Matt Gaetz breaks silence on AG nomination while courting Senate votes

Former Congressman Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump‘s nominee for U.S. attorney general, has weighed in on his quest to be confirmed as the nation’s top law enforcement officer by the Senate.

Gaetz, the subject of a hotly anticipated report on a House Ethics Committee investigation into alleged sexual abuse and illicit drug use, has been facing heavy criticism since being named as Trump’s attorney general on November 13. Republicans take control of the Senate in early January but the confirmation of Trump’s picks likely relies on the party losing no more than three votes.

Trump has reportedly been making personal phone calls to Republican senators to convince them to back the confirmation of Gaetz, who is perhaps his most controversial Cabinet nominee so far. Gaetz, who has been mostly tight-lipped since being nominated, met with GOP senators at the Capitol on Wednesday before briefly discussing his meetings with reporters.

“They’ve been going great,” Gaetz said when asked about his meetings. “Senators have been giving a lot of good advice. I’m looking forward to a hearing. Folks have been very supportive, they’ve been saying we’re going to get a fair process. It’s a great day of momentum for the Trump-Vance administration.”

Newsweek reached out for comment to Trump’s office via email on Wednesday night.

Gaetz then insisted that he had not been paying attention to the controversy surrounding the House ethics report on him remaining unreleased. The almost immediate resignation of Gaetz from Congress following his nomination at least temporarily blocked the report from going public.

The bipartisan House committee met earlier on Wednesday and failed to come to an agreement to release the report ahead of Gaetz’s confirmation hearings. Democrats and some Republicans, including some GOP Senators, have demanded that the report be released before any Gaetz confirmation vote.

“I’ll be honest with you, I’ve been focused on what we’ve got to do to reform the Department of Justice,” said Gaetz. “I’ve been meeting with senators, I haven’t been paying much attention to that.”

Gaetz went on to say that he had not spoken to Trump on Wednesday but did have a “great” discussion with Vice President-elect JD Vance, who is also currently a senator, about his nomination and the future of the Justice Department.

“I had a great time with the vice president-elect,” Gaetz said. “Talking about how we’re going to end weaponization at the Department of Justice, we’re gonna tackle fentanyl, we’re gonna ensure that we don’t have the DOJ involved in censorship anymore.”

“And [we will] make sure that we get the country back on track and are there for President Trump’s total fulfillment of his promises on the immigration agenda,” he added.

After being asked whether he was “confident” that he would eventually be confirmed by the Senate, Gaetz did not answer directly but said “it was a great day” before indicating that he had further meetings planned with senators on Wednesday night.

While it is far from certain that Gaetz will be easily confirmed, Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville said during an interview with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon on Wednesday that GOP senators had “already planned” to push through his confirmation just after they take control of the chamber in early January.