If former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz wants to be the next attorney general, he would need the votes of Senate Republicans he has personally criticized in a chamber he once dubbed the “swampiest nursing home in America.”
In a range of public comments in recent years, the 42-year-old Floridian lobbed broadsides at more GOP senators than he can afford to lose, with Republicans anticipating a likely 53-seat majority. That means Gaetz’s confirmation could be blocked if four Republican senators join all Democrats and independents to vote against him.
Gaetz, among other comments, derided Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., as a “disgrace to the Republican Party.” He called Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., “one of the America-last Republican senators.” And when it came to a border deal negotiated in part by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., Gaetz labeled it as a “Lankford amnesty bill,” and said it “was backstabbing to the people who want a secure border.”
