elect J.D. Vance. A day later it was all over, after Gaetz announced he was withdrawing his name from consideration
Trump did not push him out, but in a call Thursday morning the president-elect laid out the political and numerical reality.
The meetings on the Hill and Trump’s own calls to senators still left Gaetz short of the votes he needed.
‘They spoke and Trump made clear that he couldn’t move the votes in the direction that they needed to move,’ said a source familiar with the phone call.
‘Gaetz’s decision came after that.’
The pick illustrated how Trump is going about constructing his Cabinet. Gaetz has been a robust, loyal mouthpiece for the former president, and his promise to disrupt the Department of Justice was enough to outweigh questions about a lack of relevant experience, at least in Trump’s mind.
It also made him a target.
Democrats were pressing hard to release a House ethics investigation into allegations of misconduct.
Gaetz has always denied any wrongdoing, including claims that he had sex with a 17-year-old woman in 2017.
But in a sign of how the allegations had the potential to be a drip, drip, drip of awkward headlines, another shoe was about to drop.
Gaetz made his announcement Thursday, saying he didn’t want to be a ‘distraction’
Gaetz takes a selfie with Trump on January 30, 2018, after the State of the Union address
CNN said it contacted Gaetz on Thursday morning with details of a second sexual encounter with the 17-year-old, this time involving a second woman. He was asked for a response.
A day earlier, the New York Times ran other lurid headlines about drug fueled sex parties.
Soon after the request for comment, Gaetz went public with his decision. He called Vance beforehand to thank him for his efforts and to let him know the statement was coming.
‘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 wrote on the social media platform X.
‘Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.’
He had reportedly done the math, and concluded that there were at least four Republicans in the Senate who were adamant in their opposition to him: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and the newly elected John Curtis of Utah, according to the New York Times.
Some Republican senators breathed a rapid sigh of relief that a longrunning confirmation saga was averted.
Senator Markwayne Mullin, who clashed with Gaetz in the past but had sounded more positive after Wednesday’s meetings, said: I think because of the reports that were coming out, it was probably a good decision.’
Trump must now find a new attorney general and Gaetz will have to find a new job
Gaetz at Mar-a-Lago last week at a reception for the America First Policy Institute
Collins said Gaetz had ‘put country first.’
It means Trump must go back to the drawing board in his search for an attorney general. Insiders said he was unimpressed with his meetings with state AGs and lawyers from big firms who lacked the disruptor mentality he wanted.
He spent Thursday holed up with advisers at his Mar-a-Lago home as he puts the finishing touches to his Cabinet.
But seasoned observers of Trump said it was the only way out.
‘They only have so much political capital and this would have been a lot to use up right at the start of the administration,’ said Carl Domino, former member of the Florida House of Representatives, who predicted Gaetz would have to withdraw hours before the announcement came.
‘This was inevitable.’
