President-elect Trump’s cabinet is shaping up to include many good people who will reassure the public that it didn’t blunder by betting on a second term. But Mr. Trump might undo it all if he follows through with what he said Wednesday afternoon.
“It is my Great Honor,” he wrote, “to announce that Congressman Matt Gaetz, of Florida, is hereby nominated to be The Attorney General of the United States.”
This is a bad choice that would undermine confidence in the law. Mr. Trump lauded Mr. Gaetz’s law degree from William and Mary, but it might as well be a doctorate in outrage theater.
He’s a performer and provocateur, and his view is that the more explosions he can cause, the more attention he can get. “It’s impossible to get canceled if you’re on every channel,” he once said. “If you aren’t making news, you aren’t governing.”
Mr. Gaetz has no interest in governing. When Republicans took control of the House in 2022, it was with a small margin.
Rather than work to get things done, Mr. Gaetz sabotaged Speaker Kevin McCarthy before finally leading a rebellion to oust him.
Eight Republican malcontents plunged the GOP into weeks of embarrassing paralysis, since Mr. Gaetz had no alternative that could command a majority. Finally Speaker Mike Johnson emerged.
Mr. McCarthy has intimated at times that he thinks Mr. Gaetz is primarily motivated by personal grudges related to an investigation into his conduct. According to an ABC News report from April, the House Ethics Committee obtained a sworn statement from a woman who says in 2017 she “attended a party in Florida that Gaetz also attended,” where there was cocaine and “bedrooms that were made available for sexual activities.”
The Justice Department investigated possible sex trafficking but didn’t bring charges against Mr. Gaetz.
This summer the ethics committee said its preliminary subpoenas and witnesses suggest “certain” allegations “merit continued review.”
It is looking into claims that Mr. Gaetz may have “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations.”
As the committee added: “Representative Gaetz has categorically denied all of the allegations.” Mr. Gaetz deserves due process. But the Senate will have questions if he is nominated as chief U.S. law-enforcement officer.
The larger objections to Mr. Gaetz concern judgment and credibility. The U.S. Attorney General has to make calls on countless difficult questions of whom to investigate and indict.
Mr. Gaetz’s decisions simply wouldn’t be trusted. He’s a nominee for those who want the law used for political revenge, and it won’t end well.
— Wall Street Journal
