Will Republicans Reject Gaetz?
33:54 Share

With installed, you can get all of our holiday essentials delivered in as fast as thirty minutes, whether it's the White elephant gift everyone will want to steal, or the secret ingredient that makes great grammatical, concise, so great just down the instagram and recipes shop ingredients and whip of dishes so delicious. Your ancient uncles will forget to ask about your love life. Enjoy free delivery on your first three orders, service fees and terms.

Supply from the new york times. I'm spring at every nc, and this is the daily.

Another trip appointment, and this is one that is probably going to surprise a lot of people. Last week, president elect Donald trump shows the firebrand congressman matt to be his attorney general.

blind sided that on senate republicans feel I don't.

I was shocked that .

he has trust choice.

shocked washington IT .

must be the worst nomination for cabin position in american history .

and raise questions about whether the senate would approve IT.

He is entitled to his nomination, but he is not entitled to a confirmation of any.

literally any non in today, my colleague, Robert driver, on what the nomination reveals about trumps promise for retribution and how far republicans are willing to go to help him get IT.

It's monday, never very teeth.

Robert, welcome to the daily. Thanks for me on and happy sunday as well. So president lcc Donald trump announced a series of pretty controversial nominations for his cabinet last week.

Chief among them was mckee, the hard member of congress from florida for attorney general. Gates is someone you've written a lot about, and we wanted to turn to you to talk about this pic of gates. And why is so controversial?

The pig is controversial. Sabina, in part because of who meant gates, is he comes from when, I suppose you could say, is the performance art wing of the republican party. So he is very a joyed getting attention, but someone who does not have an accomplished track record as a legislature.

So he would seem to be not all together serious pic and not a particularly qualified one as well. But he's also controversial as a pic because of the particular office, the department of justice. Of course, he would be america's chief law enforcement officer, which is interesting and ironic, given that gates himself has been defined of the law, has had a trail of investigations following him, both on the federal level and within congress.

And on top of that, the attorney general has tended to be an office that Operates more, less independently from the president. The a turning general will often do things that might even offend the president, might even investigate members of the administration. So to pick someone like mant gates, who is an unflagging loyalist to Donald trump would seem to suggest that the D. O J will, under trust presidency, become completely coated ted, so that a president trump would himself be, in many ways, beyond the reach of the law. So all of this sets in motion a show down between trump and the republican party writ large, and a test of whether or not the legislative branch will offer any kind of constraints over the authority of his.

Okay, so let's talk about who that gates is and how he became such an important figure in trump world. Tell me about him.

sure. Map gates is from northwestern florida. He grew up in a town called nice fill. His father owned a chain of hospices that he ultimately sold in the early two thousands for something like four hundred million dollars.

So.

wealthy family, very wealthy family, his father found a second career in politics. He ran for state senate in one, ultimately becoming president of the senate in the state, florida. And the Younger gates, after being a high school debate champion, went on to college, then, then got a lot agree and joined a commercial litigation firm where he stayed for a couple of years, but then after that, joined the new family business of politics and ran for a vacant seat in the state house of florida in two thousand and ten. So he pretty .

much immediately jumps into politics after being in the slaw practice.

yeah, that's right. And then might get to rain for the first congressional district of florida, his local congressional seat, which is a very conservative, very dominated by a couple of military bases. And he ran, of course, at the same time the Donald trump was running for president.

So this was the twenty sixteen cycle.

This is when he gets a congress. Yeah, that's right. Mac gates was an early supporter of the former florida governor, jeb bush, but I did not take terribly long before bush was faltering in his debate performances and his fun raising in in every other way against this outsider candidate, donal drop, and gets quickly through and with him as well.

And why did he throw his lot in with trump?

I think for a couple of reasons supreme. The first was that he was punching a wedding ticket. Though trump wasn't outsider, he dominated the republican primaries and really was at the top of the polls.

