Gaetz withdraws from attorney general consideration

By: CNN

Posted: Nov 21, 2024 11:46 AM CST
Updated: Nov 21, 2024 4:10 PM CST

Patrick T. FallonAFP/Getty Images/File via CNN Newsource

By Eric Bradner, Kristen Holmes, Alayna Treene, Sarah Ferris and Annie Grayer

(CNN) — Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz said Thursday that he is withdrawing as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, writing on social media that his nomination “was unfairly becoming a distraction.”

Gaetz’s withdrawal comes after meetings with Republican senators this week, as Trump’s transition team sought to gauge whether he would win enough GOP support to be confirmed and Democrats were pushing to release a House Ethics Committee report into the former congressman.

“I had excellent meetings with Senators yesterday. I appreciate their thoughtful feedback - and the incredible support of so many. 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 wrote on X.

“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.”

Gaetz’s decision — which he made on his own, according to two sources familiar with the matter — was praised by several Senate Republicans, whose reactions offered a glimpse at the difficulties he faced after years of battling with members of his own party in Congress.

Democrats were pressing for the disclosure of the ethics committee report detailing its investigation into Gaetz, including over allegations of sexual misconduct and other alleged crimes, after the panel’s Republicans voted on Wednesday not to release the probe’s results.

Gaetz has vehemently denied the allegations investigated by the Justice Department and the committee, including the claim that he had sex with a woman in 2017 when she was a minor.

CNN reported Thursday that sources familiar with her testimony said the woman told the ethics committee she had two sexual encounters with Gaetz at one 2017 party, when she was 17 years old. She testified that the second sexual encounter, which has not previously been reported, included another adult woman. She also testified to both sexual encounters in a civil deposition as part of a related lawsuit, sources said.

After being asked for comment for CNN’s story, Gaetz announced his withdrawal as Trump’s nominee for attorney general.

Trump and members of his transition team were notified that Gaetz would be withdrawing before he made the announcement, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Gaetz called Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance separately to inform them of his decision to withdraw, per one source familiar with the calls.

There was a belief that more damning information would be coming out from the ethics report, and that members of Gaetz’s orbit learned there might be witnesses who had been interviewed by the committee who had been previously unknown, one source familiar said.

Multiple sources also said that while Gaetz’s meetings with GOP senators on Wednesday were not negative, it became clear that there were too many hard “Nos” from them, and that information expected to come out of the ethics report would likely make confirmation impossible.

While Trump was all in on Gaetz and believed he was the right person to “disrupt” the Justice Department, as one Trump adviser characterized it, many allies and advisers helping with the transition had serious doubts about Gaetz’s ability to make it through Senate confirmation hearings, two sources familiar with the discussions told CNN. Those doubts had been shared directly with Trump.

Trump had privately acknowledged that Gaetz might not be able to be confirmed, although he did not indicate that he would change his position of standing by him, one source said.

Trump’s allies, including some close to the transition team, had begun conversations on what would happen if Gaetz couldn’t get confirmed, but it was not immediately clear if any one brought those conversations to Trump.

Reacting to the news, Trump on Thursday said Gaetz was “doing very well” and suggested he has a bright future. “I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General. He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration, for which he has much respect. Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!” the president-elected posted on X.

“President Trump remains committed to choosing a leader for the Department of Justice who will strongly defend the Constitution and end the weaponization of our justice system,” Trump-Vance spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “President Trump will announce his new decision when it is made.”

Trump does not have a new name in mind for attorney general and now returns to the drawing board, two people familiar with the matter told CNN.

Trump has selected other controversial Cabinet picks, including former Fox News host Pete Hegseth for secretary of the Defense Department and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the Department of Health and Human Services. Hegseth, who faces a sexual assault allegation that he has denied, is meeting with senators on Thursday.

GOP senators glad Gaetz withdrew

Lawmakers with whom Gaetz met on Wednesday didn’t shield him from the reality of what was to come in the confirmation process, a source familiar told CNN. They impressed upon him that the coming weeks would require the former congressman to understand that Republicans were not automatically going to get to ‘yes’ just by virtue of him being Trump’s pick.

In one meeting, the source said, a senator wanted to know who had told Gaetz “yes” they were with him.

“They had five people at least on the committee just who had given them some version of ‘I wish you the best,’” the source said.

In the wake of Gaetz’s decision to withdraw, several Republicans applauded the move — making public the backlash that the former Florida congressman, best known on Capitol Hill for his role in ousting former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, faced within his own party.

“It’s a good thing,” Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the outgoing party leader, said.

North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer said there was no path for Gaetz’s confirmation. “I know enough people that were a ‘hell no’ in the conference to know the path would have been very, very difficult,” he said, adding that he wouldn’t have voted for him if the confirmation vote was held today. “If I had to vote on what we know today I would not.”

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican, said she was “pleased” with Gaetz’s decision.

Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who has been vocal in his past criticism of Gaetz, said his withdrawal “was probably a good decision.”

South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds said Gaetz’s efforts to win confirmation “would have been problematic.”

“I’m not second guessing the president. The president has the right to make the nominations that he sees fit,” Rounds said. “But the Senate also has a responsibility for advice and consent and in this particular case, I think there was advice offered, rather than consent.”

Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, said Gaetz’s withdrawal is a “positive development.”

Sen. Cynthia Lummis said Gaetz “must have gotten some signals yesterday during conversations that he was having with senators that this was going to be a distraction.”

“He felt this was going to be a major distraction and so good on him to recognize and be self aware to provide President Trump with an opportunity to choose someone who’s equally tenacious about addressing the Department of Justice,” the Wyoming Republican said.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, however, said he was “disappointed” that Gaetz withdrew.

“I’m disappointed. I’ve known Matt since I started running for governor, and he was a smart guy, worked hard. I had a great, great working relationship with him,” he said.

Will Gaetz return to Congress?

Senior congressional leaders in both parties are scrambling to determine if Gaetz — who resigned from the current Congress earlier this month — can return to the House next year after winning reelection this fall.

Lawmakers and senior aides believe that Gaetz can still return in January — a scenario that some have privately feared could happen all along, according to more than a dozen sources.

Even though Gaetz said in his resignation letter that he does “not intend to take the oath of office” in January, congressional sources say he is still on track to be named to the seat because the governor has not called a special election and he cannot preemptively resign from a Congress that has not started yet.

But it’s a complicated question with murky legal precedent. Some lawmakers have already asked the parliamentarian to weigh in and clear up the confusion, one source told CNN.

As for the ethics report, Democrats anticipate the panel’s findings are even less likely to emerge now that he has withdrawn from consideration and given how reluctant Republicans already were to release it. House Ethics Chairman Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican, has said part of the reason he has “reservations” about releasing the report is because it is not finished.

Yet at one point during the panel’s closed-door meeting on Wednesday to discuss their investigation, a staff member said it would only take a couple of hours to finish it, two sources told CNN. Democrats believe Republicans have been trying to delay the process.

The panel is expected to vote on the final report on December 5, but before then, the full House is still expected to face a question about whether to force the release of the report – unless it gets pulled by leadership as a result of Gaetz taking himself out of the running.

Although GOP lawmakers were willing to block the ethics report this week, there were signals that more Republicans would want to release it if Gaetz were on the cusp of being confirmed as attorney general. It would only take four House Republicans to join Democrats in voting to release it on the House floor, or one Republican from the Ethics Committee when the panel meets next month.

“We anticipate that there would be a growing number of members who would want this report released,” one GOP lawmaker told CNN.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Lauren Fox contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with additional developments.