Gaetz withdraws from attorney general’s review after Trump tells him he doesn’t have the votes in the Senate

By Eric Bradner, Kristen Holmes, Alayna Treene, Lauren Fox, Sarah Ferris and Annie Grayer, CNN

(CNN) – When Vice President Elect JD Vance and Matt Gaetz left the Capitol Hill room where they had spent Wednesday trying to convince GOP senators to confirm the former Florida congressman as attorney general, Vance told reporters those meetings “went great.”

But on Thursday morning, President-elect Donald Trump called Gaetz with bad news: He didn’t have the votes in the Senate to get confirmation, Trump told Gaetz, according to a source with direct knowledge of the call.

The president-elect did not tell Gaetz to quit, this source said. I didn’t have to. Early Thursday afternoon, Gaetz — who left his House seat the day Trump announced his pick to lead the Justice Department — wrote on social media that he was withdrawing and that his nomination had “unfairly become a distraction”.

“There is no time to waste with an unnecessarily prolonged argument in Washington, so I will withdraw my name from consideration for the position of attorney general. Trump’s DOJ needs to be in place and ready on day 1,” Gaetz wrote.

By the end of the day, Trump announced a new pick for attorney general: Pam Bondiformer Florida Attorney General.

Gaetz’s move came in the face of bipartisan pressure, especially as Democrats pushed for the release of a report from his House Ethics Committee. In his four terms in the House, Gaetz’s firebombing political tactics have also alienated many in his own party, including senators who greeted his selection for attorney general with skepticism.

Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said Thursday that “it was clear there was no way” Gaetz would become attorney general and that it was not worth spending political capital on the nomination.

“I know enough people who were a bloody no at the conference to know that the path would have been very, very difficult,” Cramer said, adding that he would be among the “no” votes if forced to decide today.

Despite public optimism from Vance and Gaetz on Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter said lawmakers did not shield Gaetz from the reality of what was to come in the confirmation process — and that Trump would not be enough to guarantee the votes he would need.

In one meeting, the source told CNN, a GOP senator wanted Gaetz to wrestle with who on the committee he could convince to vote for him and what votes he thought he actually got. One by one, the senator wanted to know who told Gaetz they were with him.

“They had at least five people on the committee who gave them some version of ‘I wish you the best,'” the source said.

Democrats, meanwhile, were pushing for disclosure of the House Ethics Committee report detailing its investigation into Gaetz, including allegations of sexual misconduct and other alleged crimes, after Republicans on the committee voted Wednesday not to release the results of the investigation.

Gaetz has vehemently denied the allegations investigated by the Justice Department and the commission, including the claim that he had sex with a woman in 2017 when she was a minor.

CNN reported Thursday that sources familiar with her testimony said the woman told the ethics committee she had two sexual encounters with Gaetz at a party in 2017 when she was 17. She testified that the second sexual encounter, which was not previously reported, involved another adult woman. She also testified about both sexual encounters in a civil deposition as part of a related lawsuit, sources said.

After being asked for comment for the CNN story, Gaetz announced his withdrawal as Trump’s nominee for attorney general.

Trump and members of his transition team were notified that Gaetz would retire before making the announcement, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Gaetz called Trump and Vance separately to inform them of his decision to withdraw, according to a source familiar with the calls.

It was believed that more damning information would come out of the ethics report and that members of Gaetz’s inner circle learned that there may be witnesses who were interviewed by the committee who had not been previously known, a source familiar with the matter said.

Multiple sources also said that while Gaetz’s meetings with GOP senators on Wednesday were not negative, it became clear that there were too many hard “no’s” from them and that the information expected to come out of the ethics report would probably makes confirmation impossible.

While Trump was all for Gaetz and believed he was the right person to “disrupt” the Justice Department, as one Trump aide characterized him, many allies and advisers helping the transition had serious doubts about Gaetz’s ability to it goes through Senate confirmation hearings. , two sources familiar with the discussions told CNN. These doubts were shared directly with Trump.

Trump has acknowledged privately that Gaetz may not be able to be confirmed, though he has not indicated he would change his position on standing with him, a source said.