And so IT was evident that the center of gravity within the republican party was moving towards trump. Gates could clearly see that, but there was also a dualistic s streak to trump. The gates himself as a kind of resident smart alec in his high school, as a debate nerd that he could very much identify with.

And matt gates himself, a guy who was given to the sarcasm, was given to insult, was given to be outside looking in to the political lar stablished found himself very much to be a kindred spirit of. Almost from the beginning of terms presidency, Johnson is now florida congress on mac. Gates, republican congressman mac gates and gates and cons maga's represent state. And matt gates was on every conservative outlets praising everything that trump did.

I support this travel ban because I think that will enhance the security .

of americans from a muslim ban.

The foundation for obama care is crumbling, and that means we might be able to actually start on health care worthy of the great people in this country.

to his attempts to repeal and replace obama care.

I think if you just look at the bias on the moor team, these are not people in search of the truth. They are people in search of an impeachment charge.

Everyone was still trying to take the measure of trump, and he did not have a deep bench of cheerleaders, but matt gates was unambiguously one of them, mr. president.

I think we want the day, sir.

Gates was frequently, as a result of this, called on the phone by trump, president trump t offers, thanks to gates. And so IT became this kind of self leaking ice cream cone, uh, where a gates would say something trump i'd love IT gates would want to please them even more than on and on and went.

So outside of these interviews and T, V appearances, are there other ways that gates was trying to show his loyalty?

Yeah, I think the most flamboyant example occurred in twenty sixteen when the house intelligence committee was having an impeachment inquiry into trumps conduct towards the president of ukraine, and he was apparently attempt to get president zoelen sky to dig up dirt on trumps twenty twenty opponent, joe biden. So the intelligence community was having this impeachment inquiry in a secure facility in the basement of the capital. Classified information was being discussed. This was not something that just anybody could go into that include any person who has a congress person's badge, but map gates LED a group of about two dozen republican members of congress to this facility, followed by a bunch of reporters.

I'm gathered here with dozens of my congressional colleagues underground in the basement of the capital.

standing outside the doors of this conference term that was secure. Gates and the others perceived to have an at high press conference.

because if behind those doors they intend to overturn the results of an american presidential election, we want to know what's going on.

And in which gates talked about how outraged was that this shame investigation was taking place against president trip. And then at the very end.

we're going to go and see we can get in. so.

Were going in, he said, okay, we're going in. And they barged into the facility, effectively bringing the proceedings to a halt. And the idea that any closed hearing would be disrupted by anybody was generally unheard of. But for an actual legislator, national member of congress, to storm in and start making accusations that this was some sort of deep state undertaking where they were hatching up, damming testimony from scratch was without precedent.

and IT showed just how far he was willing to go for trump. T IT.

Sounds like, yeah, that's right. And another thing that I think stands out about gate's support of trump was in the winning moments of truth presidency on january the six, when mat gates, uh, far from expressing outrage that trump had stir up the mob that had stormed the capital, was question the composition of the mob itself and saying that these weren't trump supporters. These must be left wingers. These are members of antipa, the final group that that had been involved in protest, not all of them, peaceful protest during the summer of twenty twenty, for example.

And we should say, was pretty much conclusively not part of the riot at the capital on gene six.

But there is zero events suggest that what took place the capital in january the sixth was instigated by or even that there were in tia participants in IT, but there was gate from the gec of basically saying these couldn't be trump supporters. So then in the dates to follow the january the six riot, there were calls to impeach down trump.

And while gates did not say he should not be impeached and certainly did not say that he should be impeached, he did immediate denounce those people who denounced Donald trump in called for his impeachment. So gates was one of the very first people to decry them. House republican conference chairwoman, is china calling for trumps impeachment? And in fact, within a couple of weeks after trump left office on january.

the twenty eus love.

There's map gates on the steps of the capital of whaling.

I'll confess to you, this is my first time in wyoming. I've been here for a got our, and I feel like I already know the place a lot Better than you are. Misguided representative lish jining.

leading a protest against the congress woman representing the state while owing liz chi and saying that she's the one who needs to be pushed out.

