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Once again, President-elect Donald Trump has accomplished something that his liberal critics never could.
When he announced his intention to nominate Matt Gaetz to serve as his attorney general, the haters and naysayers in the commentariat erupted. Teeth were gnashed, clothes were rent, and primal screams were let out.
CNN’s Geoff Duncan called Gaetz the “worst pick in the world.”
MSNBC’s Andrew Weissmann warned that America was entering “pure George Orwell 1984 land.”
Even Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade derided him as being part of the “clown car” of characters that the second Trump administration was trying to avoid.
None of them could have foreseen the stunning success of the grander plan that Trump had in mind, but they all should have known that the Donald was some immeasurable number of steps ahead of them.
Upon being introduced as the AG nominee, Gaetz not only resigned from this current iteration of Congress, but announced that he would not take his seat in the one he was just elected to.
This move preempted the House Ethics Committee’s upcoming vote on whether to release a report summarizing its investigation’s findings about allegations that Gaetz had “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”
Cynics suggested that Trump was trying help Gaetz get away with heinous crimes by offering him a promotion. Sure, it may have seemed like that was what he was up to, but everyone with any awareness of who Donald Trump had to have known that he had something up his sleeve. He would never have considered a man of such suspect character for such an important post, it cuts against everything he believes in.
Trump knew that even if the report wasn’t released in full, the threat of Gaetz’s elevation would ensure that drip by drip, the most damning details in it would leak.
That’s exactly what happened. There was the report about Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old high school student. And the one about him paying other women to have sex with him. And finally, on Thursday, Gaetz announced his withdrawal from the confirmation process just before CNN was set to report that he was alleged to have had a second sexual encounter with the 17-year-old.
On Friday, Gaetz reaffirmed that he would not serve in Congress.
Trump did it. He exiled America’s skeeviest, most ridiculous lawmaker from the halls of power. And if he names Gaetz to a new position — one that doesn’t require Senate confirmation — you can bet that it will only be to set him up for an even harder fall from grace.
Thank you, President Trump — only you could have delivered the American people this great victory.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