Trump allies, including some close to the transition team, began conversations about what would happen if Gaetz could not be confirmed, but it was not immediately clear if anyone brought those conversations to Trump.

Reacting to the news, Trump said Thursday that Gaetz was “doing very well” and suggested he had a bright future. “I greatly appreciate Matt Gaetz’s recent efforts in seeking approval to be Attorney General. He was doing very well, but at the same time, he didn’t want to be a distraction to the Administration, for which he has a lot of respect. Matt has a great future and I look forward to watching all the great things he does!” the president-elect posted on X.

“President Trump remains committed to selecting a leader for the Department of Justice who will vigorously defend the Constitution and end the harmonization of our justice system,” Trump-Vance spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “President Trump will announce his new decision when it is made.”

Trump doesn’t have a new name for attorney general in mind and is now back to the drawing board, two people familiar with the matter told CNN.

Trump tapped other controversial Cabinet picks, including former Fox News host Pete Hegseth for Defense Department secretary and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the Department of Health and Human Services. Hegseth, facing a sexual assault charge which he denied, he is meeting with senators on Thursday.

GOP senators are glad Gaetz stepped down

Following Gaetz’s decision to step down, several Republicans applauded the move — publicizing the backlash the former Florida congressman, best known on Capitol Hill for his role in ousting former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, faced in within his own party.

“It’s a good thing,” said Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the outgoing party leader.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican, said she was “pleased” with Gaetz’s decision.

Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who has been vocal in his previous criticism of Gaetz, said his withdrawal “was probably a good decision.”

South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds said Gaetz’s efforts to get the confirmation “would have been problematic.”

“I don’t understand the president. The president has the right to make the nominations he sees fit,” Rounds said. “But the Senate also has a responsibility for advice and consent, and in this particular case I think advice was given rather than consent.”

Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, said Gaetz’s withdrawal was a “positive development.”

Sen. Cynthia Lummis said Gaetz “must have gotten some signals yesterday during the conversations he was having with senators that this was going to be a distraction.”

“He felt this was going to be a major distraction, and so good for him to admit and be self-aware to give President Trump a chance to pick someone who is just as tenacious about addressing the Department of Justice.” , the Wyoming Republican said.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, however, said he was “disappointed” that Gaetz withdrew.

“I am disappointed. I’ve known Matt since I started running for governor, and he was a smart, hard-working guy. I had a great working relationship with him,” he said.

Will Gaetz return to Congress?

Senior congressional leaders from both parties are struggling to determine whether Gaetz — who resigned from the current Congress earlier this month — can return to the House next year after winning re-election this fall.

Lawmakers and senior aides believe Gaetz may return in January — a scenario some have privately feared could happen all along, according to more than a dozen sources.

Even though Gaetz said in his resignation letter that he “does not intend to be sworn in” in January, congressional sources say he is still on track to be appointed to the seat because the governor has not called a special election and cannot. to preemptively resign from a Congress that has not yet begun.

But it’s a complicated question with murky legal precedent. Some lawmakers have already asked the lawmaker to weigh in and clear up the confusion, a source told CNN.

As for the ethics report, Democrats anticipate that the panel’s findings are even less likely to emerge now that it has withdrawn from consideration and given how reluctant Republicans already were to release it. House Ethics Chairman Michael Guest, a Republican from Mississippi, said part of the reason he has “reservations” about releasing the report is that it is not complete.

However, at one point during the commission’s closed-door meeting Wednesday to discuss their investigation, a staff member said it would only take a few hours to complete, two sources told CNN. Democrats believe Republicans tried to delay the process.

The panel is expected to vote on the final report on Dec. 5, but before then, the full House is expected to face a question of whether to force the release of the report — unless it is withdrawn by leadership as a result of Gaetz’s impeachment . himself from running.

Although GOP lawmakers have been poised to block the ethics report this week, there have been signals that more Republicans would want to release it if Gaetz were on the verge of being confirmed as attorney general. It would only take four House Republicans to join Democrats in voting to clear it on the House floor, or one Republican on the Ethics Committee when the committee meets next month.

“We anticipate that there will be a growing number of members who would like to see this report released,” a GOP lawmaker told CNN.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins contributed to this report.

This story and title have been updated with additional developments.