The Matt Gaetz scandal just got even uglier for him as House Ethics Committee details start to leak
In the 24 hours since Donald Trump ludicrously announced that he was nominating Matt Gaetz for Attorney General, things have taken a predictably ludicrous path. Gaetz abruptly resigned from the House last night in the hope of keeping tomorrow’s scheduled House Ethics Committee report from being released. But now some Republican Senators are publicly demanding that the report be released, in an obvious attempt at killing the Gaetz nomination.
Now at least some details from the House Ethics Committee investigation and report are indeed becoming public. For instance ABC News is reporting this afternoon that “sources familiar with the investigation,” a woman testified to the committee that Gaetz had sex with her when she was seventeen. This is on top of previous reporting that a different woman testified to the committee that Gaetz attended a party where cocaine and minors were both present.
So how is this going to play out? We still don’t know. But if Gaetz was hoping that his resignation would keep the details of the Ethics Committee report from surfacing, he was being naive. Some portions of the report are already leaking, and more of it will likely leak as the day goes on.
The Trump regime was clearly hoping to get Matt Gaetz confirmed via a recess appointment. But that would require the Republican Senate to tacitly go along with it. Given that some Republican Senators are actively trying to make the Gaetz scandal bigger with even uglier headlines about him, it’s clear that at least some of them have no intention of going along with it.
As for the theory that Trump and his babysitters floated Matt Gaetz as a decoy so that they can later get their real Attorney General nominee confirmed, that’s possible. But if so, it’s a very stupid plan. If Trump’s initial nominee for Attorney General fails, particularly amid allegations of something as hideous as underage sex trafficking, it would be a bodyblow to Trump’s presidency and approval rating before he even takes office.
