The rise and fall of Matt Gaetz in eight wild days

Eight tumultuous days after United States President-elect Donald Trump selected Matt Gaetz to be attorney general, the congressman has withdrawn from consideration for the position.

It was an appointment that surprised Washington and sent shivers through the corridors of the justice department.

Trump settled on Gaetz, 42, during a two-hour flight from Washington to Florida last week, according to reports.

Still enjoying his election victory, the president-elect was flying back to West Palm Beach last Wednesday after a pleasant meeting with President Joe Biden.

That morning, Gaetz was not even on the list of candidates for America’s top law enforcement officer, according to Politico, but Trump was feeling pressured by his alternatives.

In the so-called Trump Force One that day there were Gaetz himself, Elon Musk, Trump’s chief of staff of the White House, Susie Wiles, and his senior legal adviser, Boris Epshteyn, reported the New York Times.

Epshteyn is reportedly determined to convince Trump that Gaetz should lead the Justice Department, which conducted a sex-trafficking investigation into the lawmaker before dropping the matter.

Gaetz, a lawyer, has been one of Trump’s staunchest defenders on Capitol Hill.

He helped prepare the Republican nominee for his televised debate against Biden that knocked the Democrat out of the race for the White House.

One Trump adviser explained why the president-elect — himself under criminal investigation by the Justice Department, and accusing its prosecutors of a witch hunt — took the spotlight from Gaetz against other opponents.

“Everyone else is looking at the AG [attorney general] as if they are applying for nomination,” said the unnamed aide to Bulwark.

“Gaetz was the only one who said, ‘Yeah, I’ll go over there and start cuttin’ [expletive] heads.’”

While Republicans on Capitol Hill reacted negatively to the nomination, staff attorneys at the Justice Department told the American media that they were surprised and angry.

Speaking at a conservative conference last year, Gaetz suggested that the Justice Department and its oversight agencies, including the FBI, should be abolished, as he said they were staffed by conservatives. The current Attorney General, Merrick Garland, dismissed these claims.

Critics say Trump – who has also named three of his former criminal defense attorneys to senior positions at the Justice Department – has been more interested in hiring loyalists than law-abiding appointees.

Trump’s former National Security Adviser John Bolton dismissed Gaetz as “the worst cabinet appointment in history”.

But the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, said the anger from the Washington establishment showed that his father’s unusual choices were the kind of reformers America’s voters voted to usher in.

After being appointed last week as attorney general, Gaetz resigned to represent Florida’s 1st congressional district, a seat he has held since 2017.

His resignation occurred at a time when the House Ethics Committee had to decide whether to issue a report on its investigation into allegations of misconduct including drugs, bribery and payment for sex including a minor girl.

Gaetz dismissed the claims as slander. But his resignation sparked a series of leaks in the days that followed as the ethics panel debated what to do with the report.

Few Republicans seem willing, on the other hand, to circle the wagons around one of the most unpopular lawmakers in the House.

Last year, the activist Gaetz faced criticism from his side when he helped oust Republican Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House.

Markwayne Mullin, a former House member turned senator, told CNN at the time that there was a reason why none of Gaetz’s colleagues would defend him against allegations of sexual misconduct.

“Because we’ve all seen the videos he showed on the House floor,” The Oklahoman said last October, accusing Gaetz of bragging about his sexual activities.

Gaetz said Mullin is lying.

As the controversy over his nomination for attorney general began to build this week, Trump called on chiefs in an effort to garner support.

Trump appeared to be sticking up for Gaetz as he attended the SpaceX rocket launch in Boca Chica, Texas, on Tuesday with Musk.

Asked if he was considering it, the president-elect said: “No.”

There was encouraging news for Gaetz on Wednesday as Republicans on the House Ethics Committee voted not to release their investigation into him.

It comes as Vice President-elect JD Vance is moving his attorney general nominee to the Senate in a provocative manner.

Gaetz said it was “a good day”. But there was turmoil before.

When asked how bad the confirmation process could be, incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, said the hearings could be about “drugs”.

As of Thursday morning, Trump was still calling on Republican senators to evaluate Gaetz’s chances.

But by lunchtime, the nominee had come to the conclusion that he didn’t have the votes and shocked Washington again with the announcement that he was showing himself the door.

“Although the momentum was strong,” he wrote in X, “it is clear that my confirmation​​​​was an undue distraction from the important work of the Trump / Vance Transition.”

Trump’s post on Truth Social confirmed that the volte-face — his first political reversal since being elected 16 days earlier — was unusually muted for a president-elect.

“I greatly appreciate Matt Gaetz’s recent efforts to seek approval to become Attorney General,” he wrote, adding that the nominee does not wish to be a “distraction”.

Hours later, Trump nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to replace him.

While Trump predicted a “great future” for Gaetz, a question mark hangs over what he will do next.

He was comfortably re-elected this month, but there are plans for a special election to fill his vacant seat.

Randy Ross, a Trump fundraiser based in Florida, told the BBC that America has not heard the last of Matt Gaetz.

“My opinion is that there is still room in the Trump administration, in Florida or in the future leadership of our country for this fanatic,” said Mr. Ross.

Meanwhile, Ginger Gaetz, who married the congressman in 2021, posted an old photo of X following their retreat on the steps of Capitol Hill.

“It’s the end of an era,” he remarked.