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Matt Gaetz Says He Is Withdrawing Attorney General Nomination. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired November 21, 2024 - 12:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:30:00]

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: -- as President- elect Trump was trying to shore up support on Capitol Hill to get Gaetz confirmed. I think this is also important, this new reporting, because it reminds people that there are things about this investigation that are still not public.

But, again, we reached out 45 minutes ago to Gaetz's team to tell them that we were going to go public with this story. We told them it would go public around 12:30. And before he got a statement, he announced that he is withdrawing from his Attorney General nomination.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Wow. Wow. We were waiting for that reporting, Paula. We were on pins and needles here quietly --

REID: I don't know it's like that. Yes.

BASH: -- quietly in the studio waiting for you to come with that reporting. And this is certainly huge, huge news that Matt Gaetz, we had just been talking about the question of whether he would do this given the fact that this was very much a pick that Donald Trump wanted.

And I just want to read some of, actually I'll read all of, Matt Gaetz's tweet where he just announced that he was withdrawing. "I had excellent meetings with senators yesterday. I appreciate their thoughtful feedback and the incredible support of so many.

While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump- Vance transition. There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle. Thus, I'll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump's DOJ must be in place and ready on day one."

And he says that he remains fully committed to helping Donald J. Trump. I mean, wow. This is really, really big news. And we knew that this was a -- I wouldn't even say possibility, I would say probability given so much quiet opposition by Republicans.

The fact that there was more information coming out, Paula Reid and our colleagues went to them with that information. We were going to report it and -- JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS: He's out.

BASH: -- he's out.

MASON: This is going to be a huge relief to a lot of Senate Republicans who did not want to have this debate, who did not want to face the first sort chance to show whether or not they were going to stand up to Donald Trump on something that they disagreed with or not.

And it's a blow certainly to President-elect Trump for having seen his nominee not last, what, two weeks. But it's -- this will clear the way for Senate Republicans to have somebody at the top who they can support.

BASH: Yes --

MASON: Also, I would take issue with one thing he said in that tweet which is --

BASH: Just one thing?

MASON: I mean --

BASH: That is was scuffle?

MASON: -- one thing stood out to me is that he said the momentum was strong.

BASH: Oh.

MASON: I think --

BASH: Yes.

MASON: I think the reporting shows very clearly that the momentum was not strong.

BASH: Or otherwise he would still be the --

MASON: 100 percent.

BASH: -- the nominee. Manu, I want to go to you on Capitol Hill. I know this just broke, but what are you hearing so far? I'm guessing the relief that Jeff Mason was just describing.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no question about it. I mean, there were a lot of Republican Senators who are concerned about defying Donald Trump but just really could not get themselves to supporting Matt Gaetz's nomination.

Not just because of the allegations in the House Ethics Committee report, some of which have been leaked to the press, but just about his style, the way he's battled with Republicans and Democrats alike, their concerns about whether he can actually do this job.

And just, there's just a real belief among many Republicans I spoke to that even if they went through this process, they'd be expending so much political capital to get him across the finish line. And that may not have been -- they still might not be enough to vote yes on this confirmation that ultimately would go down.

That made it so complicated to see how he could ultimately get through. It is still going to catch a lot of people by surprise because Gaetz was on Capitol Hill all day yesterday meeting with senators, trying to urge them to keep an open mind through this confirmation process.

They successfully delayed that House Ethics Committee report. It'll be an interesting decision, now, whether that House Ethics Committee report will -- could still see the light of day, even though Matt Gaetz has resigned from Congress. That committee is still planning to meet in early December to decide how to proceed.

And one other thing, Dana, Matt Gaetz resigned from his House seat in this Congress. He said in that letter to the House that he would not serve in the next Congress, although he was just re-elected to that seat for the next Congress.

Does he change his mind and decide to stay in his seat over the next two years? That's a question I just put out to Mr. Gaetz. We'll see how he responds to that question. But of course if he does, that could bring the Ethics Committee investigation --

BASH: Yes.

RAJU: -- back to light. So, a huge development here. And no question about it, a big sigh of relief for many Republicans who did not want to vote for Matt Gaetz.

BASH: Yes, no question. All right, let us know if you get more reaction, Manu.

I want to go to West Palm Beach. Kristen Holmes is there, at her post, reporting on the Trump transition. Kristen, what are you hearing?

