GOP Strategist Demands Democrats ‘Stop Saying the Republican Party’s Morally Bankrupt’ When Opposing Gaetz Nomination

A Republican strategist said Democrats should avoid painting the GOP with a broad brush during their battle against the nomination of former Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general.

President-elect Trump set off a firestorm in Washington last week when he tapped Gaetz to be the nation’s top law enforcement official. Gaetz, who resigned from the House last week after being nominated, was the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation into whether he had sex with an underage girl, used illicit substances, and engaged in other illegal or untoward activities. The committee was scheduled to vote Friday about releasing its report on Gaetz, but now it is unclear whether it will be released.

Republicans will control the Senate by three votes when it debates whether to confirm Gaetz. Democrats are expected to oppose the nomination en masse.

Anderson Cooper and a panel of guests discussed Gaetz on Monday’s AC360.

Ana Navarro noted that two of Bill Clinton’s nominees for attorney general in the 1990s withdrew because they were found to have hired undocumented nannies.

“Matt Gaetz is accused of sleeping with a girl who’s almost young enough to need a nanny,” Navarro cracked. “And Republicans are saying, ‘There’s nothing to see here.'”

“They aren’t saying that, though,” protested Erin Perrine, who was Trump’s campaign communications director in 2020. “To be abundantly clear, Republicans themselves are not morally bankrupt… And so, if you guys wanna change the conversation and you wanna stop a nomination like Matt Gaetz, you gotta stop saying the Republican Party’s morally bankrupt because the American people immediately are gonna turn that off and say, ‘We’ve already voted beyond this. We’re moving past this.”

She later reiterated, “But we’ve gotta stop speaking in totalities and generalities about the Republican Party and about Donald Trump. But if you guys wanna ever win an election again, stop talking like this to the American people!”

Watch above via CNN.