CNN
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As Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and Matt Gaetz left the Capitol building Wednesday where they spent time trying to convince Republican senators to confirm the former Florida congressman as attorney general, Vance told reporters. , said the talks “went well.”
But on Thursday morning, President-elect Donald Trump called Gates with the bad news. Mr. Trump told Mr. Gaetz that he did not have the votes to confirm him in the Senate, according to a person with direct knowledge of the call.
The president-elect did not instruct Gaetz to resign, the person said. There was no need for that. Early Thursday afternoon, Gaetz, who resigned from the House of Representatives on the day President Trump announced his pick to head the Justice Department, wrote on social media that he was declining his nomination, saying it was “unfairly intrusive.”
“We have no time to waste on unnecessarily prolonged Washington brawls. Therefore, I am withdrawing my name from consideration for attorney general. Trump’s Justice Department must be staffed and ready from day one. ” Gates wrote.
By the end of the day, President Trump announced former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as his new attorney general nominee.
Gaetz’s move came in the face of bipartisan pressure, especially as Democrats pressed for the release of the House Ethics Committee report. During his four terms in the House, Mr. Gates’ firebombing political tactics alienated many in his party, including members of the Senate who greeted his choice for attorney general with skepticism.
Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said Thursday that “it has become clear that there is no path forward” for Gates to become attorney general, and that it is not worth investing political capital in the nomination.
“I know enough people at the conference who were ‘absolutely no’ to know that that path would have been very difficult,” Kramer said, adding that if he had been forced to make the decision today, He added that he would have been one of the non-voters.
Despite Mr. Vance and Mr. Gaetz’s outward optimism on Wednesday, people familiar with the matter said lawmakers did not protect Mr. Gaetz from the realities of what was to come in the confirmation process, and that Trump He said it was not enough that he was chosen. To guarantee him the votes he needs.
Sources told CNN that in one meeting, Republican senators asked who on the committee they could actually convince to vote for them and how many votes they thought they had received. They would like Mr. Gates to consider this. One by one, the senators demanded to know who had told Gates, “Yes, I’m with you.”
“There were at least five people on their committee who said, ‘Rest in peace,’ in one way or another,” the source said.
Meanwhile, Democrats detailed the investigation into Gates, including sexual misconduct and other criminal charges, after Republicans on the House Ethics Committee voted Wednesday not to release the findings. They requested that the report be made public.
Gates has vehemently denied the allegations investigated by the Justice Department and the committee, including allegations that he had a sexual relationship with a woman in 2017 when he was a minor.
CNN reported Thursday that a person familiar with the woman’s testimony told the Ethics Committee that she had two sexual encounters with Gates at a party in 2017 when she was 17 years old. Said. She testified that a second, previously unreported sexual encounter involved another adult female. She also testified about both sexual encounters in a civil deposition as part of a related lawsuit, officials said.
After being asked to comment on the CNN article, Gaetz announced he was withdrawing from President Trump’s nomination for attorney general.
Trump and members of his transition team were informed of the withdrawal before Gates made the announcement, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Mr. Gaetz called Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance separately to inform them of his decision to withdraw, according to a person familiar with the call.
It is believed that more damning information will come out of the ethics report, with members of Gates’ orbit possibly having previously unknown witnesses interviewed by the committee. One person said they had learned something.
Sources also said that while Wednesday’s meeting between Gaetz and Republican senators was not negative, it became clear that there were too many hard “no’s” from them, and that the ethics report did not yield any positive results. He said that there is a high possibility that it will be impossible to confirm the information that is expected to be released.
President Trump was in full support of Gaetz and believed he was well-placed to “disrupt” the Justice Department, as one Trump adviser characterized it, but he also believed that he was well-placed to “disrupt” the Justice Department, as one Trump adviser characterized it, and that many allies and the transition Advisers supporting Mr. Gaetz had serious doubts about whether he would be able to pass his Senate confirmation hearing. two people familiar with the discussions told CNN. These suspicions were also conveyed directly to Mr. Trump.
One source said President Trump privately acknowledged that Gaetz might not be confirmed, but had no intention of changing his support for Gaetz.
