Matt Gaetz as AG would be laughable if it weren’t so horrific and dangerous

The nomination is really Trump’s loyalty test of Senate Republicans: If they go along, there’s nothing they won’t agree to.

Friends,

Trump has nominated Rep. Matt Gaetz to serve as America’s next attorney general.

This would be laughable were it not so utterly dangerous.

Gaetz as attorney general would all but guarantee that Trump weaponizes the Justice Department against his enemies — past, present, and future.

Ever since Trump was first indicted, Gaetz has been defending him — alleging that the prosecutions of Trump were politically motivated, that Joe Biden was behind them, charging the Biden administration with vindictiveness toward Trump, and asserting that Trump would have every right to engage in similar vengeance toward Trump’s political enemies.

In making these bogus claims, Gaetz has often used identical language to Trump’s wildly partisan and incendiary claims.

I worked in the Justice Department in the years following Richard Nixon’s attempt to use the department to prosecute and intimidate Nixon’s enemies.

To restore faith and trust in the department, President Gerald Ford appointed Edward Levi as attorney general. Before his appointment, Levi had been dean of the University of Chicago Law School and president of the University of Chicago.

One of Levi’s most important accomplishments was to insulate the Department of Justice from political interference by establishing a set of rules that prevented the White House from privately contacting an attorney general or any other Justice Department officials.

How far we’ve fallen.

Gaetz, a 42-year-old congressman from Florida, has zero qualifications for being the highest law enforcement official in the land. He has never been a government attorney, never been a judge, never taught law or burnished his legal standing in any way.

Quite the contrary. Gaetz is now under investigation by the House Ethics Committee in connection with a sex-trafficking scandal. (The Justice Department investigated Gaetz for his alleged involvement with a girl who was 17 at the time to determine if he paid for sex in violation of federal sex-trafficking laws, but it closed the investigation last year after career prosecutors were reportedly unsure about the credibility of two central witnesses.)

If confirmed, Gaetz would lead the Justice Department’s more than 100,000 employees at a time when Trump’s allies are demanding a purge of career DOJ staffers who may have opposed some of Trump’s efforts during his first term or worked on cases involving Trump or his supporters.

Gaetz has defended Trump at every turn, arguing that Trump has never violated any federal laws. Gaetz voted with about 150 of his Republican colleagues to overturn Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election.

He also participated in what federal prosecutors have characterized as a rehearsal for “Stop the Steal” efforts — protesting the results of a hotly contested Senate race in Florida with members of the Proud Boys and other Trump loyalists.

After Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, Gaetz was defiant. “We’re ashamed of nothing,” he said publicly.

In other words, nominating Gaetz to be attorney general is only slightly less absurd than nominating Vladimir Putin to be secretary of defense.

The key question is whether Gaetz can be confirmed by a Republican Senate.

Two key Republican moderates have already indicated they would likely vote against him. Senator Susan Collins said she was “shocked” by the nomination; Senator Lisa Murkowski said he was not a serious contender for the job.

But Senator Lindsey Graham — currently the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a reliable weather vane for the unscrupulous — said he was surprised Trump picked Gaetz, whom he called “clever,” and predicted Gaetz would face “tough questions” at his confirmation hearing. But Graham also said he was inclined to support presidential appointments.

Gaetz’s nomination is really a test by Trump of how far he can go intimidating, bullying, and generating fear among Senate Republicans.

No Senate Democrat will vote for Gaetz, so Trump and his allies are viewing the Gaetz nomination as a test of loyalty to Trump.

This will be the clearest signal yet of whether Republican senators are ready to do Trump’s bidding on all sorts of sensitive issues, including cutting back Social Security and giving Putin what he wants in Ukraine.

If Trump can get 51 votes for Gaetz, he can get a Senate majority for just about anything Trump wants to do.