November 21, 2024 - Presidential transition news

Matt Gaetz, closes a door to a private meeting with Vice President-elect JD Vance and Republican Senate Judiciary Committee members at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on November 20.

Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz on Thursday withdrew his name from consideration for President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, and wrote on social media that his nomination “was unfairly becoming a distraction” for the incoming administration.

Trump praised Gaetz after the announcement, writing in a post on Truth Social that his choice to run the Justice Department, “was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration, for which he has much respect.”

Sources later told CNN that Trump himself called Gaetz on Thursday morning to tell him he didn’t have enough support in the Senate to be confirmed for the position, based on the president-elect’s discussions with lawmakers.

Gaetz met with Republican senators Wednesday as Trump’s transition team tried to gauge whether he would win enough GOP support to be confirmed — and as Democrats pushed for the release of a House Ethics Committee report into allegations of sexual misconduct and other wrongdoing by the former congressman.

Trump’s team believed more damning information was still to come from the ethics report, a source told CNN.

Here’s what else to know about Gaetz’s withdrawal:

President-elect Donald Trump called Matt Gaetz Thursday morning and told him he did not have the votes in the Senate to get confirmed based on conversations Trump had with senators, according to a source with direct knowledge of the call.

The source insisted that Trump did not ask Gaetz to drop out and allowed Gaetz to come to that conclusion himself, which he quickly did.

Remember: Gaetz wrote on social media on Thursday that his nomination “was unfairly becoming a distraction.” Trump said publicly shortly after that Gaetz was “doing very well” and suggested he has a bright future.

A source familiar told CNN earlier that lawmakers were honest with Gaetz about the challenges he faced to be confirmed in the Senate during private meetings on Wednesday. They told him they were not automatically going to vote yes just by virtue of Trump nominating him, the source said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell arrives for a news conference following the weekly Senate Republican policy luncheon at the US Capitol on November 19, in Washington, DC.

Outgoing Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell will chair the Senate Rules Committee next Congress, he said in a statement on Thursday.

In the announcement, McConnell noted that “defending the Senate as an institution and protecting the right to political speech in our elections remain among my longest-standing priorities.”

He also announced that he will chair the all-important Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

Since his decision to step down as leader, McConnell has emphasized that he wants to focus the rest of his time in office on beating back the isolationist strain in his party — and this will absolutely put him in the position to remain involved in that sphere.

Truth Social, the social media platform owned by President-elect Donald Trump, appears to be exploring a move into the crypto space.

Trump Media & Technology Group filed a trademark application earlier this week for TruthFi, which it described as a cryptocurrency payment processing platform.

The trademark application includes few specifics but lists numerous potential applications for TruthFi, including card payment processing services, asset management, custody service and trading in digital assets.

It’s not clear how far along Trump Media is in evaluating a crypto payment service or whether the Trump-owned public company will ultimately launch such a platform. A move into crypto could be a way to diversify beyond social media.

Trump Media did not respond to a request for comment.

The news comes just weeks after Trump’s election victory, a win powered in part by strong support from a crypto industry desperate for friendlier regulation from Washington.

Trump, who once bashed bitcoin but has since embraced it, promised during the campaign to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet” and create a national cryptocurrency reserve.

Read more about TruthFi.

As Donald Trump’s attorney general pick Matt Gaetz met with senators on Capitol Hill Wednesday, a source familiar told CNN that lawmakers didn’t shield him from the reality of what was to come in the confirmation process.

The lawmakers impressed upon Gaetz that being confirmed by the Senate would require a clear strategy and that GOP senators were not automatically going to vote yes just by virtue of Trump nominating him, the source said.

In one meeting, a source told CNN that a GOP senator wanted Gaetz to grapple with who on the committee he actually could convince to vote for him and what votes he thought he had actually secured. One by one, the senator wanted to know who had told Gaetz “yes” they were with him.

