Transcript: Why Trump Picked Matt Gaetz as AG—and Why It’s So Alarming

Sargent: Ben, here we are. Already Trump has tapped Matt Gaetz, of all people, as his choice for attorney general. Senate GOP aides are telling Politico’s Andrew Desiderio that there’s no way Gaetz gets confirmed. CNN’s Melanie Zanona reports that House Republicans literally ran away from her when she tried to get comment on Gaetz. This shows right off the bat that MAGA chaos is going to rain. Gaetz pushed false flag conspiracy theories about Trump’s insurrection and has been a big defender of Trump supporters who attack the Capitol. What do you think of all this?

Meiselas: Well, as I’ve been telling people, the best case scenario over the next four years is absolute chaos, total drama, utter incompetence, and hardship. That’s the best case scenario, knowing that Trump’s going to be Trump. He’s not out there [saying], This is my legacy. No, he’s going to do what he said: retribution, vengeance, rule like a dictator. Those are the things that he said he was going to do. In the best case scenario, he does the things he says—2,000 percent tariffs, appointing the people like he is doing right now, bloody mass deportations, chaos, drama, all caps posts. That’s your best case scenario.

Your more likely scenario, and worst case scenario, is that he effectively implements these things, and we see America turned into something out of our worst nightmares. I’m not trying to be hyperbolic. I’ve always tried to be leveled and measured when the corporate media was pretending that this was all normal and we were saying it wasn’t. Now everything that we said was going to happen is happening. Now I hear people are Googling, Can I take back my vote? What’s a tariff? Are the deportations going to impact me? Yeah, too late.