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MAGA loyalist Matt Gaetz is Trump's pick for attorney general. Will he be confirmed?

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MAGA loyalist Matt Gaetz is Trump's pick for attorney general. Will he be confirmed?

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick of Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general sent a clear signal through Washington on Wednesday that Trump intends for his Justice Department to take a sharp-elbowed, hyper-partisan approach to law and order — one that is both unquestioningly loyal to Trump and openly antagonistic toward his political opponents, legal and political experts said.

That, after all, has long been the approach of Gaetz, a hard-right member of the House since 2016 who is deeply unpopular among his Democratic and Republican colleagues, but has won praise from Trump by being unflinchingly defensive of the former and future president and openly derisive of the various state and federal criminal cases against him.

“If anything shows Trump will make no effort at unity or conciliation, it is this pick,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law.

Matt Gaetz with Donald Trump outside the New York courtroom where Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in May.

(Mike Segar / Associated Press)

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House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday that Gaetz had submitted his resignation from Congress “effectively immediately,” in the hope that Florida officials can fill his House seat with another Republican by early January and the party’s thin majority in the chamber won’t be diminished as the next Trump administration gets underway.

Others noted that Gaetz’s departure from Congress also draws to a close an ongoing House ethics investigation against him.

Trump’s pick for the nation’s highest-ranking law enforcement official has been closely watched, given the stakes. Trump won the election despite being a convicted felon with multiple criminal cases pending against him, and after having promised to use the Justice Department to turn the tables and go after his political foes.

Gaetz, 42, has echoed Trump’s claims that the FBI and others within the Justice Department have been politically co-opted and weaponized in recent years to go after Republicans — including Gaetz himself, who was the subject of a federal sex trafficking investigation that ended with no charges last year.

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The probe involved allegations that Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid her to travel with him. The separate investigation by the House Ethics Committee, which will now be closed out, was considering whether Gaetz “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use” or “sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct,” among other things, the committee said in June.

Gaetz has denied all wrongdoing.

In announcing his selection, Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that Gaetz had distinguished himself in the House in part by calling for reforms in the Justice Department, and as attorney general would “root out the systemic corruption” and return the department “to its true mission of fighting Crime, and upholding our Democracy and Constitution.”

“Few issues in America are more important than ending the partisan Weaponization of our Justice System,” Trump wrote. “Matt will end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department.”

Gaetz called Trump’s nomination “an honor.” He also wrote on X that if ending the “weaponized” Justice Department “means ABOLISHING every one of the three letter agencies, from the FBI to the ATF, I’m ready to get going!”

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Gaetz has been on the far-right fringe of the Republican Party in Congress, one among a cohort of MAGA enthusiasts who have caused problems for the broader caucus on more than one occasion — including when they helped orchestrate the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield.

Then-Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) speaks to reporters hours after he was ousted as House speaker in 2023.

Then-Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) speaks to reporters hours after he was ousted as House speaker in 2023.

(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, another member of the MAGA cohort, hailed Gaetz as an “incredible choice” and a “total repudiation of four years of tyranny by a government entity run amok” under President Biden.

Others in Congress expressed shock — and dismay — at the news of Gaetz’s nomination. Many, from both sides of the political aisle, suggested Gaetz lacked the moral foundation needed to hold the position, and could face an uphill battle to winning confirmation in the Senate.

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Rep. Adam B. Schiff, a chief Trump antagonist for years who was just elected to the Senate from California and will be sworn in next month, said Gaetz’s nomination “must be rejected” by his colleagues — especially given a recent decision by the Supreme Court that found that presidents enjoy sweeping criminal immunity for actions taken in their official capacity.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) during a hearing at the Capitol in 2022.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) during a hearing at the Capitol in 2022.

(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

“First the Supreme Court granted a president immunity for weaponizing the Justice Department. Now Donald Trump wants to appoint Matt Gaetz as AG?” Schiff wrote on X. “Confirming him would mean affirming the worst potential abuses of DOJ.”

Several of Gaetz’s fellow Republicans also raised concerns, according to a host of reporting online Wednesday.

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Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said Gaetz was not a “serious nomination” and that she looked forward to considering “somebody that is serious.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she was “shocked” by Gaetz’s nomination — which she saw as a reminder of why the Senate’s role in confirming presidential nominations for important cabinet positions is “so important.”

John Bolton, who served in every GOP administration since Ronald Reagan’s and was Trump’s national security advisor in 2018 and 2019, called Trump’s pick of Gaetz “the worst nomination for a Cabinet position in American history,” and one Republicans should oppose.

“This is something that falls well outside the scope of deference that should be given to a president in nominating members of the senior team,” Bolton said on “Meet the Press Now.” “Gaetz is not only totally incompetent for this job, he doesn’t have the character. He is a person of moral turpitude.”

