The Memo: Trump gives himself a black eye with Gaetz misfire

President-elect Trump has suffered a self-inflicted black eye with the withdrawal of former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) from consideration as attorney general.

Trump had startled even some of his supporters by choosing Gaetz for the crucial position atop the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the first place. 

Now he is seeking to move on as fast as possible by nominating another pro-MAGA figure from Florida — the state’s former attorney general, Pam Bondi — to take Gaetz’s place as his nominee.

In a statement on social media, Trump hailed Bondi as someone who could “refocus” the DOJ on fighting crime after it had been “weaponized” against him. Critics who recall Bondi leading chants of “lock her up!” against Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Republican National Convention may be skeptical of that claim.

In any event, Trump has incurred some damage over the brief course of the Gaetz nomination.

The former congressman — who resigned his seat only days ago, immediately following his nomination by Trump — was a divisive figure on Capitol Hill even apart from the lurid allegations that have swirled around his personal conduct. 

His reputation for show-boating and self-promotion meant that any reservoir of goodwill among his colleagues was shallow indeed. It seemed increasingly likely that his confirmation would have failed had he pressed ahead.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters on Thursday it was “pretty obvious” Gaetz did not have the votes to prevail in a Senate vote. 

Other Republican senators also expressed relief or approval at Gaetz’s unexpectedly abrupt decision to stand aside. Outgoing Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) told reporters it was “appropriate,” while Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) hailed the move as a “positive development”

Once the new Congress convenes, Republicans will have a 53-47 majority in the upper chamber, meaning that any Trump nominee cannot afford to lose more than three GOP votes, assuming all Democrats vote against.

Gaetz announced his withdrawal on social media, writing that he was “becoming a distraction” for the incoming administration.

The president-elect had intended to strike a defiant note with his picks for senior positions, eschewing the GOP establishment figures of his first term who his inner circle argued had undermined the administration from within. This time around, MAGA loyalists are to fill the ranks.

The wisdom and effectiveness of that strategy are now in serious question. And the same clouds of doubt that put paid to Gaetz’s chances could yet place a shadow over other controversial Trump nominees.

There are a raft of other questionable Trump picks, with most of the scrutiny, post-Gaetz, falling on media personality Pete Hegseth, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The trio are Trump’s nominees to become Defense secretary, director of national intelligence and Health and Human Services secretary, respectively.

Hegseth is perhaps the most endangered, after it emerged that he reached a nondisclosure agreement with a woman who had accused him of a 2017 sexual assault. The agreement involved Hegseth paying the woman an undisclosed sum of money.

No criminal charges were pressed in the matter, and Hegseth’s lawyer has portrayed him as the victim of a sexually assertive woman who wanted to conceal a consensual extramarital encounter from her husband.

Still, people around Trump are said to be irked that they did not know anything about the 2017 episode until it became public via The Washington Post. The nature of the allegations has also come into sharper view in recent days, despite the nondisclosure agreement with the complainant.

First, someone who knows the woman wrote a long memo to the Trump team about what she believed had happened during the incident at a Monterey, Calif., hotel. The memo then leaked. 

Subsequently, several media organizations sought and received the police report into the incident, which runs to 22 pages.

Hegseth’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, told CNN, “This police report confirms what I’ve said all along, that the incident was fully investigated, and police found the allegations to be false, which is why no charges were filed.”

It is true no charges were filed, though the police do not appear to have explicitly concluded that the accusation of assault was false.

Questions over Gabbard and Kennedy are more centered on their views than personal peccadilloes. 

Gabbard’s takes on foreign policy are painted by critics as excessively sympathetic to Russia. Kennedy has a history of deep skepticism about vaccines, as well as many other controversial comments, particularly about the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are still more Trump nominees who will attract some scrutiny, including TV personality Mehmet Oz to oversee Medicaid and Medicare. Oz has previously been criticized for the promotion of ill-proven diet medications on his television show.

There had been some suggestions when Gaetz was first nominated that he was a “sacrificial lamb” who would enable GOP senators to display their independence by voting him down — only to vote to confirm other Trump picks.

But that seems rather fanciful given Trump’s propensity simply to choose people whom he likes or who have shown loyalty, and the fact of Gaetz’s extremely early withdrawal.

In effect, Republican senators who are skeptical of Trump’s choices now have even more leeway to push back against other names.

It’s important not to exaggerate the importance of the Gaetz misfire, of course. Trump remains in a strong position after winning back the White House with his best performance in any of the three presidential elections in which he has competed. He retains an extremely firm grip on the GOP.

But this was an early miscalculation that takes some of the sheen off the Trump team, even within his own party. It also limits the room for further missteps.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.