Republicans React to Matt Gaetz’s Attorney General News: ‘No Good Comment’

Fractures are growing in the Republican Party amid President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to tap U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida as his next attorney general.
Trump has wasted no time filling out his Cabinet positions since his decisive election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris last week. In a statement on Wednesday, the former president said Gaetz “is a deeply gifted and tenacious attorney” and that the conservative lawmaker “will end Weaponized Government” as head of the Justice Department.
But there may be obstacles in confirming Gaetz to the attorney general position. Even with Republicans holding control of the Senate in the new term, many GOP lawmakers have expressed concerns over Trump’s nomination, including Maine Senator Susan Collins.
“I was shocked at the nomination,” Collins told Punchbowl News reporter Max Cohen.
“This is why the Senate’s advise and consent process is so important,” she added. “I’m sure that there will be many, many questions raised at Mr. Gaetz’s hearing.”
U.S. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina also cast doubt that Gaetz would be confirmed by the upper chamber of Congress. Republicans will hold a six-seat majority in the Senate next term, with two independent senators expected to caucus with Democrats.
“I’m all about counting votes, and I would think that he’s probably got some work cut out for him,” Tillis told Semafor’s Burgess Everett. “We’re not going to get a single Democrat.”
House Republicans appeared equally surprised at Gaetz’s appointment. Nebraska Congressman Don Bacon told Punchbowl’s Melanie Zanona: “I’ve got no good comment.”
Ohio Congressman Max Miller told Axios reporter Juliegrace Burke on Wednesday that “Gaetz has a better shot at having dinner with Queen Elizabeth II than being confirmed by the Senate,” referring to the late British royal who died in September 2022.
Gaetz has represented Florida’s 1st Congressional District since 2016, when Trump won his first presidential bid. He remains under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over allegations that he “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use,” among other things. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing.
The probe stems from accusations that Gaetz was involved in recruiting women online for sex, including a 17-year-old girl. The Department of Justice (DOJ) last year told Gaetz that he would not face federal sex-trafficking charges.
One of Gaetz’s few allies in Congress, U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado, praised Trump’s selection for attorney general on Wednesday, writing in a post to X, “So proud of my friend and America’s next Attorney General, @mattgaetz!”
“We’ve stood together. We’ve fought together. We’ve won together,” Boebert added in the post.
U.S. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky told reporters when asked about Gaetz’s chances of being confirmed by the Senate, “He’s the attorney general. Suck it up.”
Senator Shelley Capito of West Virginia, the incoming Senate GOP policy chair, told Fox News that Gaetz “still has to go through the process, he still has to be vetted by the Judiciary Committee, and I think that is going to be the biggest indication as to whether he meets the standards of an attorney general.”
“But I’m not surprised that the president picked somebody that is going to shake it up, particularly at the Department of Justice,” Capito added, noting Trump’s federal criminal investigations.
Trump wrote in his statement Wednesday that Gaetz would help “restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department,” calling the lawmaker a “Champion for the Constitution and the Rule of Law.”
The president-elect is still under investigation by the DOJ over his activities surrounding attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden, and over his handling of classified documents he took with him when leaving the White House after his first term. Those investigations are expected to subside in light of Trump’s victory last week.
Newsweek emailed Trump’s transition team for comment on Wednesday.
Update 11/13/24, 5:20 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information and background.