The truth is that the establishment in both political parties have teamed up to screw our fellow americans generations.

This is a very aggressive going after trumps entries.

Yes, that's right. And of course, it's meant gates being clever enough recognizing that not all the facts are in not to saying dealtry p absolutely did nothing wrong, but instead to say that the people who are saying the deal trump did something wrong are themselves wrong so it's a kind of bank shot of denouncing denouncers. That is the sort of thing that the lawyerly gates is a specialist in.

So this is a guy who's time and time again shown that he's willing to defend trump at all costs, which I guess answers the question of why trump might want this guy as his attorney general. That's I mean.

gates was essentially setting himself up as the kind of person that Donald trump needed. Someone who had his a bombastic combat of style, someone who is an unflagging yal st. That's the kind of guy a Donald triple would want to have around. But something else is happening to which is the map gates is landing a hot water. And as a result of that, needs dual trump at least as much as demand trump needs mac gates.

Will be right back.

That swab, how you invest is your choice, not theirs. That's why when IT comes to managing your wealth swap gives you more choices. You can invest in trade on your own, plus get advice and more comprehensive wealth solutions to help meet your unique needs. With a word winning service, low costs and transparent advice, you can manage your wealth your way, a swop visit swab that calm to learn more. Okay.

i'm opening the new york times up the APP .

ads so much more than you might expect the way the tabs are at the top with all of the different sections is just easier and vigor. That way.

there is something for everyone.

When I open the youtube, I get a short list of articles that are more related to me.

Ten stories pick for you everyday people .

to add sections that interest you. That's really handy.

There are some individuals in here. I can add poll. I like him.

the lifestyle tab. The photos are just phenomenal. It's kind of like a collage of the games .

always grow over to the games page.

the connections, and then sp, over to read. There's an article next to recipe, next to games. And this is easy to get everything in one place.

And before you know that you can be late to work.

the new york times up all of the times, all in one .

place downadup. Now anyone times dog com slash APP.

So Robert, you said that gates needs trump in some ways, just as much as trump needs gates.

Explain that. Yes, meg. Gates was in trouble with the federal authorities and had been really since twenty seventeen or so when he was a freshman member of congress. Here's what was taking place. Gates had become friends with a guide me, j.

Greenberg, who was kind of a political get fly with political ambitions of his zone, was, can you running for congress? And he'd collected a bunch of lobby's, another political marketing mux in florida, to hang out with, he would help throw these parties. And gates began to cover around with Greenberg and with Greenberg friends, to show up to these parties.

There would be recreational drugs of these parties. There would be sex of these parties. And in the addition to of the lobby's and and elected officials, there would be women who were not of politics, who were there. Some of them were from and score service, and at least one of them was under the age of eighteen.

This is what attracted the attention of the fbs when joe Greenberg was nabbed by federal authorities for a variety of things, including having sex, apparently with a seventeen year old girl, Greener plead guilty to this offence and right away began to supply them with information to the effect that gate was the same thing. So the feds began to conduct a federal inquiry into gates um but ultimately they dropped the case. They dropped IT apparently because of two things first, if they couldn't get enough information and the information that they couldn't get was coming from people who might not look so great before a jury either because they were involved in the crimes themselves or had criminal records of their own.

And so IT just became a heavy left. No, this is informed speculation sabrena. Because the reality is that the department of justice never announced we are closing this case, and we are closing this case for the following reasons. So this is the best we've been able to infer from justice this behavior because that they did. okay.

So the D O J effectively shutters its case against gates. But we don't really know whether there was a crime or what ultimately was the rub there was at the end of IT.

IT was not the end of IT. No congress picked up where the federal government left off. The major political headlined new trouble for florida congressman and match gates tonight already under federal investigation.

Now the house ethics committee is also investigating its own set of allegation. There is is in congress something called the house ethics committee, and IT is a committee composed of members of both parties. IT meets in secret to examine potential misconduct by sitting members of congress.