How Gaetz’s nomination will be taken up by the Senate is unclear, but it will be an early test for newly elected Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, another mainstream Republican. Trump in recent days has suggested that the Senate should give him unilateral power to appoint all of his nominees through recess appointments, which do not need Senate approval.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Rep. Michael Guest. (R-Miss.), left, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.).

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Rep. Michael Guest. (R-Miss.), left, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) shown in June.

(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

Trump’s pick for attorney general is widely viewed as one of his most important decisions.

Trump has spent much of the last eight years under criminal investigation by the Justice Department and other law enforcement agencies. He is a convicted felon awaiting sentencing in a New York case, and facing additional criminal charges in two federal cases and in Georgia.

Experts say he is eager to install a loyalist as attorney general who will not only fight to end any of those prosecutions that are still active by the time he takes office, but who will protect him against any new prosecutions moving forward and use the criminal justice system to go after Trump’s enemies, including political opponents and the prosecutors who charged him with crimes or pursued civil cases against him or his businesses.

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Trump spoke extensively about such retribution on the campaign trail.

Mark Paoletta, a conservative attorney serving on Trump’s transition team, said Monday on X that Trump’s agenda included “stopping the lawfare and persecution of political opponents,” but also “holding accountable those who weaponized their government authority to abuse Americans.”

Trump has repeatedly expressed regret about not appointing people more loyal to him as attorney general during his first term, which was defined in part by the Justice Department’s investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.

Trump had two attorneys general during his first term. The first was Jeff Sessions, an Alabama senator who served on Trump’s 2016 transition team.

Trump became infuriated with Sessions after he recused himself from overseeing the Russia probe, and his top deputy, Rod Rosenstein, appointed former FBI director Robert Mueller as a special counsel to oversee the investigation with independence.

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Mueller’s investigation found a slate of communications between Trump campaign officials and Russian agents, but not enough to justify criminal charges against Trump. Still, the probe mired the first half of Trump’s presidency in scandal. Trump ultimately fired Sessions.

Trump also soured on his next attorney general, Bill Barr, who backed Trump through the conclusion of the Mueller probe but broke with him over his baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Barr has said that when he told Trump that there was no evidence of election fraud, Trump became furious with him. Barr stepped down in December 2020, just before President Biden was inaugurated.

Barr later said Trump “never really had a good idea of, you know, the role of the Department of Justice [and] to some extent, you know, the president’s role.” Trump has blasted Barr as “gutless” and a “coward.”

Then-Atty. Gen. Bill Barr speaks to then-President Trump as Trump vetoes a bill in 2019.

Then-Atty. Gen. Bill Barr speaks to then-President Trump as Trump vetoes a bill in 2019.

(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

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While not etched in law, political tradition in this country since Watergate has been for the Justice Department to operate independently of the White House. Trump did not follow those guidelines.

In addition to pressuring the agency to pursue certain investigations and not others, and ridiculing his Justice Department leaders and Mueller, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey amid the Russia investigation. FBI directors usually serve a fixed 10-year term, and Comey’s dismissal was the first firing of one since 1993.

Trump and some other legal minds in his orbit have suggested Trump should go after those prosecutors who have targeted him and his companies — including Special Counsel Jack Smith, who has pursued criminal cases against Trump for his incitement of the Jan. 6 insurrection and his hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort; and Letitia “Tish” James, the New York attorney general who won a massive fraud judgment against Trump for inflating his net worth to win preferable insurance and loan terms.

James recently held a news conference alongside New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in which they said they were ready to fight Trump’s agenda and abuses of power.

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Trump has also suggested exacting retribution against several California officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, who recently held a press conference similar to Hochul’s; Schiff, who helped lead the resistance to Trump during his first term, including during both of Trump’s impeachments; and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has long been one of Trump’s most effective critics.

On Wednesday, experts said Gaetz, if confirmed, would be a ready partner in such efforts.

Chemerinsky, of Berkeley Law, said Trump “could not have picked anyone more far right or more a loyalist than Matt Gaetz,” and that there “is every reason to fear that he will be even less independent than Jeff Sessions or William Barr.”

Gaetz is married to Ginger Luckey Gaetz, the sister of major Trump donor Palmer Luckey of Newport Beach. Luckey, a Long Beach native, sold his virtual reality company to Facebook for $3 billion at the age of 21. He hosted major fundraisers for the president elect in the 2024 and 2020 elections.

Gaetz attended a Trump rally in the Coachella Valley earlier this year.

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Times staff writer Noah Bierman, in Washington, contributed to this report.

