Senate Republicans are warning confirmation proceedings for former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) will be like “Kavanaugh on steroids,” referring to the contentious hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.
GOP senators say allegations against Gaetz of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, as well as the findings of the Department of Justice’s probe into allegations of the sex trafficking of minors, are likely to become splashed across the media if he remains President-elect Trump’s nominee for attorney general.
Some Republicans are privately suggesting that Gaetz should consider withdrawing his nomination to save himself the wrenching ordeal of an embarrassing confirmation hearing if he’s unlikely to be confirmed in the end.
“The most humane way not only to Mr. Gaetz but to the dignity of our process, the best thing to do is to convince the president that the votes aren’t there, regardless of his strong-arming, and Gaetz can decide it’s not his to fight for,” said one Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment on the bleak prospects for Gaetz’s nomination.
But the lawmaker acknowledged that Trump may want to use Gaetz to make it easier to get some of his other controversial picks, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is nominated to head the Department of Health and Human Services, and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), who is nominated to serve as director of national intelligence, to get through the confirmation process.
“Maybe throwing Gaetz out there to the wolves and having this big frenzy and he goes down then allows for a situation where some of the others who are compromised” get through the Senate, the senator said.
The senator said a number of Senate Republican colleagues have already raised concerns about Kennedy and Gabbard.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, warned that the details in the FBI’s investigation of Gaetz as well as the information in the House Ethics Committee’s report is likely to become public.