IT has its own fact gathering apparatus, and it's pretty deliberative. IT takes a while for them to come around on their stuff. This is what happened. Then, with the gate's matter, the house ethics committee began to take a look at IT, relying on to some degree on the information that the department of justice had already gathered, but also not limited to .

that the house ethics committee launching by partisan investigation, examining allegations of sexual misconduct.

illicit drug use, because there were allegations that gates had been on the floor of the house showing videos a and still photograph s on his iphone of newly woman weather.

Gates shared inappropriate images or videos on the house floor.

allegations as well that he was having a relationship with a member of his staff, and as well allegations that he was using federal campaign funds for his own personal use. These were the kinds of things that were in coming for the ethics committee to consider.

So a wide ranging investigation with some pretty sorted allegations. How does gates respond to all of this? Does he speak out?

Yes, yes. So there are saying there is a seventeen year old girl who you had a relationship with. Is that true? And who are they? Who is this girl? What are they talking about?

The the person doesn't exist. I have not had a relationship with a seventeen year old. That is totally false.

as gates always does. He spoke the erly, indicating not only these charges were false, but that these charges were politically motivated, though this time not by democrats, so much as by republican leaders with whom gates had gotten crosswise. One of them, in particular, Kevin mcArthur.

Why did gates think that mccarthy was behind this investigation?

The two that had problems for a while, I mean, you know, mccarthy had donated to gates the first couple of congressional campaigns, but they never lied each other. Mccartney, sort of this glad hander, very much a member of the establishment. So not gates, this kind of guy to begin with. And gates, for that matter, as this flying the ointment, whose always coming out against republican leadership, not a carthy's kind of guy. Then, when word surfaced that there was an investigation into gaes behavior by the federal government, far from keep mccarthy saying, i'm sure that these are unwarned investigations.

he said those are serious implications if IT comes out to be true, yes, we would remove them if that was the case. But right now, as that gates, as this is not true and we don't have any information, so let's get all the information.

I don't really have any comment, will just simply have to see what the federal government got to do. IT was as look warm, a kind of statement of support this could be imagined. And gates filed out one away.

And this all comes to ahead in january of twenty twenty three, when congress convened to elect a speaker, which is a performer thing that usually last a couple of hours. So we are now in a situation where this congress will make history. We will have at least one more vote to see who the next speaker will be in one hundred and conversion, but in this case, became this protracted five day meldrum, six votes later.

And the republic lan majority is still scrambling to pick someone, anyone, to serve a speaker of the house.

And why was this the case? Because man gates is like Kevin Carter. After three days and hundreds of cast, the house has still not elected a speaker and was determined if not to completely stop mccarthy from becoming speaker, then to at least drag .

IT out four days in twelve round of voting and still no speaker of the house everyday.

Kevin mccarthy tried to get elected speaker, but he lost three times, but then on wednesday, lost three more times. IT was really, really melodramatic. And I played out on national television, where gates, at one point was nearly assaulted. Something here, IT is getting party, looks angry by a republican member of congress, Michael Rogers, who was A A mccarthy outline. I hear someone saying, stay civil, where gates, various junctions .

nominating jim George.

nominated people, including a drum, to be the speaker instead of mccarthy .

was your speaker. My friend from oklahoma says that my colleagues and I, who don't support Kevin mcArthur, plunge the house in the country into chaos. Chaos is speaker mccarthy.

After a successive balloting, mccarthy would go into a room with groups of republicans, and they would means to get him to agree on this or that thing. For example, the allowance of a single member of congress to call for a snap vote knows a motion to vacate. Was one decrying put IT.

It's like they'll have a spokesperson, but not at an actual speaker in the house. So he was coming in as, like really the weakest speaker imaginable meanwhile, there's gates clearly enjoying this theater and even as mccarthy, by the end of IT all at the end of the five day stretch, emerges Victorious, really the triumph is is a much matt gazes. Anyone else is.

