Handed the herculean task of rallying Senate support for President-elect Donald Trump’s bewildering nomination of former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) for Attorney General, Vice president elect JD Vance came up short.
Vance visited Capitol Hill with prospective cabinet nominees including Gaetz on Wednesday and, according to a Wall Street Journal report, performed admirably.
By the end of the day, support for Trump’s picks had stabilized. Even for scandal-plagued Gaetz, who is facing allegations of paying for sex, having sex with minors, and taking illegal drugs in a House ethics report. Gaetz denies the claims.
ADVERTISEMENT
But a day later, Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration for the country’s top law enforcement post, saying he was “unfairly becoming a distraction” for the incoming administration.
Trump personally phoned him that morning to tell him he did not have the support among Senate Republicans for confirmation, CNN reported.
The implosion of Gaetz’s nomination coincided with the first test of a new role for Vance, who in recent months was most frequently deployed as a campaign attack dog.
The Journal reported Trump transition officials expect Vance to be a crucial lead on the administration’s outreach to Congress, where he has served as Ohio’s junior senator since January 2023.
In addition to advocating for cabinet nominees in the coming weeks, he’ll be tasked with shoring up support for bills Trump wants brought to the House and Senate floors.
But Trump’s brazen nomination of a man accused of joining drug-fuelled sex orgies proved Vance’s effectiveness might be hamstrung by the headstrong impulses of his boss, which frequently leave even top Republicans scratching their heads.
Vance will now turn to Trump’s other controversial nominees, including the reporter sexting anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., tapped to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services.
On Saturday, Jerome Adams, who served as Surgeon General during Trump’s first term in office, warned the incoming administration to ensure “vaccine confidence stays high,” alluding to Kennedy’s conspiratorial views.
Then there’s former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for Director of National Intelligence, who has downplayed atrocities committed under the rule of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and whose Kremlin-adjacent views have made her a darling of Russian state media.
Republican Senators are already saying privately that they want to take a look at her FBI file, Punchbowl reported.
There’s also political neophyte Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host and former Army National Guard officer who Trump has nominated for the Defense Secretary post.
Hegseth has in recent days been dogged by revelations that he paid off a sexual assault accuser in 2017 because he feared her allegations would derail his cable news career. He denies any wrondoing.
Vance will now have to pick up the pieces after the Gaetz disaster and marshal Trump’s other controversial picks to confirmation.
Transition officials and lawmakers close to the team told the Journal Vance is considered “an extra asset.” Given Trump’s moody and mercurial ways—and his cozying up to MAGA billionaire Elon Musk as his top post-election advisor—the Vice President-elect better hope that doesn’t one day translate to surplus to requirement.
