Members React to Gaetz Withdrawing from Attorney General Nomination

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz has withdrawn his nomination as Attorney General. Controversy surrounded Gaetz’s nomination amid a House Ethics probe and a former federal investigation for allegations of sex trafficking an underage girl. No charges were brought and Gaetz has continued to deny these allegations. 

In his announcement on social media, he said in part “While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance transition.” 

Trump released a statement on the platform Truth Social expressing gratitude for Gaetz, adding that Gaetz has a wonderful future and Trump looks forward to watching all of the great things he will do.  

Gaetz’s withdrawal averts a potential uphill battle to win over Senate Republicans for his confirmation. He has been unpopular among Republicans on the Hill especially after spearheading the movement to remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House.  

We asked members on the Hill for their reaction on Gaetz's withdrawal:

“We have enough drama going on in Washington DC I think we can do anything to reduce the drama is a good thing,” said Rep. Jack Bergman (R- MI). “And I think in this case not having seen the statement yet – let's keep the temperature down, lets focus on what we and all of the elected officials need to do which is basically create a federal government that is actually going to run and provide a government for all of our citizens so we don’t need the soap opera so as I just said to you, it's a good thing.” 

“He wasn’t going to make it anyways,” said Sen. Gary Peters (D- MI). “He was going to get rejected.” 

Trump has not announced who he will nominate as his new pick for Attorney General.