Matt Gaetz resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday following Donald Trump’s announcement nominating him for U.S. attorney general.
In response to the nomination, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is seemingly still bitter about his ousting as speaker of the house after Gaetz motioned to vacate the speakership in October, 2023.
During an interview with Bloomberg Television at the Barclays Asia Forum in Singapore, McCarthy claimed Gaetz would not be confirmed by the Senate, stating:
Look, Gaetz won’t get confirmed, everybody knows that.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) responded to Gaetz’s resignation from the House, stating the decision was made in order to maintain the Republican House majority, telling Fox News’ Sean Hannity:
I think these seats, Matt’s for example, his resignation today was to help us, because it starts the clock under Florida state law, it’s about a 8 week process to fill that seat, so if we do this quickly, and I’ve already called Governor DeSantis to ask him to kick-start this thing, we can have that seat filled by January 3rd when the new congress begins, so that would be one seat replaced almost immediately….
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis confirmed this, stating he instructed Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd to schedule a special election to fill Florida’s 1st congressional district vacancy, posting on X:
Congratulations to the Floridians being appointed to key positions in the Trump Administration: Senator Marco Rubio, Congressman Matt Gaetz, and Congressman Mike Waltz.
I’ve instructed Secretary of State Cord Byrd to formulate and announce a schedule for the upcoming special elections immediately.
Media sources have speculated on Gaetz’s decision, implying the swift resignation was motivated by an upcoming House Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz regarding alleged misconduct. According to a House Ethics Committee press release:
Gaetz may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct.
Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) criticized Matt Gaetz, telling CNN’s Manu Raju in October 2023:
This is a guy that didn’t have, that the media didn’t give a time of day to after he was accused of sleeping with a underage girl. There’s a reason why no one in the conference came and defended him — because we had all seen the videos he was showing on the house floor, that all of us had walked away — of the girls he had slept with he bragged about how he would crush ED medicine and, and, and chase it with um, with a energy drink so he could go all night — this is obviously before he got married.
And so when that accusation came out no defended him, and then no one on the media would give him a time of day, all the sudden he found fame because he opposed the speaker of the house back in November, and he’s always stayed there, and he’s not, he was never going to leave until he got this last moment of fame by saying, by, by going after a motion to vacate. Doing exactly the opposite of what, or doing exactly what he was accusing the, the pr-, the gover-, or the speaker speaker of doing, by saying he was working with Democrats…
CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Mullin if the Senate would confirm Gaetz, questioning if he would be a recess appointment. Mullin said a recess appointment would be a last resort, and confirmed Senate Republicans would work to confirm Trump’s Cabinet appointees, stating:
We’re going to do our best to do whatever we have to do to get the cabinet in a position and get the appointments into position so President Trump can go to work on day one, so we will do whatever it takes, but that’s the last resort.
Mullin continued, stating he would vote for Gaetz if he is able to properly address the issues in question, stating:
You know Matt Gaetz and I, there’s no question that we’ve had our differences, they’ve been very public about it, I completely trust President Trump’s decision making on this one, but at the same time he’s got to come to Congress and sell himself…. There’s a lot of questions that are going to be out there, he’s got to answer those questions and hopefully he’s able to answer the questions right, and if he can then we’ll go through the confirmation process.
Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) was more confident regarding Matt Gaetz, telling a reporter who questioned whether Gaetz would be confirmed by the Senate:
He’s the Attorney General. Suck it up!
