Matt Gaetz Calls It Quits
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slash from new york times. I'm Michael borrow. This is the daily.

After just nine days as Donald trumps pick for a tourney general, former congressman mad gates of lda has withdrawn from consideration today. Mike smut on the revelations and the reporting that dog gazes nomination.

It's friday, november twenty second. Might welcome back to the studio for your second recording of the day.

sure.

We had a couple of hours ago finished recording a round table with four of our colleagues, including you and kd edmonson, Maggie erman, john athan swan. Literally we finished. We said, thank you.

We walk out of the throw and we learned that my gates was withdrawing as prospect for return general, because that piece of information rendered our entire conversation out of the correct. So we want to thank them for their work, which will never be heard. And thank you for sticking around to tell us the rest of this story.

Let's go. okay. So at the start of this week, the question which we had posed in an episode daily about markets was whether we were going to see the results of a house ethics investigation into his alleged sexual misconduct, including allegedly sex with a minor and his alleged drug use. And like one of the first things that happen after our episode ran was that the republican speaker of the house waiting on that question, just start the clock there.

So speaker Johnson came out and said, I don't think this report should be released. The ethics committee had looked at a range of his different conduct, and they look like they were coming to the end of their investigation and they were going to be putting a report out about what they found. But the argument that republicans were making that because gates had stepped down because is no longer a member of congress, the committee should not release the report.

We don't issue investigations and ethics reports on people who are not members of congress. I'm afraid that would open a pan Doris box because the jurisdiction of the ethics committee is limited the right. And that's the argument that speaker my Johnson puts forward.

He says not a member of the house not subject to this report ever becoming public end of discussion. And I think this would be a breach of protocol that could be dangerous for us going forward in the future, which is, of course, a Victory. Four gates and for trm, who's putting them off for a and meanwhile, with this report locked up in a cabinet somewhere on capital hill from calling in his number two vice president like J.

D. Vance to nudge soon to be former colleagues the ohio senator with gates at his side, J. D, V, the first president of shows up on capital hill with mad gates in to to IT, seemed start drumming up support for a potential senate confirmation for hearing.

As far as I went for the trump folks, they were moving ahead with their nomination. They were taking their nominee up to capital hill, providing him before senators and trying to get him confirmed right.

trying to make this and a sense as Normal or rural as has ever happened with somebody up for a big job in washington. This just stand a major announcement from capital hill. The house ethics committee has voted to not release its report on former representative matt gates.

and in another positive sign for gates, the ethics committee decides not to release a copy of the report.

Democrats on the committee are furious, saying they want the report out, but the republicans refused. So that's where we are as of wednesday afternoon, early evening, I believe. And that, mike, is where you, as you frequently do in these moments, enter the story with your reporting just described what happened.

So I really wanted to get my hands on the ethics investigation.

you and every other journalists.

but I thought that was going to be really hard. But I knew that there had been a three year long justice department investigation that looked at whether gate should be charged for having sex with a seventeen year old girl who was paid for. In the course of my reporting, I learned that the ethic committee had obtained a range of information and documentation from that investigation. So I thought was, could I get my hands on some of the evidence the committee had obtained in the course of that? I got my hands on a document that federal investigators had created as they were looking at gates.

In that document was a chart, a bunch of different faces of people, including gates and the women and its lines, going from gate to the women with arrows and dollar figures, right? And when you step back and take a look at IT, it's an incredible web and shows the great detail that the investigators went to to try and understand what gates was doing and who he was sending money to. And IT was significant because the women had testified to the ethics committee that they had had sex with gates for money, and this document baked that up because they showed thousands and thousands of dollars in vendor payments that gates had made to them that had been documented by the federal investigations.

What, if anything, does the documents say about the most serious of the accusations that have been made against gates, which is that he had sex with an under .

rage girl? IT does not show any payments between gates and the girl, but IT does show that gate's friend, a guy named joe Greenberg, who set up many of these encounters, had sent several hundred dollars worth of money to the seventeen year old girl. And that was significant because IT appeared to back up what Greenberg had told investigators, which is that he engages both had sex with a seventeen year old girl for money.

IT seems worth saying this document is residing in a house ethics report me from wrong that the speaker of the house and the republicans on the ethics committee decided that the public should not see, even as IT considers mad gates, to be the lead law enforcement official, the united states.