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Democrat Tammy Baldwin details recipe for running in a swing state after victory in Trump-won Wisconsin

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Democrat Tammy Baldwin details recipe for running in a swing state after victory in Trump-won Wisconsin

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., successfully won re-election in Wisconsin all while President-elect Donald Trump simultaneously flipped the state back to red in the presidential election. 

As to how she did it, the Democrat attributes much of her win to her “72-county strategy.” Baldwin made sure during her campaign to traverse the entire state, venturing far from the two large blue enclaves of Milwaukee and Dane counties. 

“I think showing up matters, listening matters,” she said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “And so I go, and I really listen and get to know the challenges and aspirations of people all over the state, rural areas, suburban areas, urban areas.”

Baldwin won by a few tens of thousands of votes in the state, clinching victory by roughly the same margin as Trump. 

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Sen. Baldwin was re-elected in Wisconsin as the state also elected Donald Trump. (Reuters/File)

According to her campaign, she did more than 250 events in Wisconsin in 2024 alone. She also hosted several targeted tours during her campaign, including her Dairyland Tour and her Rural Leaders for Tammy Tour.

Further, Baldwin’s campaign microtargeted rural communities to deliver content regarding her agricultural work. 

But her rigorous travel is not the only thing that sealed the deal for her. The senator acknowledged that people can go everywhere, but they also need to effectively engage voters in each place they travel to. 

One thing she noted is that she’s “had years to earn the trust of Wisconsin voters,” referencing the short few months that the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris had to turn out voters for her in the state. 

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Baldwin also said she convenes roundtables and forums on relevant issues while she travels in Wisconsin.

“So I’ve done that on, say, the fentanyl and opioid epidemic, bringing together first responders, public health officials, concerned community members to talk about what does the epidemic look like in this community, in this area of the state? What resources do you need? What are your biggest worries?”

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Wisconsin cheese hat

A woman wears a Cheesehead hat with the American flag in Wisconsin. (Reuters/File)

She also held events geared toward agricultural issues, she noted. 

Baldwin notably credits, in part, her work on agricultural issues with her re-election win. In early October, Baldwin earned the endorsement of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation Board of Directors, which was a significant achievement for a Democrat in a statewide election. 

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“They cited a number of different measures that I either championed or actually got into law,” she said. 

The senator pointed to her Dairy Business Innovation Act, which provides small grants to various dairy producers and processors. 

“I went this past spring to a particular farm that had received one of these grants, and they had also invited several other farmers and processors who had received grants to show me what they were able to do with these grants in order to grow their business and improve their bottom line,” she said.

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Cows

Dairy is a large agricultural industry in Wisconsin. (AP Photo/Charlie Litchfield/File)

The Wisconsin Democrat also pointed to the large manufacturing sector in her state and attributed her push for “buy America” rules in pieces of legislation as helping her win some of those voters. 

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On whether her campaign is a model for other Democrats, specifically those in swing states, she said, “I think it is something that would be helpful to many public officials.”

Baldwin added that she realized the need to travel Wisconsin to this extent during her first Senate campaign: “I had been in the House of Representatives representing, as you know, seven counties in [the] south-central part of the state. I had to learn Wisconsin as I was running.”

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Tammy Baldwin

Baldwin touted her 72-country strategy. (Reuters/File)

“And so traveling to do that learning was extremely important, being exposed to, you know, the timber industry and the north woods. We didn’t have a big timber industry in the south-central part of the state.”

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The Midwestern senator also said this was the first time she heard from Wisconsinites that elected officials hadn’t been spending much time in certain parts of the state.

“One thing I will say that I hear from constituents when I show up is just like, ‘I don’t remember the last time we had a U.S. senator visit our community, and especially not a Democrat,’” she said.

“It’s like, you know, the timber industry folks saying, ‘I don’t think we’ve ever had a senator pay so much attention to us,’” she added.

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Graphic details revealed in Monterey sexual assault claim against Pete Hegseth, Trump Cabinet pick

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Graphic details revealed in Monterey sexual assault claim against Pete Hegseth, Trump Cabinet pick

A woman told Monterey police that Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Defense secretary, took her phone, blocked her from leaving his hotel room and sexually assaulted her, according to a newly released police report.

On Wednesday evening, the Monterey Police Department released a 22-page report revealing graphic details in the 2017 assault claim filed against Hegseth, which did not result in any charges. The report reveals two starkly different narratives about what unfolded during a sexual encounter in his hotel room while the two were attending a Republican women’s conference in the city in October 2017.

The woman, who is referred to as Jane Doe in the report, claimed that she repeatedly told Hegseth “no” during the alleged assault, and that he ejaculated on her stomach and told her to “clean it up” — an incident she said left her with nightmares, according to the report.

Hegseth told police that the pair had consensual intercourse and that he made multiple attempts to ensure she was comfortable during the encounter, according to the report.