Yeah, what I really remember about that whole episode between gates and mccarthy was just the way that gates went about IT like he with built his vote from a carthy over the speakership in this like very Austin tatius way. It's like he was, you know, humiliating him almost like I was this incredible act of of dominance like this power move against him.

That's right. IT was a total trump move. yeah. And I was the kind of thing that trump would remember. This is a guy, you know, who's got a cohn is, this is a guy who will stand up to everyone.

So what became of the ethics investigation in the end?

Well, IT moved slowly, slowly, because you gates continued effectively to delay IT by responding only that the last minute to inquiries and then doing so with the usual bomb blast being non responsive. And the ethics committee was having some difficulty getting traction, getting further information. So IT had produced a report roughly in late july, I believe, is when I did, at least the best that we can tell.

But there are rules in the house of govern when you can release a negative ethic report, as this one was, you can't do IT close to an election. So gates had a primary in the August. They couldn't do IT near then.

And then gates was facing a general election in november, so they couldn't do with them. So they kept missing all these windows. And now suddenly, IT is after the election, trump is elected president. The republicans regain control of the senate, continue to have control over the house. And meanwhile, there is this ethics community report that's been sitting there that's understood to be highly negative and therefore very damaging, involving criminal charges that could almost certainly to gate this expulsion from congress.

Well, there's that bomb just kind of sitting there. What happens with IT?

Well, what happens with IT is that Donald trump, before this can be released today, major surprises among donal trumps, latest to fill his cabinet, including map gates of fierce and loyal defender mister trumping congress. Now, his choice to become the next attorney general, signs on wednesday that he wants map gates to be his attorney general. Trump today describing one of his strongest defenders as a quote, deeply gifted and teenagers attorney, who will end the partisan weaponization of our justice system. And he makes this announcement, and within a matter of hours, gates resigns from the house of representatives.

He resigns. Yeah.

he resigns. IT. In so doing, he is no longer a member of the house, and an ethics committee investigation into a health member is no longer permanent. You can't, in other words, release information about someone who is no longer a member of congress. So IT would seem then that the ethics s report dies the death.

So the timing is quite interesting, right? Gates is about to be the subject of this potentially hugely damaging report, could very well end his career. And then at this critical hour for gaa's, trump named him to the position that allows him to resign from the house effectually, stopping the report and becoming potentially the top law enforcement agent in the country, a role that, beyond all of this potential legal trouble, he seems to be pretty unqualified for.

Yes, I mean, it's this remarkable zero moments, you know, where he goes from a guy of maximum exposure, potentially even criminal exposure, since that overall, the fed did not find not guilty. They didn't decide he was instance. They just decided not to pursue IT anymore.

And and so if all of these allegations surface, he's excel from congress, then he's himself criminally vulnerable. He goes from that to now being the ominous to be the chief law enforcement officer in the land. And so yeah, this moment where a guy goes from really, really being in a deep, dark place to a guy who maybe sitting on top of the world referring to mad gate.

And why do you think IT is that trump named him like easy because, you know, having him on the hook service speak means he will just do is betting .

I don't think, is that a brand? I don't think that he's doing IT to do a solid for gates or to own gates. I think that gave us loyalty to trap is not with the issue here that's always been unquestioned.

It's instead an external signal that trump is sending. First of all, that he will select exactly who he wants to select. He knows how a dacians a choice this is and he doesn't care. And secondly, for this particular position for the department of justice, they have at the top of that a matt gates since a signal that, yes, I do mean good on what I said during the campaign that I Donald term will be your his voters retribution that I will use the department of justice in exactly the way that you would imagine IT would be used if mant gates were at the top of IT. IT will be used as a weapon.

IT will be used as the spare point to ward off any kind of investigations into the president by the FBI or by the opposition and that IT will be used as a means of attack against trumps opponents. Be the, uh, a sitting senator like Adams shift who had been the head of the intellect community and the first in peaceful inquiry, a former member of congress list chai, who became his most vocal republican opponent. Members of the press or any number of individuals met gates will be at the very top of a department of justice.