We don't know if the actual chart is in the final version of the report, but we know that this is what the ethics committee had obtained during their investigation as they were trying to get to the bottom of the allocations.

I was quite struck by what gates said when he learned, and those around him learned that you had this document make. And the response in a way to kind of translate for us is that you possessing this document is why the country needed that. Gates, as a tourney y general.

they accused the justice department of leaking the document, and they said the department had investigated gates for several years. They never charged him. And we're essentially now using IT to undermine him.

And IT was that type of action, that type of political zone of investigative work that gates needed to comment to the department to take care of. The larger argument they're trying to say is that Donald trump has been constantly undermined by the deep state and the justice department. That's what's happening to my gates right now. And that's why he has to be a tourney journal because he has to put in in to this type of behavior.

So all of this ends up being the backdrop as we enter thursday, the day we are sitting here talking and the day in which match gates, right after we finished recording a round table, stands out a tweet.

He basically says that his confirmation is becoming an unnecessary distraction for the incoming trump administration. And while he had great meetings on capital hill with senators, he is going to be pulling his nomination. And just like that, mac gates was no longer Donald trump s nominee to be attorney general.

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It's molick from york times cooking. And i'm in the kitchen with some of our team, nike to Richardson, what are you making for thanksgiving this year? I'm making the chee hassle back.

Potato protein Petering layers of finally cut potatoes s very easy, but it's a real. I'm actually doing a mushroom welling ten puff pastry wrapped around the delicious very feeling. Are you be as standing, if not more so, than a turkey? No matter what kind of think's giving your cooking, you can find the recipes you need.

IT N Y T cooking darcos slash thanksgiving. Mike fera gates to have withdrawn as trust pick for our general, the trump team must have concluded that he couldn't win senator confirmation at a moment when trump is brimming with self confidence and rivaling in his ability to force controversial cabinet picks through the senate confirmation process. So why exactly do we think the trump goes around? Him reached the conclusion that this pic couldn't get through.

that he was doomed. This is the track that the nomination was on. If gates went forward, he was almost certainly going to have to testify before the senate at a confirmation hearing. At that hearing, he would almost certainly have been asked, have you paid women for sex and that would have put him in the situation of either saying, yes, I did, which would have created a whole storm around IT.

In theory, IT might be the future attorney general saying under earth that he broke the law.

correct? If he said no, the democrats would almost certainly say you're under roof and you're perjuring yourself because there's all of this other evidence that IT indeed did happen. And the third option he would have had, which most lawyers probably would have counsel him to do, it's to have taken the fifth amendment. So you would have ve had a potential incoming attorney general taking the fifth memc .

against self incrimination .

as he answered questions underwood before congress about a federal investigation into him as he was trying to become the attorney general.

right? That as they say.

is a sticking wicket. It's just quite something, even by the measures of the trump story.

And no matter what gates is answer in any of those three scenario, IT would have put senate republicans in an exceptionally difficult position of having to vote against a trump nominee or accepting, in this case, a trump omino that they were not eager to confirm.

with the very least, they were gonna to litigate whether the allegations that gates had sex with women for money or true or not, right?

And therefore would have four senate republicans to choose whom to trust gates or these women, correct? IT does feel notable that trump chose not to force this vote and not to force this showed down with senate republicans. He obviously made a choice here and he said to mates, or at least someone around him seated with his approval.

that's IT. I'm sorry you're done. I mean, you don't see IT every day, but every once in a while you see in trump's world where the line is, trump puts up with behavior amongst his allies, people around him, unlike any other politicians we ve ever seen. He allows people in that have kind of intelligence problems that have been accused of a litta of different.

who, under investigation.

name IT, literally like a buffet of different things. He lets all these folks in the house. But every once in a while, you get to see that there are some things that they will not tolerate. So when someone's nomination is puled, where someone is fired or they resign, you get to see where the line is. And today we see where IT is.

Well, there's a complexity to this line. And clearly, gates, the situation is unique. The number of women he has alleged to have paid for sex, the fact that one is a minor, the fact that he was picked to run the justice department, that all makes you unique. But we should point out that if the line for a trump pick is serious accusations of sexual misconduct, we now have another trump peg peed heg for secretary defense, who is facing his own set of allegations of sexual misconduct. Or correct.

because is the gate story was coming into its final hours, a police report about hegseth comes out that details accusations of rape against him. The woman says that he assaulted her in a california hotel room. He denies that that happened.