His attorney has said that he entered a confidential settlement agreement with his sexual assault accuser for an undisclosed sum.

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Hegseth has denied any wrongdoing since the accusation was revealed last week, and the Trump transition has continued to publicly support his nomination.

The recently released report brings more questions to what was already gearing up to be a controversial confirmation process for Hegseth’s nomination as U.S. secretary of Defense. Hegseth, 44, is a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and has been a Fox News host since 2017 and a contributor since 2014.

Hegseth was a keynote speaker at the 2017 Republican women’s conference hosted at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa.

According to the police report, both Doe and Hegseth told officers that the two of them went with a group to the hotel bar after Hegseth’s speech and an after-party hosted in a hotel suite.

Doe told police that she informed Hegseth she was uncomfortable when he touched her knee at the bar and declined his offer to return to his hotel room. The woman also reported that she observed Hegseth acting inappropriately toward woman at the conference, rubbing them on their legs and giving off a “creeper” vibe, according to the report.

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The report contains conflicting information over how intoxicated each of them were. Doe had difficulty remembering some of the nights events and, during a sexual assault exam, later told a nurse that shes believed something might have been slipped into her drink, according to the report.

Doe remembered trying to leave Hegseth’s hotel room and being physically blocked from doing so. She also recalled Hegseth wearing dog tags, ejaculating on her stomach and telling her to “clean it up.” And she remembered saying “no” a lot, according to the report.

Hegseth recalled a very different sequence of events.

He told police that Doe led him to his hotel room, where things progressed between the two of them, according to the report. He told police there was “always” conversation and “always” consensual contact between himself and Doe.

Hegseth recalled Doe displaying early signs of regret following the incident and that she said she would tell her husband she fell asleep on a couch in another hotel room, according to the report.

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Four days after the encounter, on Oct. 12, Doe went to a hospital to request a sexual assault forensic exam and brought with her the clothes she was wearing during the alleged assault.

Doe reported experiencing memory loss and nightmares in the aftermath of the sexual encounter, according to the report. An associate of hers also told officers that she had very little energy and would burst into tears out of the blue after the incident, according to the report.

Hegseth is a graduate of Princeton University, and has a graduate degree from Harvard University. He was decorated with two Bronze Stars and a Combat Infantryman Badge for his military service. He left the military after President Biden was elected, saying he’d been ordered to stand down from guard duty at the inauguration after top brass dubbed him an extremist and “white nationalist.”

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Trump-district House Democrat loses Alaska seat to political scion

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Trump-district House Democrat loses Alaska seat to political scion

Conservative Republican Nick Begich will win a tight race for Alaska’s lone seat in the House of Representatives, according to the Associated Press.

Begich defeated his main rival, Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, the first Native Alaskan in Congress, and one of only five House Democrats currently representing a district won by President-elect Trump in 2020.

The win widens the Republican majority in the House to 219 and 213 for Democrats.

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Alaska congressional candidates Nick Begich and Rep. Mary Peltola were the top two in the race. (Getty Images)

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The GOP candidate is no stranger to politics, having been born into a prominent political family in Alaska – made up of mostly Democrats.

His grandfather, Nick Begich, Sr., was an Alaska congressman, before mysteriously disappearing on a flight and being pronounced dead in 1972. His uncle, Mark Begich, was a U.S. senator for Alaska from 2009 to 2015.

The other two hopefuls in the race were Alaska Independence Party candidate John Wayne Howe and Democratic candidate Eric Hafner.

Alaska is one of only two states to use ranked-choice voting in federal elections, something that benefited Peltola in 2022, when Begich and former Gov. Sarah Palin knocked each other out of the running by splitting the Republican vote.

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Trump at MSG

Rep. Mary Peltola is one of a few House Democrats in a seat won by Trump in 2020. (Getty Images)

Republicans took a lesson from that defeat, however, and instead, coalesced around Begich earlier in the race.

Alaska has just one House seat given its modest population compared to more densely packed states. It is also one of only two states to use ranked-choice voting in its federal elections.

Peltola won her seat in a special election following the sudden death of longtime Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, in 2022.

Young’s daughters and several former staffers endorsed Peltola for re-election in the November race later that year.

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Rep. Mary Peltola replaced late Rep. Don Young, who died suddenly in 2022.

Rep. Mary Peltola replaced late Rep. Don Young, who died suddenly in 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

The moderate Democrat has been known to break from her party on certain climate and energy issues, among others.

Begich’s victory is a much-needed win for House Republicans who have fought tooth-and-nail to retain and even expand their majority.

He was added to the House GOP campaign arm’s “Young Guns” list in August of this year, giving him access to National Republican Congressional Committee resources, support, and advisement.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub. 

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