There are pictures and videos of Matt Gaetz, attorney general nominee, engaging in various revelries with young women. But if Gaetz has pictures, so do the other partiers. And there are Democratic operatives who would pay big bucks for those pictures to leak them to the media, making Gaetz a constant distraction.
Though President-elect Donald Trump won’t like it, there are several reasons why it would help him long-term if the Senate were to block Gaetz’s confirmation.
The first reason is that we have a president, not a king. The Framers of the U.S. Constitution knew what it was like living under a king, and they didn’t want that. So, they created three equal branches of government — executive, legislative and judicial — and each branch can put a check on, or be checked by, the others.
One of those checks is that the president must seek “the Advice and Consent of the Senate” when appointing government officers.
The White House often reaches out to key Senate leaders to gage their support or opposition to important appointments — that’s the “advice.” Trump didn’t do that with Gaetz, a huge unforced error. Several GOP senators are likely to oppose the nomination, and Trump will try to squeeze them to get a yes vote. But there are some independent-minded Republican senators who won’t like being squeezed.
Trump will need those senators to pass his legislative proposals and government reforms over the next four years. That will be easier if he avoids a Gaetz showdown now.
The second reason is the country’s top law enforcer can’t be seen as a law breaker. Trump’s designated White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, is quoted as saying Gaetz is “a man of integrity.” Gaetz is a lot of things: ambitious, loyal, a disrupter. But most of his colleagues see him as anything but a man of integrity.
As NBC reported two years ago, “The ex-Florida tax collector [Joel Greenberg] whose arrest led to a federal investigation into U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a former friend, was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in prison for sex trafficking of a minor and other offenses.” The Department of Justice eventually dropped its investigation of Gaetz’s involvement over concerns about witness credibility.
But those concerns didn’t stop the House Ethics Committee. It was about to release its investigation into allegations that Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct with minors, drug use and other actions but decided to hold off after he resigned his seat.
Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and has been quoted saying “every investigation into me ends the same way: my exoneration.” In that case Gaetz should support the Ethics Committee releasing that report, so that the public and senators who will have to vote on his nomination can see if it exonerates him. If there are privacy concerns, the report could be released only to the Judiciary Committee before voting.
The third, more damaging reason is to avoid a Hunter Biden-type endless scandal. For four years the public has been exposed to pictures of Hunter Biden engaged in various self-destructive behaviors — a huge distraction for the Biden administration.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told the media, “We had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor … of the girls that he had slept with. He’d brag about how he would crush [erectile dysfunction] medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night.”
If Gaetz has pictures and videos, so do others. When Democrats and the media get access, the public will be regularly inundated with them as long as Gaetz is attorney general. That’s not something Trump or the country wants or needs.
Fortunately, there are many outstanding potential attorney general candidates who are widely respected and have strongly defended Trump against the Justice Department’s investigations. And who would likely be on board with a thorough Justice Department housecleaning yet retain enough independence to tell Trump where the law does not allow him to go.
I don’t know if they would accept the nomination, but Alan Dershowitz, a Democrat, would be a great AG, capping a long and distinguished legal career. Law professor Jonathan Turley has often defended Trump and criticized the Department of Justice in the media. And libertarian-leaning law professor Richard Epstein is a third good option.
A Gaetz confirmation will be a distraction and constant headache for Donald Trump and the country. Better to lose this short-term battle now so Trump can win the long-term war.
Merrill Matthews is a public policy and political analyst and the co-author of “On the Edge: America Faces the Entitlements Cliff.”
