Donald Trump sits in room with J.D. Vance, Stephen Miller and other senior advisers after calling senators to salvage Matt Gaetz’s sinking nomination there was.
He had no luck.
“I spend a lot of my political capital,” the president-elect told aides. He couldn’t spend most of that money, he explained.
President Trump picked this up from a lawmaker who bluntly told him there would be a price to pay for continuing his efforts to promote a former congressman to attorney general amid allegations of sexual assault and misconduct.
Hackers obtain Matt Gaetz’s family ethics testimony as President Trump calls AG nominees
President-elect Trump’s support for former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as his attorney general nominee nearly fell apart after he realized he simply lacked the political capital to salvage his nomination. . (Getty Images)
“Sir, we’re going to vote for Mr. Gates, but you’re spending a lot of political money.”
After Trump told Gaetz he didn’t have the votes and urged him to withdraw, he quickly settled on former Florida attorney general and career prosecutor Pam Bondi. He had the experience and personal baggage exactly what the beleaguered Mr. Gates lacked. Gaetz has been accused of sleeping with a 17-year-old girl, but continues to deny any wrongdoing.
45 minutes after CNN reported that there was a threesome, specifically a separate incident between an adult woman and Jane Doe, the woman who claims she had a sexual relationship with Gates when she was 17 years old. It was officially withdrawn.
Bondi, who has a history of partisan loyalty to Trump, including defending him during his first impeachment trial, headed the legal department of a pro-Trump company this year and became a registered lobbyist.
But insiders say there’s a difference. She’s not going to run into the Justice Department and blow it up, as Gates had hoped. Colleagues in Florida say she respects the rule of law. She has even hired Democrats to run against her and praise her for the AG. Yes, Bondi talked about prosecuting “bad” prosecutors, but who can argue with that?
Gaetz’s resignation has brought increased scrutiny to the nomination of Pete Hegseth, who runs the Pentagon’s global bureaucracy.
Why Trump sticks with Gates and Hegseth despite new accusations – and his “Morning Joe” meeting
In Trump World’s view, Mr. Hegseth will probably be recognized as a decorated Army veteran, although it is frustrating that he did not come clean to the transition team about reimbursing the woman who accused him of sexual assault. , in California in 2017, she signed an NDA. This is what he calls a consensual encounter.
The transition team’s view is that Ms. Hegseth did nothing illegal, that she made a deal with a false accuser to save her marriage, didn’t go to the hospital for four days, and lost it. They did not want to make this public for fear. His job at Fox.
I agree that he will probably be confirmed, but transitioners are more concerned about Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr. As a practical matter, I think there is only one more nominee the Republican-controlled Senate can veto.
In Gaetz’s absence, Trump’s critics are likely to turn their attention to defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth. (AP Photo/Rod Lambkey Jr.)
Concerns about Gabbard as director of national intelligence include her lack of experience in the sensitive field and the fact that the former Democratic congresswoman met with Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad despite killing hundreds of thousands of people. and often appears to be in line with President Putin’s policy. . The question is whether she is qualified.
There are further concerns about Mr. Kennedy becoming Secretary of the Department of Health. He has some good ideas, even putting aside his history of extramarital affairs: vaccines cause autism, Wi-Fi causes cancer, water systems should stop using fluoride, etc. He believes in one conspiracy theory after another.
The worst so far was his 2020 comment in which he entertained the idea that the federal government intentionally caused a pandemic (what he called a “plandemic”) that killed 1.2 million Americans. This is the equivalent of the 9/11 truth tellers.
The important thing here is that the criticism comes from the left. Liberals in the media and on the Hill don’t like RFK. Because he is pro-choice and is seen as a rogue Democrat who has said a lot of crazy things over the years, which could be enough to sink his nomination.
Trump World doesn’t care about the other candidates, on the theory that the average voter has never heard of most of Trump’s energy and HUD picks.
His selection of pro-union Rep. Lori Chavez Delemer for the Labor Party has drawn some opposition from Republicans, but that’s only an opinion among insiders.
President-elect Trump’s Cabinet is the most ideologically diverse in recent memory, packed with everyone from conservative hardliners to former Democrats, from longtime members of Congress to those best known as TV personalities. It is being (Getty Images)
What is surprising is that this is the most ideologically diverse cabinet in modern times.
As Axios first pointed out, that lineup ranges from Secretary of State Marco Rubio to a number of current and former members of Congress, controversial elected officials such as Hegseth, Gabbard and RFK, and Dr. Oz, who runs Medicare and the health care system. A wide range of things. The Medicaid program employs frequent Fox medical critic Marty McCurry to manage the FDA and appoints Janet Nesheiwat as Surgeon General. Both are doctors. And he chose former Congressman Dave Weldon to succeed him at the CDC.
A CBS poll found that 59% of Americans approve of the way President Trump is handling the transition.
Get to know Donald Trump’s Cabinet: Who has been chosen to be the next president so far?
The internal negotiations also led to the following leak to the Washington Post:
“Boris Epshteyn, Donald Trump’s lawyer and advisor, recently arrived at the Mar-a-Lago Tea Room for a cabinet reshuffle meeting and found his way blocked.
Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, a transition co-chair, told Epshteyn in front of everyone that this was not a meeting for him. “We’re not talking about legal candidates today,” Lutnick said, according to a person familiar with the deal.
“Epshtein refused to budge. He used his forearm to push Lutnick out of the way, according to two people familiar with the incident. Lutnick later told others. Epshtein retorted, “I’m coming in,” according to one of the people.”
Cantor Fitzgerald CEO and Secretary of Commerce nominee Howard Lutnick was pushed aside at a recent meeting at Mar-a-Lago by Boris Epshteyn, who was not supposed to be there. It is said that he had a very difficult time. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
“A third party described the incident as Epshteyn simply passing Lutnick on his way to a meeting.”
This flood-the-zone approach distracted attention from the Gaetz fiasco and raised questions about incoming White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and how much input she had. It also differs from the traditional one-candidate-per-day approach, which could potentially draw media criticism, such as Dr. Oz, who was often accused of promoting ineffective treatments on TV shows. The focus on the person becomes blurred. A scorecard to track the blizzard of Trump candidates.
So why did Trump choose Matt Gaetz in the first place?
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It may have been an impulsive move by President Trump while he was on a plane with Wiles. But the president-elect knows full well that it would cause a media firestorm, and insiders are calling it a terrible decision on the part of the establishment.
Alternatively, President Trump may have believed that Gates was unlikely to win, but it would be difficult for him to deny a primary nomination, especially to a candidate as qualified as Pam Bondi.
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Whatever your views, there is no question that Trump has managed the transition very well and is off to a good start with a few exceptions.