He says he was concentrate.

But what we do know is that he later reached a financial settlement with her that essentially silenced her from speaking out against him and asked for this .

question of whether this line applies, except we are seeing that hack ef is up on capital hill with j events the same way that gates was with jay events a couple of days ago. And IT seems that hex us reception so far from senate republicans is pretty positive. So we have to watch that pretty closely.

But when IT comes to the A G pic, there is now a vacancy. And there's already talk of who trump might replace gates with. And one of the names that seems to be under consideration is a former personal lawyer to trump.

His name is tao dd launch. He represented trump in his criminal hush money trial in manhadoes. What do you make of that?

So if trump hadn't nominated gates to be attorney, what we likely would have been concentrating on is the fact that he had announced that he was going to put baLance in as his deputy. Eternity general number two, correct. And why is that so significant? The president would have been putting his personal lawyer in at the top of the department.

So the department is supposed to have this image of independence and following the laws and the evidence. But in this case, you would have had a lawyer who had defended the president in a criminal case in which he was convicted. And in terms of the norms that usually govern presidents, that is something that most presidents would not .

consider putting forward, a personal lawyer who they have paid money to and having the .

turny client relationship with.

And so far, we are not very focused on top black. And to that point, I wanted read you what our colleague, jonathon swan, said about the way that this is all played out. He said, IT, in around that, we have decided not to run.

This is what he said. The controversy surrounding gates has already served a purpose for trump. Whether intended or not, IT has made other trump choices for cabinet pics appear more reasonable by comparison. In other words, what JoNathan is saying is that gates and all the controversy around him means that getting the next pick for turning general through is likely to be much easier, even if they represent somebody who might be justice outside the norm or is loyal to trump. As gates do you buy under that?

I do. Because objectively, whoever comes after gates will almost certainly not be as controversial as he is, and that will make that person more palatable to senate republicans who know that they're not going to have to figure out whether allegations from women, their late teens in early twenties, who said they had sex with gates for money, are telling the truth.

Mike.

thank you very much. Thanks for me.

On thursday night, president electric announced that his new pic for a tory general would be pam bundy, a former republican attorney general of lda. Bondy, a member of trump's legal team during his first impeachment, is viewed as highly loyal to trump and most importantly, as acceptable to the senate republicans who will have to confirm her.

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open product recommendation service from the new york times. Mary IT is gift giving time. What's an easy gift for someone like under fifty box in our gifts under fifty list?

I really love this water color set from japan. These beautiful, beautiful colors is something that kids can do, adults can do. I love that for all the wire to give ideas and recommendations had to n times dot com slash holiday guide. Here is what else you need to. The other day on thursday, the international criminal court issued arrest wards for prime minister Benjamin at yahoo of israel and his former defense minister.

You will want to go out accusing both men of Carrying out war and crimes against humanity inside of gaza, the warns, could subject both men to arrest in dozens of countries and deals an extraordinary blow to israel standing across the globe. At the same time, the court issued a warrant for the arrest of hamas military chief mohamad dave, but the court acknowledge IT was unsure whether death is dead or alive in washington. The White house forcefully rejected the legitimacy of the courts, is arrest, warns for the israeli leaders, and said IT has no plans to honor them.

Remember, you can catch a new episode of the interview right here tomorrow. Luu talks with rosy, a member of the group black pink, about her new solo album and the intense training process required to become A K pop star. I felt like we were trained to always present ourselves in the most perfect, perfect way in making sure that i'm a perfect girl for everyone. Tod's episode was produced by alexa n and mary Wilson IT was edited by a Rachel quester and randon clinton could, contains original music by pat mccusker and dan power, and was engineered by Chris wood. Our theme music is by doing rune d and the landforms of wonderful.

That's IT for the daily. I'm Michael bo. See you on monday.

As pocket is supported by meta, meta open source, A I is an open invitation. IT enables small businesses, startups, students, researchers and more to download and build with the models at no cost, which means more people can build amazing things. Because when A I is open source is available to all, and when A I is available to all, everyone benefits. Learn more about met as open source models at A I dot met a diet com slash.