That will be the kind of justice, the Donald trump. What's justice to mean? He will redefine the concept of justice through the personal ge of gates as his attack dog.

But of course, there is a senate confirmation process for his appointment. So what the senator saying about his nomination.

One election consequences he chose mat gates match will come before the the committee, and he will be asked hard questions, and we'll see how he does. Well, this been a sort of collective, grown and or statements of shock. I barely know gates.

All I know is he likes picking fights on social media. He will have to deal with that in committees, but I don't know his background of and look getting a mafia. I think there should not be any limitation on the night judiciary committee investigation.

Whatever the generated, none of them has come right out and said that they were opposite. But there's clearly some friction and clearly some kind of visual opposition. Now there's been some talk about the possibility of recess appointments, which would essentially mean the same majority later calling a ten day recess and letting trump push these nominations through without a confirmation. But right now, that seems pretty unlikely. And I think that what's much more likely is that this will go to an actual vote.

And what if this ethics report does end up somehow getting out like either leaked or actually released? I would imagine there would be a pretty big public outcry. It's explosive. Do we think trump might blink and say never mind?

IT seems really unlikely that trump is going to be in any way concerned by the release of the report or for that matter, the contents of the report. I think he's been fully breathed on what likely is in IT ah and trump t knows who gates is. I don't think he will be in the least bit cowed by the prospect of unseemly contents. I think he's expecting you. I think that they'll essentially describe IT as fake news by political opponents of gats.

So we're talking on sunday morning as of now, IT seems likely that this is actually heading to a confirmation hearing in a republican controlled senate where on the one hand, gates has a lot of enemies, but on the other, this group of senators is pretty afraid of crossing trump. So this sets up a pretty interesting, showed out.

IT certainly does. And because IT IT is an audacious move for trump to pick someone who is not only unqualified for the job, that would seem who not only is so disliked by members of his own party, but also is so encumber red, and for trump to basically be saying to the senate, yeah, I know he's got all these problems, I don't care.

Confirm him anyway is a very early test of just how willing the republican party is to offer any kind of check on the president elect. IT cannot be emphasized enough to bring of the republicans have been paying close attention over the years to what happened to those republicans who have attempted to problems will prominently this chain, and none of them wants to suffer the list chiny treatment. So they recognize that standing up to trump not only Carries costs in terms of a basic discomfort, but really can be a career ending proposition. And so we'll see whether republicans are willing to say, look, will give you all of these other nominations. This is just a bridge too far or if they in s and say the bridge to farm is also a bridge that we're gona be willing to give you.

Robber, thank you. It's my pleasure.

Thanks for having me to be.

We'll be .

right back after .

the movie freeware .

lie became a hit. Word got out that the star of the film, a killer willing cao, was sick and still living in a tiny pole in a mexican amusement park. Fans were outraged.

Kids demanded his release. I had a gone from serial productions in the new york times. Comes the goodwill ale, a story about the wildly ambitious science experiment to return.

K, go to the ocean. Listen to new episode thursdays, one early access to the whole show. Subscribe to the times at N. Y times that com slash podcast to listen on apple podcast and spotify.

Here's what else you should know today. On sunday, for the first time, president biden gave ukraine permission to use american long range missiles to have targets inside russia. The weapons are likely to be employed against russian and north korean troops in defense of ukrainian forces in the course crew of western russia.

An area that ukraine invaded in a surprise move last August by s. Authorization was a major change in U. S. Policy and comes just two months before a president elect, Donald trump, takes office. Trump has vowed to limit support for ukraine.

Today's episode was produced by wal read, Michael Simon Johnson, mush sai and mary Wilson IT was edited by David Taylor and Michael ben waa contains original music by dan power, alec ab, youtube dianna and maria ezza o and was engineered by Chris wood r thy music is by jim one work and vands burk of wonderly special thanks to kd edmonson.

That's IT for the daily. I'm sprit have any see see tomorrow.