Donald Trump was in the room with J.D. Vance, Stephen Miller, and other top advisers. after calling on senators to try to salvage Matt Getz’s sinking nomination.
He hasn’t had any luck.
“I spent a lot of political capital,” the president-elect told his inner circle. He can only spend so much, he explains.
Trump picked up on this quote from a lawmaker who told him directly. that he must pay for any effort Whatever it is that will push this former member of the House of Representatives to become attorney general. Amid allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct
HACKERS GET HOME ETHICS TESTIMONY ABOUT MATT GAETZ AS TRUMP CALLS FOR AG NOMINATES
President Donald Trump’s support for former Sen. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., as his attorney general pick all but collapsed after he realized he lacked the political capital to salvage the bid. his name (Getty Images)
“Sir, we will vote for you,” to Gaetz, “but you are spending a lot of political capital.”
When Trump told Gaetz he had no votes and encourage him to withdraw. He quickly struck a deal with Pam Bondi, former Florida Attorney General and career prosecutor. Precisely the experience that the imprisoned Gaetz lacked. And with no personal baggage, Gaetz, who is accused of sleeping with a 17-year-old girl, continues to deny any wrongdoing.
He officially withdrew 45 minutes after CNN said it would report he had had a threesome. especially There were another alleged incident with Jane Doe, a woman who said she had sex with Gaetz when she was 17, and an adult woman.
Bondi has a history of loyalty to Trump, such as defending him in his first impeachment trial, and this year he led the legal department of a pro-Trump company. and become a registered lobbyist.
But this is the difference. According to insiders: She won’t go bomb the Justice Department like Gaetz wants to do. She respects the rule of law. said a colleague in Florida. She even hired a Democrat who ran against her for AG, who praised her. Yes, Bondi has talked about prosecuting “bad” prosecutors, but who can object?
With Gaetz gone, more scrutiny has turned to Pete Hegseth’s nomination to run the Pentagon’s global bureaucracy.
Why Trump is sticking with GAETZ, Hegseth despite new allegations – and his “MORNING JOE” conference
The view from Trump World is Hegseth, a decorated military veteran. may be confirmed Annoyingly, though, he didn’t clear things up with the transition team about paying the woman who accused him of sexual harassment, and did. She signed an NDA on what he called a consensual encounter in California. In 2017
The transition team’s view is that Hegseth has done nothing illegal. He made a deal with his accuser who lied to save her marriage. and did not go to the hospital for four days And he doesn’t want the public to reveal this information because he’s afraid of losing it. His job at Fox
I accept that he may be confirmed. And the transition group is more concerned with Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr. As a practical matter, I think the GOP-controlled Senate can only reject one nominee.
When Gaetz isn’t in the picture Trump’s critics’ scrutiny may shift to Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey Jr.)
Gabbard’s concern for the director of national intelligence is that she has no experience in that sensitive area. Former Democratic congressional representative meets with Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad. Even though he had killed hundreds of thousands of people. and often seems to echo Putin’s line. The question is whether she has what it takes.
There are still more concerns about Kennedy’s bid to become HHS secretary. He has some good ideas, but even setting aside his history of infidelity He also embraces conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory: Vaccines cause autism, WiFi causes cancer. Water systems should stop using fluoride.
Worst of all is what he said in 2020, embracing the idea that the federal government intentionally created a pandemic, which he called a “pandemic,” that killed 1.2 million Americans, which is the true equivalent of 9/11.
What matters is that the criticism comes from the left. Liberals in the media and on the Hill don’t like RFK because he’s a pro-choice and is viewed as a rogue Democrat who talks crazy things. Many throughout the years And that might be enough to knock him out of the nomination.
Trump World doesn’t care about other nominations. On the theory that the average voter has largely never heard of Trump’s energy choices or HUD.
There was resentment from Republicans over the choice of union representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer for Labor, but that’s one insider said.
President Trump’s Cabinet is the most ideologically diverse in recent memory. They recruit everyone from conservative extremists to former Democrats. and from long-serving members of parliament to people best known as TV personalities. (Getty Images)
What’s remarkable is that this is the most ideologically diverse cabinet of modern times.
Because Axios was the first to do it. point out The lineup ranges from Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. to current and former members of Congress. to controversial choices like Hegseth, Gabbard and RFK, to Dr. Oz to run Medicare and Medicaid, to frequent Fox medical critic Marty Makary to run the FDA and Janette Nesheiwat as surgeon general. Both are doctors. And he chose former congressman Dave Weldon to take over the CDC.
In a CBS poll, 59% approved of the way Trump handled change.
Get to know Donald Trump’s Cabinet: Who are the president’s picks so far?
Jogging inside also causes leaks. like this To the Washington Post:
“Boris Epstein, Donald Trump’s lawyer and adviser, arrived recently. He went to a Cabinet meeting in the Tea Room at Mar-a-Lago, but found his way blocked.”
Transition co-chairman Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, told Epshteyn in front of everyone else. That this was not a meeting for him. “We are not talking about legislative nominees today,” Lutnick said, according to one person familiar with the exchange.
Epshteyn refused to budge, pushing Lutnick out of the way with his arms. That’s according to two people familiar with the incident, which Lutnick later told others about. ‘I’m going in,’ Epshteyn responded, according to one of the citizens.
Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and Secretary of Commerce, reportedly had a difficult time at the recent Mar-a-Lago meeting, where Boris Epshteyn appeared to be pushed aside. which shouldn’t be there (Angela Wise/AFP via Getty Images)
“A third person further described the incident as Epshteyn simply brushing past Lutnick on his way into the meeting.”
This approach to flooding the space distracts from Gaetz’s failings and raises questions about incoming White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and the comments she received. And it’s different from the traditional method of nominating one person per day. Where it blurs the focus is on nominees who might invite media criticism, such as Dr. Oz, who has often been accused of selling ineffective cures on his TV show. Because you need a scorecard to track the Trump blizzard of choice.
So why did Trump choose Matt Gaetz in the first place?
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It may have been an impulsive move while Trump was on the plane with Wiles. But the president-elect was smart enough to know that this would spark a media storm. And insiders called the institution’s decision atrocious.
Or maybe Trump thinks Gaetz is unlikely. But it would be difficult to turn down an alternate nomination. Especially one with Pam Bondi’s qualities.
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No matter what your point of view is. There is no doubt that Trump has handled the transition quite well. And it started off well, with a few exceptions.
