Wall Street Journal Praises GOP Senators For Tanking Gaetz Nomination: ‘Protect The Country From Unfit Nominees’
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File
The Wall Street Journal praised Republican senators who helped to tank President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) for attorney general. The Journal published a Monday editorial, following the damning release of a House Ethics committee report on Gaetz, and argued that “by blocking him as AG, Senators helped the country—and Trump.”
“Whether Donald Trump realizes it or not, Republicans did him a favor by making clear that former Rep. Matt Gaetz was unconfirmable as U.S. Attorney General. On Monday the House Ethics Committee released a 37-page report from its misconduct inquiry into Mr. Gaetz, which found “substantial evidence” of drug use, prostitution, and statutory rape,” wrote the Journal’s editorial board.
The Murdoch-owned paper has also been critical of controversial Trump nominees Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard, who are both seen as having a rocky road ahead in the confirmation process — despite threats of primaries and MAGA-world assistance that all of Trump’s picks must be confirmed.
The 37-page Ethics Committee report is a lengthy description of the “substantial evidence” that Gaetz “violated House Rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”
The Journal pulled no punches in summing up the allegations leveled against Gaetz by the GOP-led committee:
The report says the record “overwhelmingly suggests” Mr. Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old at a house party in 2017, when he was 35, citing corroboration by “multiple individuals.” The woman testified she was given “$400 in cash from Representative Gaetz that evening, which she understood to be payment for sex.” She said “she did not inform Representative Gaetz that she was under 18 at the time, nor did he ask.” The committee says it has evidence Mr. Gaetz didn’t learn her age until later, while noting that “statutory rape is a strict liability crime.”
In text messages, the report says, Mr. Gaetz would “ask women to bring drugs to their rendezvous,” in some cases “requesting ‘a full compliment [sic] of party favors,’ ‘vitamins,’ or ‘rolls.’” One woman said that she “witnessed him taking cocaine or ecstasy on at least five occasions.”
The Journal goes on to note that Gaetz continues to deny the allegations and has worked to keep his prominent position in MAGA world. While the Journal clearly is ready to see Gaetz out of U.S. politics, he still has backers in pro-Trump media as influencers like Steve Bannon and Mollie Hemmingway have rallied behind him, despite the gravity of the allegations he faces.
“Mr. Gaetz presents himself as a victim of a political vendetta, but his behavior should be disqualifying for a cabinet post, especially chief law enforcement officer. Mr. Gaetz abruptly resigned from Congress in hopes of forestalling the report’s release,” adds the Journal of Gaetz’s continued posturing.
“All of this vindicates GOP Senators who were skeptical of Mr. Gaetz’s nomination. The Senate’s advise-and-consent role is to protect the country from unfit nominees. By doing that job well, Republican Senators can also protect Mr. Trump from his worst decisions,” concluded the editorial, perhaps offering a not-so-subtle suggestion that those same senators should deny some more of Trump’s cabinet picks.