[12:35:10]

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no official word yet from President-elect Donald Trump or his team. But I can tell you, Dana, I spoke to a number of people this morning who were talking about just how far they were going to have to go to try and get Gaetz confirmed.

How much political capital was Donald Trump going to use? And there was concern among those close to the former president, now president- elect, that they could not get a number of other Cabinet picks through if he used all of his political capital on Matt Gaetz, which was seeming like it might be the outcome of all of this.

Now, of course, there were questions as to whether or not Donald Trump would react or change the direction that he was going in once that ethics report came out, if it did, in fact, come out. But we have been told that Donald Trump was all in on Matt Gaetz, that he had said, over and over again that he was going to give him his support.

It was the most important pick. But for those around Donald Trump and the people who wanted to get some of these other not as controversial but still slightly controversial picks across the finish line, they were worried about then being a larger holdup because of the fact that he was expending so much political capital on Matt Gaetz.

Now I will tell you, I did talk to a number of sources close to Gaetz after those meetings with those Republican senators who said they were cautiously optimistic about how it went. However, when you look at what some of those senators said afterwards in terms of transparency, in terms of essentially warning Gaetz, that there could be more stuff, that he needed to be transparent coming forward, it was unclear if their reaction to this, again, cautiously optimistic was the same reaction that Gaetz himself or those senators was -- were having after they actually sat down with Gaetz.

But one thing that is just so interesting about all of this is the fact that Donald Trump had been hammering down behind closed doors that this was the most important pick to him, that he believed that this was something he had to stand by. He wanted Matt Gaetz to be the, quote unquote, "effective communicator".

Now, obviously, we'll see. We're back to the drawing board on attorney general. We know that when it came to Matt Gaetz, he wasn't even on the original shortlist. It was decided on a plane ride from West Palm Beach or Palm Beach to D.C. and back, and that's when that announcement came. So we are going to have to play this out now.

But now there are more critical positions, including secretary of treasury that have yet to be filled. It is going to be clear, this is going to be something they're going to turn their full attention to.

BASH: Right.

HOLMES: Because remember, Dana, overall, this is their number one thing. This is what Donald Trump believes the most important Cabinet position is.

BASH: Sure. Yes. OK. Thank you so much for that.

We're going to go back to Paula Reid. Paula?

REID: Yes, Dana, I just want to walk our viewers through a tick-tock of what happened here. Earlier today, we finalized our reporting that the Ethics Committee had been informed of a second sexual encounter between Gaetz and the woman who is just 17 years old at the time this alleged encounter took place.

This is testimony that the alleged underage victim had given to the House Ethics Committee. We also learned that she had said the same thing consistently in a civil deposition. At 12 -- 11:30 today, we reached out to the then-attorney general nominee's team explaining our reporting, giving them the opportunity to weigh in.

They asked us to give them an hour. We did. We said we would go at 12:30. And about a moment before I was supposed to come on air and share the new reporting from myself and our colleague Sarah Ferris, is we didn't get a statement from Gaetz and said we got the statement saying that he was withdrawing as the attorney general pick.

And I just want to reiterate that our new reporting is that the woman who is at the center of these allegations that he had sex with a minor has told the Ethics Committee that when she was just 17, she had not one, but two sexual encounters with Gaetz at a party in Florida, and that that second encounter involved an adult woman.

Now, I want to note, the former congressman was investigated by the Justice Department for allegations that he had sex with a minor. He has denied that. DOJ did not charge him, obviously. But the adult woman who is involved in this, she, too, has denied that there was any sort of threesome at this party.

But we reached out an hour ago with our new reporting. And instead of giving us a response or a comment, former Congressman Matt Gaetz announced that he is withdrawing as the attorney general pick.

BASH: Paula, pretty incredible reporting from you and from Sarah. Thank you so much for that.

Back here at the table. So it was an alleged threesome that included a minor. That's what did it.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: I mean, I'm learning this in real time (INAUDIBLE).

BASH: I didn't mean to --

TREENE: I apologize.

BASH: I didn't mean to leave you speechless there.

TREENE: No, I mean --

BASH: I would have been the same way.

TREENE: -- there's so much more that's happened that I think we need to get to the bottom too. I mean, I'm furiously trying to take my course --

BASH: Yes.

TREENE: -- on the side right now to see what happened because I will say as well when I was talking to people about, you know, who were being briefed on Trump, people who are being briefed on the meetings yesterday between J.D. Vance, Matt Gaetz, and all of these senators.

