Congressional Republicans reacted with disbelief after President-elect Donald Trump announced his nomination for Attorney General would go to Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz—while the far-right congressman’s allies in the House of Representatives took an early victory lap.
Gaetz, who was first elected in 2016, has spent his time in Congress infuriating his colleagues on both sides of the aisle by picking fights on the House floor—including leading the effort to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Gaetz also found himself the target of a House ethics investigation for a series of allegations connected to a criminal probe into his friend, Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector of Seminole County, Florida—including accusations that he had sex with a minor introduced to him by Greenberg.
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Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told reporters he had “no good comment” on the nomination. Rep. John Duarte (R-CA) told Axios that the Florida representative would be a “compromised AG.”
Some reacted in disbelief—Rep. Mike Simpson asked a Punchbowl News reporter “are you s---tin’ me?” while a shocked Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville told a reporter for The Hill: “holy cow.”
But in a post on X later, Tuberville congratulated Gaetz on the nomination, calling him a “true conservative warrior” who will be a “fearless Attorney General who will go to war for the constitution.”
Gaetz, however, is sure to face a tough uphill battle to get confirmed in the Senate.
“Gaetz has a better shot at having dinner with Queen Elizabeth II than being confirmed by the Senate,” Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) told Axios.
Multiple Republican senators reached by the publication said they expected a tough confirmation process—Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) predicted he will face “a lot of questions,” while Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) said the Florida representative had his “work cut out for him.”
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) expressed tepid support for the pick, but also noted he would face a gauntlet of questions about his conduct during the confirmation process. Mullin has publicly feuded with Gaetz over the last year, and even brought up the rumors of sexual misconduct that made the Florida congressman the subject of the ethics probe.
“There’s no question that we’ve had our differences,” the Oklahoma senator told CNN host Jake Tapper on Wednesday. “I completely trust President Trump’s decision making on this one, but at the same time, he’s got to come to Congress and sell himself… There’s a lot of questions that are going to be out there, he’s got to answer those questions, and hopefully he’s able to answer the questions right.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Senate Republicans selected Sen. John Thune (R-SD) to replace Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, bucking MAGA world’s preferred choice of Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL). Thune will now have to preside over the confirmation hearings for the controversial congressman. Representatives for the incoming majority leader did not immediately return a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
However, Gaetz’s allies in the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus celebrated the appointment.
“We’ve stood together. We’ve fought together, We’ve won together. So proud of my friend and America’s next Attorney General,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) wrote in a post on X, sharing photos of herself with the Florida congressman.
“There’s now one better to lead the charge to dismantle the weaponized DOJ than my friend @MattGaetz,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) wrote in his own post. “President Trump could not have made a better choice.”
