Democracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion Gaetz is out. But hold the celebration.

The former congressman’s exit cannot be an excuse for the Senate to give other Trump nominees a free pass.

4 min
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) at the Capitol on Sept. 29, 2023. (Tom Brenner for The Washington Post)
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“There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle,” wrote Matt Gaetz, the former congressman and, as of 12:24 p.m., former nominee to be President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, on X on Thursday.

But this was no mere Washington scuffle. It was a critical test of whether any guardrails remain in Trump’s Washington; of whether the Senate retains any semblance of constitutional backbone; and of whether any standards exist, however minimal, for those who seek the most important jobs in government.