WASHINGTON — Republican senators were shocked last week when President-elect Donald Trump announced Matt Gaetz would be his nominee for attorney general.
Republicans seemed far less shocked Thursday by news Gaetz had withdrawn himself from consideration.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said he was “grateful” because the Senate could move on.
And Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said he was not surprised.
“I think the decision to withdraw the nomination is the right decision,” Rounds told reporters. “I thought it was problematic, and I think, as some of our members have expressed, as they’ve learned more about it, there was perhaps some information out there that the president was not aware of when he made the original recommendation.”
Even before Trump chose Gaetz, it was widely known the then-congressman had been under investigation by the Justice Department for alleged sex trafficking in a case involving a 17-year-old. The department didn’t press charges, but the House Ethics Committee was still investigating the matter until Gaetz resigned from Congress last week.
After Trump said he wanted Gaetz as his top cop, further details leaked. On Thursday, CNN reported that Gaetz was accused of having not just one, but two sexual encounters with the 17-year-old.
Several Republicans publicly questioned the nomination, and several more reported privately they would vote against Gaetz and that he had little chance of being confirmed by the Senate. Gaetz was going to fail in a floor vote, withdraw himself from consideration, or else Trump would have to bypass Congress, triggering a constitutional crisis, to install Gaetz at the top of the Justice Department.
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said with Gaetz dropping out, the process “played out faster than we thought.”
This week, Gaetz made the rounds on Capitol Hill, meeting with senators in an effort to win them over. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-S.C.) met with Gaetz on Wednesday and suggested he might have seen the writing on the wall.
“I had several discussions with him. He’s very methodical, and I think he was going through a process himself,” Tillis told HuffPost.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said perhaps Gaetz “came up here and just didn’t get a good feel to get confirmed.”
As he made his way between offices on Wednesday, Gaetz told reporters his meetings were going great.
“Senators have been giving me a lot of good advice,” Gaetz said.
The long odds facing Gaetz’s nomination set off speculation that Trump would try to circumvent the Senate and staff his administration with an unprecedented slate of recess appointments, triggering a major court battle over the separation of powers between the presidency and Congress. Republicans told HuffPost this week they didn’t much like the prospect of recess appointments.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who said last week Gaetz was not “a serious nomination,” indicated Thursday she was pleased.
“I think it was the right decision,” she said.
“Now the question is,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said, “how many others are going to have to withdraw as well?”