Matt Gaetz withdraws from consideration as attorney general

WASHINGTON — Matt Gaetz, who faced a torrent of scrutiny over allegations of sex trafficking and drug use, abruptly withdrew his bid to become attorney general Thursday in the first major political setback for President-elect Donald Trump since his election this month.

Gaetz has consistently denied the allegations, but his prospective nomination ran into trouble in the Senate, where Republicans were deeply reluctant to confirm someone to run the same Justice Department that once investigated him on suspicion of sex trafficking an underage girl even though no charges were brought.

In announcing his withdrawal a day after visiting the Senate, Gaetz insisted that he had strong support among fellow Republicans. But two people with direct knowledge of Gaetz’s thinking said he had made the decision to pull out after concluding that he would not have the votes in the Senate for confirmation.

“While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” Gaetz wrote on social media. “There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.”

Trump responded with his own social media post expressing appreciation for Gaetz. “Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do,” the president-elect wrote. Trump did not indicate whom he might select as attorney general instead.

What remained unclear Thursday was whether Gaetz’s withdrawal would embolden Senate Republicans to challenge other contentious Cabinet choices, such as Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host tapped for defense secretary; or Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the conspiracy theorist and vaccine skeptic selected for secretary of health and human services.

Trump had privately told people that Gaetz had less than even odds of surviving the confirmation process, but he was making calls on his behalf in the hopes of shifting what the Senate would consider acceptable.

Gaetz told people close to him that after conversations with senators and members of their staff, he had concluded that there were at least four Republican senators in the next Congress who were implacably opposed to his nomination: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and the newly elected John Curtis of Utah.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2024 The New York Times Company