The news that President-elect Donald Trump has selected controversy-riddled Florida U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz for the role of U.S. Attorney General was met with shock on Wednesday, including from Alaska’s moderate U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
“I don’t think it’s a serious nomination for the attorney general. That’s Lisa Murkowski’s view,” she told reporters, according to The Washington Post. “This one was not on my bingo card.”
While Trump has made a flurry of cabinet announcements, the pick of Gaetz — who is accused of being part of a sex trafficking ring that included underage victims — stood out. One of the GOP’s few remaining Trump skeptics in Congress, Murkowski was joined by fellow centrist Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Manchin (I-West Virginia) in criticizing the pick. Collins said she was “shocked.”
“This shows why the advice and consent process is so important, and I’m sure that there will be a lot of questions raised at his hearing,” Collins said, of the traditional confirmation process that Trump is already planning on bypassing. “Obviously, the president has the right to nominate whomever he wishes, but I’m certain that there will be a lot of questions.”
Even some Trump-friendly Senators expressed discomfort with Gaetz’s nomination, a somewhat surprising development given the party’s fervent support for Trump.
“I think he’s got a lot of work to get 50 [votes],” North Carolina GOP Sen. Thom Tillis said.
However, that might not matter.
Trump has demanded that the Senate allow him to make recess appointments, bypassing the traditional scrutiny placed on high-level cabinet appointments. The Senate has typically avoided allowing presidents to make recess appointments because it opens the door to corruption and incompetency.
Newly picked Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota), however, said he’s open to abdicating the Senate’s oversight responsibilities in deference to Trump. Allowing recess appointments was one of Trump’s main demands in a Senate Majority Leader.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