[12:40:01]

They said that they felt that a lot of senators had an open mind, that they thought it went well. There was clear hurdles they had to, you know, go through. They thought it was a good first step. They recognized, of course, as they have since Donald Trump announced that Matt Gaetz would be his pick for Attorney General, that there was always going to be a math problem.

It was probably not going to be -- you know, it was going to be very, very difficult --

BASH: Right.

TREENE: -- to get him confirmed. So I think the key thing is what exactly did it? Could it have been this, you know, the potential release of the ethics report, this new allegation?

BASH: Right.

TREENE: Did Susie Wiles go up to Trump? I mean, I don't want to --

BASH: Yes.

TREENE: -- get in hypotheticals here, but something happened. And as Kristen of the same thing, we did something clearly has happened because Donald Trump was very much 100 percent and, I mean, he was personally calling up the senators himself lobbying them to get behind Gaetz.

BASH: Well, what -- I mean, part of what happened was --

TREENE: Right.

BASH: -- that this Ethics Committee report is continuing to drip out, including what Paula and our colleagues got there. And so the question is -- first of all, let's just stick on Gaetz for one more beat. I mean, I had not talked to a Republican senator who privately thought that he was going to get confirmed --

MASON: Yes.

BASH: -- which goes back to your quibbling with rightly so his argument that he had momentum going forward. And I just also want to underscore that this was, by all accounts, a pretty impulsive move by Donald Trump.

They were flying here to Washington, I believe. And he said, OK, I want you to be my guy after he didn't have a great vibe with other people who were being presented to him, which is very Trump.

So then the next -- the question is, who's next? Todd Blanche? Which would be another classic Trump move, somebody who defended him in allegations against crimes, including those who he would -- that he was found guilty of, put him in charge of DOJ?

MASON: "Where's my Roy Cohn?" That's the quote that Trump used when he was talking about his attorneys general in the first term. And --

BASH: Yes.

MASON: -- perhaps he saw that in Matt Gaetz, obviously, that's now gone, and it didn't last very long, but I suspect that will be at least part of the criteria that he's looking for in this follow up pick. Who's going to be loyal to him at a department that historically has been seen as one that has distance from the White House?

That's not the vision that Trump has, and that's not the vision that he'll want his pick to have.

BASH: "Where's my Roy Cohn?" I'm so glad you did that. That's a great call back, and it just -- it's a perfect button for this very big turn of events.

OK, everybody, stand by because up next we're going to get reaction to this news and more from former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel. It's her first interview since the election.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:47:31]

BASH: We're following major breaking news that we broke here about 20 minutes ago or so, Donald Trump's pick for Attorney General, Matt Gaetz, says he is withdrawing from consideration. CNN's Manu Raju is on Capitol Hill. Manu, what are you hearing now?

RAJU: Yes, a lot of Republican senators really indicating how steep of a climb this would have been for Matt Gaetz to be confirmed because a lot of them are expressing relief and they said that Matt Gaetz essentially made the right decision.

One of them, Senator Roger Wicker, who will be the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee in the new Congress, called it, quote, "positive development". He told that to our colleague, Lauren Fox.

Others have made similar comments as well, and others are still urging Donald Trump including -- some people who are more aligned with the Gaetz wing of the party, are urging Donald Trump to find another Republican -- another attorney general nominee in the mold of Matt Gaetz.

We'll see how Donald Trump ultimately go, which route he goes. Democrats, on the other hand, are cheering this as well. One Senate Democrat, Chris Murphy, said this is, quote, "good for democracy". But then he said, who is next? That is the bigger question now. What is next for Donald Trump?

So while they may have won this victory, concerns with the Democrats about what's happening next. But no question, there are a lot of Republicans who did not want to vote for Matt Gaetz, and now are eager for this chapter to be over.

BASH: Yes.

RAJU: Dana?

BASH: We've both talked to several of those Republican senators who are probably very happy at this point.

Thank you so much, Manu. Appreciate that. Joining me now with her reaction to the breaking news, former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel. She ran the RNC during Trump's entire first term in office and for most of Joe Biden's presidency as well.

Thank you so much for being here.

I want to, before I get your reaction, read to you and to our viewers what Donald Trump just said.

His reaction is as following, "I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be attorney general. He was doing very well, but at the same time did not want to be a distraction for the administration, for which he has much respect. Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do."

What's your reaction to, first of all, just the withdrawal?

