If former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz wants to be the next attorney general, he would need the votes of Senate Republicans he has personally criticized in a chamber he once dubbed the “swampiest nursing home in America.”
In a range of public comments in recent years, the 42-year-old Floridian lobbed broadsides at more GOP senators than he can afford to lose, with Republicans anticipating a likely 53-seat majority. That means Gaetz’s confirmation could be blocked if four Republican senators join all Democrats and independents to vote against him.
Gaetz, among other comments, derided Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., as a “disgrace to the Republican Party.” He called Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., “one of the America-last Republican senators.” And when it came to a border deal negotiated in part by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., Gaetz labeled it as a “Lankford amnesty bill,” and said it “was backstabbing to the people who want a secure border.”
Gaetz, who resigned from Congress last week after President-elect Donald Trump said he would be his pick to lead the Justice Department, left the chamber as one of the most notorious instigators, an insult-hurling firebrand whose brash rhetoric and behavior alienated Democrats and infuriated Republicans.
He didn’t constrain that approach to House members, in remarks on his podcast, in media interviews and on social media. He has attacked specific senators who he saw as not in line with the Republican Party shaped by Trump.
Former South Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy, on a recent podcast, raised concerns about Gaetz’s “vindictiveness” and said his former House colleague has been “gratuitously critical” of GOP senators.
“And not for any real reason, just because he wanted to. He just enjoys inflicting pain on other people,” Gowdy said. “I can think of no one that has gone out of his way more to attack and demean and vilify other people.”
In the race for majority leader, Gaetz publicly backed Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla. On his podcast, Gaetz said that Senate Republicans did not need to pick one of the Johns — John Thune of South Dakota, John Cornyn of Texas or John Barrasso of Wyoming.
“I think that there are going to be better options than the Johns,” Gaetz said. Senate Republicans elected Thune.
Cornyn, a member of the Judiciary Committee that would vet Gaetz’s nomination, has said he wants to see details of a House Ethics Committee probe into allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use by the four-term congressman. Gaetz has steadfastly denied wrongdoing.
“I think there should not be any limitation on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation, including whatever the House Ethics Committee has generated,” Cornyn said.
Tillis, also a member of the Judiciary Committee, told reporters that a Gaetz pick could face some trouble. “He’s going to have to overcome some of his temperament as it relates to his Republican colleagues, that’s the way I’d see it now,” Tillis said.
“All I know is he likes picking fights on social media. [He’ll] have to deal with that in committees,” Tillis later said.
Gaetz on his podcast criticized Tillis after the North Carolinian spoke on the Senate floor in February in favor of a supplemental package to provide aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Tillis was one of 22 Republican senators to vote for the bill.
Gaetz said the legislation was primarily supported by Democrats and called Tillis “one of the America-last Republican senators who advocated vociferously for this legislation.”
Gaetz also has singled out Mullin, the Republican senator from Oklahoma, who previously has said Gaetz in the past has shown videos on the House floor of people he had slept with. “He’d brag about how he would crush ED medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night,” Mullin told CNN.
Gaetz mocked Mullin after the senator challenged a witness at a committee hearing to a fight, saying the incident was “weird” and a “real strange display.”
“I have frequently used the statements of witnesses in the past to impeach them, but I try to use like my brain and my words and logic and reason — tying that to some consequence, maybe defunding things that aren’t working,” Gaetz said.
Mullin beating someone up “isn’t going to help his constituents,” Gaetz said.
In 2020, Gaetz criticized Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, over their opposition to confirming a Supreme Court nominee so close to the general election.
“Trump supporters should not be taken for granted in Maine, Alaska or anywhere else,” Gaetz said in an interview with Fox News. “And if they are unwilling to do their job and take a vote on who the president nominates, they should not have the privilege of continuing to serve in the Senate.”
Gaetz has been outspoken about Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and cheered when the Kentucky Republican announced he would not run for the leadership post again.
McConnell’s work on confirming Trump judicial nominees and passing the former president’s tax bill was doing the bare minimum as a Republican leader, Gaetz said.
Gaetz, in the wake of that announcement, scorned McConnell’s support for Ukraine, tore into him for not doing enough on border security and accused him of serving “the swamp.”
“Mitch McConnell’s real legacy is that he was missing in action when we needed him most and spent a lot of his time in the Senate putting special interests above American interests,” Gaetz said on his podcast in February after the announcement. “Real good at sloshing that special interest money around.”
And on social media, Gaetz gloated: “We’ve now 86’d: McCarthy McDaniel McConnell,” referring to former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and former Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted as House speaker last year in a push led by Gaetz.
Gaetz has also shown a willingness to get into the politics of the Senate. For example, Gaetz endorsed Rep. Matt Rosendale’s bid for Senate in Montana. Senator-elect Tim Sheehy went on to win the seat.
Gaetz, for his part, has shown a certain amount of self-awareness.
“I am not a deeply popular person with the leadership of my own party,” Gaetz said in 2022 on his podcast. “Probably in either the House or the Senate.”
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