Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer said that Matt Gaetz’s nomination to head the Justice Department fizzled because it would have cost too much “political capital” for Donald Trump to try to push his confirmation through the Senate.
In a lengthy interview with Politico, the North Dakotan was candid about the president-elect’s most controversial picks for his upcoming administration.
Cramer lauded Gaetz’s decision this past Thursday to pull his name from contention, amid a slew of sexual misconduct allegations, which has paved the way for Trump to name a markedly more conventional nominee: former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.
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“I would say whatever the circumstances are, this is one of the more positive things Matt Gaetz has done in a while,” Cramer told Politico. “I think in terms of his patriotism, in terms of his honor, in terms of his respect for the institutions, good for him to recognize that early on and prevent further wasting of the resources.”
Cramer explained that Trump had told him as recently as Tuesday that he still hoped to push Gaetz’s nomination through, but that, in the end, the cost of doing so was apparently too great.
“I’ve been everywhere just saying that the hill is very, very steep and the capital that you’d have to spend to succeed, much less probably not succeed, with the confirmation would be probably more than it would be worth,” he said. “I think that’s how he gamed it out. And good for him for not spending a lot more capital.”
Cramer added that “political capital is our currency”—and that it’s “what you gather by doing things for people, with your partners, with your colleagues.”
The risk for Trump, according to Cramer, was that he would have had to start heavily leveraging his capital for Gaetz to have a shot as attorney general. Even so, it still would have been a longshot.
“Donald Trump would have had to spend a lot,” Cramer said. “If he was going to get Matt Gaetz across the finish line, he’d have to start transacting with some pretty strong skeptics. And it may very well be that there were not enough that were even persuadable.”
Of another eyebrow raising Trump cabinet pick, prospective Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Cramer explained that he is a fan of the former Fox News host who faces a sexual assault allegation.
“I think Pete, as a face of the military, as a warrior, as sort of a blue-collar, talented television personality, I think he gives hope to those people that say, there’s somebody at the top that actually understands my role in this military as opposed to just the general’s role,” Cramer said.
The senator admitted, though, that he thought Hegseth should drop his controversial stance that women should be prohibited from combat roles in the U.S. military.
“I think the landing position on it is simply the position that the requirement for combat readiness has to be the same for women as it is for men,” Cramer said. “And there are a lot of women who have met that standard that a lot of men could not. In which case, why would you not allow women in combat?”
