How far are Republicans willing to go for Donald Trump? That’s what he’s hoping to find out with the attorney general nomination of Matt Gaetz, who was picked both for his loyalty—and what his selection will reveal about the loyalty of the Senate GOP.
The president-elect has already put his upper-chamber allies through their paces in the first two weeks since his victory: First, Trump demanded that the next GOP leader allow him to make recess appointments, making a willingness to part with their power a condition to preserve it. Then, he made clear why he didn’t want his nominees to face Senate scrutiny, as he announced picks so unfit they even gave some Republicans pause—including Pete Hegseth, a Fox host, for defense secretary, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vax conspiracy theorist, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
But no nominee has tested Senate Republicans quite like Gaetz. Not only is he deeply unpopular in his own conference; he was, until abruptly resigning from his House seat after the AG nomination last week, under congressional investigation over alleged sexual misconduct and drug use. The Florida Republican has cast the accusations as political in nature. But pressure on the House Ethics Committee, which meets Wednesday, to release its report has continued to mount, and details about Gaetz’s alleged conduct have continued to emerge: During a media blitz, attorney Joel Leppard said his clients, who were interviewed by the committee, testified that Gaetz had paid them for sex and funded their trip to New York, while one witnessed him having sex with a 17-year-old at a party.
Most Republicans have publicly suggested they remain open to Gaetz: “I’m going to give him a fair shot,” Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin, who has called for the Ethics report to be released, said on NBC News’ Meet the Press Sunday. But there are rumblings that his scandal and showboating might be too much for them: As the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan reported Monday, Trump himself believes Gaetz has “less than even odds of being confirmed,” even in a Senate where Republicans hold a 53-seat majority.
And yet, Trump is forging ahead, personally making calls to rally support for his embattled nominee. Should his pressure campaign work, he’d get more than a MAGA firebrand to do his bidding at the Justice Department. He’d have confirmation that the Senate majority would relinquish its advise and consent power, and simply act as his rubber stamp.
It remains to be seen if—and to what extent—Senate Republicans take a stand. John Thune, the incoming Senate majority leader, has said that while recess appointments are an “option,” he would prefer to “grind it out the way we normally do it.” His predecessor, Mitch McConnell, has reportedly suggested he’d try to force Trump’s nominees to be confirmed through normal Senate procedure. And, as Politico reports, nearly a dozen GOP senators have yet to commit to confirming Gaetz: “He’s got an uphill climb,” Iowa Senator Joni Ernst told the outlet.
But, of course, this is the Trump-era GOP, a party where the price of admission is fealty to Trump—and a willingness to do as he says. And if Trump wants his clown car of nominees confirmed? As Florida Senator Rick Scott told Politico: “I don’t know why they wouldn’t.”