The gravity of a Senate confirmation process — which includes a full vetting by committee staff, a public hearing, dozens if not hundreds of written questions — was not something GOP senators wanted Gaetz to take lightly. Each step would be an important inflection point in his quest to be attorney general.

The source told CNN that it was made clear to Gaetz that he and his team would need to be strategic and articulate to members how they were going to go from where they were to getting confirmed.

House Speaker Mike Johnson praised Matt Gaetz and said he has a “bright future” after Gaetz announced he is withdrawing from the nomination to be attorney general.

Some background: Johnson said previously that he was “going to strongly request” that the House Ethics Committee which investigated Gaetz not issue its report. He said that it would be “a terrible precedent” because Gaetz already resigned from Congress after Trump picked him for attorney general.

Democrats are pressing for the disclosure of the report after the panel’s Republicans voted on Wednesday not to release the probe’s results. The committee investigated Gaetz over allegations of sexual misconduct and other alleged crimes. Recently, members of Gaetz’s orbit learned there might be witnesses who had been interviewed by the committee who had been previously unknown, one source familiar said, leading to the belief that more damning information could come out.

President-elect Donald Trump is moving ahead with his presidential transition, selecting key loyalists for Cabinet roles and other top positions in his administration.

Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz said Thursday that he is withdrawing as Trump’s pick for attorney general, leaving the role open again for another pick. Trump does not have a new name in mind for attorney general and now returns to the drawing board, two people familiar with the matter tell CNN.

Cabinet members include the vice president and the heads of the 15 executive departments in the presidential line of succession. A president may also choose to elevate other roles to join the Cabinet. Trump’s Cabinet picks will need to be confirmed by the Senate.

Here are the Cabinet roles that the president-elect is yet to fill after Gaetz’s withdrawal:

CNN is tracking Trump’s Cabinet picks here.

Vice President-elect JD Vance said Matt Gaetz made the decision to withdraw from consideration for attorney general “entirely out of respect” for the next Trump administration.

Vance spent yesterday on Capitol Hill meeting with Gaetz and Republican senators.

Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz announced Thursday his withdrawal from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general.

Gaetz’s decision comes a day after he met with GOP senators on Capitol Hill and as he faced scrutiny over sexual misconduct allegations. Republicans on the House Ethics Committee voted Wednesday not to release the results of their investigation into Gaetz. Sources tell CNN the committee was told of a second sexual encounter between Gaetz and a 17-year-old at a party in 2017.

Gaetz is not the first person to withdraw after being chosen for a Cabinet secretary position. His decision Thursday makes him the 12th Cabinet pick in the last 30 years to step down after being publicly announced.

Matt Gaetz threw another curve ball at the House Ethics Committee Thursday by announcing he is withdrawing from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general.

The panel is expected to vote on the final report on December 5, after Republicans blocked to release the damaging findings on Wednesday. Democrats anticipate the panel’s findings on Gaetz are even less likely to emerge now that Gaetz has withdrawn from consideration to lead the Justice Department given Republicans were already reluctant to release the report.

House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest has said part of the reason he has “reservations” about releasing his panel’s damaging report on Gaetz, is because it is not finished and is still in the “final review stages.”

Yet at one point during the panel’s closed-door meeting on Wednesday to discuss their investigation into Gaetz, a staff member said it would only take a couple of hours to finish it, two sources told CNN.

Democrats believe Republicans have been trying to delay the process amid public pressure from House Speaker Mike Johnson not to release the report and Trump’s direct push to confirm his cabinet picks. Johnson himself said Thursday that it was his understanding that the report was “an early draft, a rough draft” though he said he hasn’t spoken to Guest.

The investigation itself has been completed, the sources told CNN, and committee Republicans had already canceled a meeting to discuss the probe once prior to the Wednesday meeting.

But before that Dec. 5 private meeting, the full House is still expected to face a question about whether to force the release of the report — unless it gets pulled by leadership as a result of Gaetz taking himself out of the running.