Democracy Dies in Darkness

Matt Gaetz attorney general confirmation was in doubt ahead of withdrawal

Trump’s pick to run the Justice Department faced an all-but-impossible path to confirmation, even in a GOP-led Senate next year.

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Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) at a House Rules Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on Nov. 1, 2023. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
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Former congressman Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration Thursday to become attorney general in a new Trump administration after facing steep opposition from fellow Republicans, the first casualty of the president-elect’s unconventional Cabinet picks.

Republican senators who expressed skepticism about the selection of Gaetz will now have to decide whether they defy President-elect Donald Trump again on other picks, including Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense, former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard leading the intelligence community, and Robert F. Kennedy for the Department of Health and Human Services. Later on Thursday, Trump named Pam Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida and one of his lawyers in his first impeachment trial, as his new pick for the role.