Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I don't think the report was the determining factor on his withdrawal. I think it was more that he met with a bunch of Senators yesterday and the opposition is pretty strong and then on top of that details of the report keep leaking which makes it impossible for him to make traction with the Senators saying no.
Ultimately it was Senate opposition that did him in. If the report came out but he had 51 votes neither he nor anyone in Trumpworld would care.
any why the F do you think they were so strongly opposed....oh because of the report. God you people are dense.
No, it was a factor but even if the report had "exonerated" him there would have been strong opposition. The reason Senators oppose him is not the belief he paid a 17 year old for sex (though that, if true, does make it politically harder even for people who want to rubber stamp all of Trump's appointees to support him).
If the report was released and it said definitively that Gaetz had not has sex with a 17 year old, had not paid for sex, and had not done illegal drugs, there are still 4-8 Republican Senators who would be struggling on whether they could vote for him. They can lose three. Likely Collins, Murkowski, and Thillis were hard nos. He needed everyone else to fall in line and I think it's highly unlikely that would have happened.
Also the more the recess appointment option is discussed the less likely it becomes, at least for any of the constitutional cabinet noms. Again you need all the Republicans (in both houses) to agree to that plan and you have a bunch of people who are hard nos on that. Even people who might have voted for Gaetz! Like Mitch McConnell is strongly opposed to recess appointments for these roles. Thune said he was open to it but when it became clear that Trump thought he could use it for stuff like AG and DoD, he rapidly cooled because it takes away so much of his power and authority right after being elected as leader. And lots of opposition in the House from reps from purple or blue districts who have to run in 2026 with no guarantees.
Gaetz becoming AG probably never had more than like a 10-15% change of working. That's how bad the pick was.