“I had excellent meetings with Senators yesterday. I appreciate their thoughtful feedback – and the incredible support of so many. While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition. There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.”
“I remain fully committed to see that Donald J Trump is the most successful President in history. I will forever be honored that President Trump nominated me to lead the Department of Justice and I’m certain he will Save America,” tweeted a now-job and prospect-less former Congressman Matt Gaetz on Thursday. Here’s hoping that Ethics Committee report still comes out though.
Whether Gaetz can rescind his resignation is an open question. He’s gone from the 118th Congress and not coming back, but the 119th begins on January 3rd, in which he’s the duly-elected representative. None of the process to run a special election to replace him has started yet, so it is possible he’ll be back in his seat… which would make it harder to keep the ethics report buried.