Mr. Trump’s allies, including those close to his transition team, had begun discussions about what would happen if Mr. Gates was not approved, but it is unclear whether anyone brought those discussions to Mr. Trump. It wasn’t immediately obvious.
Following the news, President Trump said Thursday that Gaetz was “doing very well” and suggested he had a bright future ahead of him. “I’m very grateful for Matt Gaetz’s recent efforts to get him confirmed as attorney general. He’s done a very good job, but at the same time I didn’t want to get in the way of the administration and I have a lot of respect for the administration. Matt has a great future and I look forward to seeing him do great things,” the president-elect posted on X.
“President Trump remains committed to selecting leaders for the Department of Justice who will strongly defend the Constitution and end the weaponization of our justice system,” Caroline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for President Trump and Vance, said in a statement. said. “President Trump will announce new decisions as soon as they are made.”
Two people familiar with the matter told CNN that President Trump had not considered a new name for attorney general and was back to square one.
President Trump has also selected other controversial Cabinet nominees, including former Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be secretary of the Pentagon and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be secretary of Health and Human Services. Hegseth denies the sexual assault charge, but is scheduled to meet with senators on Thursday.
Several Republicans praised the move following Gaetz’s decision to withdraw, with the former Florida congressman best known on Capitol Hill for helping oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. He made public the backlash he faced within the party.
“That’s a good thing,” said Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who is retiring as party leader.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican, said she was “pleased” with Gaetz’s decision.
Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who has been a vocal critic of Gates, said Gates’ withdrawal was “probably a good decision.”
South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds said Gaetz’s efforts to win confirmation “would have been problematic.”
“I’m not second-guessing the president. He has the right to appoint whoever he sees fit,” Rounds said. “But the House of Lords also has a responsibility for advice and consent, and I think in this particular case advice was provided rather than consent.”
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi, called Gaetz’s withdrawal a “positive development.”
Sen. Cynthia Lummis said Gaetz “must have gotten some kind of signal in the conversations he had with senators yesterday that this was going to be a distraction.”
“He felt that this was going to be a huge distraction, so it was very important for him to realize and realize that it would provide President Trump with an opportunity to choose someone who would be just as tenacious with the Department of Justice.” That was a good thing,” the Wyoming Republican said.
But Florida Sen. Rick Scott said he was “disappointed” by Gaetz’s withdrawal.
“I’m disappointed. I’ve known Matt since I started running for governor, and he was a smart guy and a hard worker. I had a great, great working relationship with him. ” he said.
Congressional leaders from both parties are scrambling to determine whether Gaetz, who resigned from the current Congress earlier this month, can seek re-election this fall and return to the House next year.
Lawmakers and aides believe Gaetz could still return in January, a scenario some had privately feared, more than a dozen people familiar with the matter said.
In his resignation letter, Gaetz said in January that he “does not intend to take the oath of office,” but legislative officials said the governor has not called a special election and cannot hold one. , said he still plans to be nominated for the seat. He pre-emptively resigns from the parliament, which has yet to begin.
However, this is a complicated issue because of vague case law. One person familiar with the matter told CNN that some lawmakers have already asked him to weigh in and clear up the confusion.
As for the ethics report, Democrats expect it to be even less likely to be made public, given that he withdrew from consideration and Republicans were already reluctant to release it. House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest (R-Mississippi) said one reason he has “reservations” about releasing the report is because it is incomplete.
But at one point during the committee’s closed-door meeting to discuss the investigation Wednesday, staff said it would only take a few hours to complete the investigation, two people told CNN. Democrats believe Republicans are trying to slow the process.
The committee is scheduled to vote on its final report on Dec. 5, but by then the full House is expected to face questions on whether to still force the report’s release — following Gaetz’s resignation. unless the leadership withdraws it. He himself was left out of the running.
Republican lawmakers signaled this week that they would block the ethics report, but there are also signs that more Republicans will want to release it if Gates is about to be confirmed as attorney general. there were. All it would take would be for four House Republicans to join Democrats in announcing the bill on the House floor, or for one Republican to be selected from the Ethics Committee at next month’s committee meeting.
“I expect there will be more members of Congress who want this report released,” one Republican lawmaker told CNN.
CNN’s Caitlan Collins contributed to this report.
This article and heading have been updated with additional developments.
