Gaetz Resigns Congressional Seat After Nod for Attorney General

This week, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he had chosen Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) as his attorney general.

Considering some of the names that had been mentioned, everyone was surprised by this.

Even more surprising was Gaetz resigning his seat even though he has to go through the confirmation process.

Early Resignation

To be honest, Gaetz was not even on my radar for this position, and I am just baffled why Trump would choose him.

Gaetz is a bit of a loose cannon, not to mention the fact he is just not well-liked by Republicans in Congress.

Point being, it is no lock that Gaetz will be confirmed, as there have already been a handful of Republican Senators who have questioned this appointment.

Honestly, I would be surprised if Gaetz is approved, but that did not stop him from resigning the seat, which he did not have to resign until the Senate approved him.

What I forgot about was the fact that Gaetz is in the middle of an ethics probe in the House.

By resigning, that probe ends, which was confirmed by House Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest.

Guest stated, “Once a member is no longer a member of Congress, then Ethics has no jurisdiction.

“So if Matt Gaetz were to be appointed as the attorney general, the Ethics investigation that is currently ongoing would cease at that point.”

The Ethics committee is scheduled to meet on Friday regarding the release of the report, and although the committee is still scheduled to meet, the release of this report is likely to be put on the back burner.

There is precedent to release the report, however, as the committee did exactly that after the resignation of former Rep. William Boner (R-TN) in 1987 after he resigned his seat.

There were members of the House looking forward to this report coming out to expel Gaetz from his seat.

For instance, Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) stated, “It’s going to be very interesting to see what comes out. And a lot of us are excited to see what comes out, because it’s possible they could be used in a very good manner.”

With all the enemies that Gaetz has in the GOP, it would not surprise me one bit to see this report released and his nomination stalled or outright blocked because of it.

I am already on record saying I do not support Gaetz as the AG, as I think there are far better options available to Trump than Gaetz.

Governor DeSantis will now have about eight weeks to fill the seat, so the timing of this means that Gaetz’s replacement should be in place before Donald Trump is inaugurated.

If Gaetz does not get confirmed, he could run again in the special election to take back his seat if the confirmation is declined before the date of the special election is given.