RONNA MCDANIEL, FORMER REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIR: I think the numbers weren't there. He came here. He met with senators. They started doing the math. It was becoming a distraction.

This was dominating the news. We were seeing the drip, drip, drip. And he did what I think is the right thing. He put his loyalty to the president first. He said, I don't want to be a distraction to this administration and getting the work done that President Trump needs to get done, and I'm going to withdraw my name. And I think a lot of people agree with this decision.

[12:50:13]

BASH: You were around, and I'm sure you had encounters with Matt Gaetz as the chair of the party. Just kind of taking a step back, the idea that he made some enemies in the House, where he served, and the United States Senate, how did that play into this?

MCDANIEL: Yes, I think it was hard for some of these senators and others. You know, he trolled them. He went after them. He wasn't going to win a congeniality contest.

And then suddenly he's in a position where he's saying, I need your support and I need your vote. The one thing I can say about Matt Gaetz is, he is unequivocally loyal to Donald Trump. And he always has been. He's been steadfast. And I think President Trump has said often, the biggest mistake he felt he made in that first term was Jeff Sessions.

I have heard him say it was my mistake one through 10. So this position is very important to him. And to have an attorney general who's going to be loyal, who's going to have his back, who's going to understand what President Trump wants to get done is critical. Matt Gaetz fit that mold. But he found himself in a position where he couldn't get the votes.

BASH: I want to broaden it out a little beyond Gaetz. Several of his picks have faced or are facing sexual assault or misconduct allegations. Pete Hegseth is dealing with this right now. RFK Jr., one of his top allies, Elon Musk, was sued by former employees who claimed that they were fired for raising concerns about sexual harassment at his company, SpaceX. What do you make of that common thread?

MCDANIEL: You know, I think this is important to have a Senate. I mean, this is why they have to give advice and consent. And let's let the process play out. There's all these stories coming out.

They haven't been convicted of any of these things. I think it's important for the senators to take this job very seriously, also to give good advice to the president and to say, you need to go into these picks with eyes wide open and understand what damage they may do and what baggage they bring to this administration.

I think they're going to do it in a very considerate way. They're going to do it privately. They're going to talk to the president privately. They don't want this playing out. But then, on the flip side, they understand, Donald Trump just won huge. We probably wouldn't have the Senate without Donald Trump right now.

And they want to make sure that they give the president the team that he wants to lead this country. He's not just trying to hit the ground running. He's running before he hits the ground. He wants to start day one getting the things done that he ran on. And he wants the people around him that he trusts that will get that done.

BASH: Trump was competitive with women in this election. He -- and they helped secure his victory. He lost the female vote overall by eight points, a smaller margin than in 2020.

And so the question is, are you worried, as somebody -- I have talked to you many times about this, got to get women into the fold, into the GOP, both from the voter perspective and from the elected official perspective.

Do you concern -- do you have concern, based on that goal of yours, that women will look at these picks and say, I voted for him to make the economy better, to make the price of eggs lower, to deal with immigration, I didn't vote for him to put all these people who have sexual assault allegations in his Cabinet?

MCDANIEL: I think women knew who he was campaigning with. He was running with all of these people. He was doing rallies with them. I really do think voters are saying, we need you to fix this economy. He was elected on the economy. Those were the issues. We saw it. Women were facing it. And --

BASH: So do these picks undermine that?

MCDANIEL: I think, as long as he achieves his agenda, I don't think we will be talking about the picks as long as these things get achieved and as long as he lowers taxes, gets regulation out of the way, finds ways to help incomes rise, to lower costs for the average American family. I mean, Dana, I have talked to you about this. People in my state of Michigan, they weren't saying, oh, I like this person or I like this person. They were saying, I can't afford Joe Biden. I can't live like this anymore. I can't have my car insurance be this high, my rent continue to be this high. We need a change.

But I do think one thing about President Trump is, he transcends party. He has brought in people to our party that maybe don't even consider themselves Republicans. So if we think this is a new way for the party, I think that's a mistake. It's different with Donald Trump. He transcends party and changes the game and brings people in to vote for him that would never consider voting for maybe another Republican.

[12:55:04]

BASH: Well, let me pick up on that, because, if you just look at the House majority...

MCDANIEL: Right.

BASH: ...yes, Republicans are going to be in charge, but it is a very narrow majority, probably the most narrow in recent history. What does that tell you about Donald Trump's win versus what it means for your average Republican?

MCDANIEL: I think there were people who came in and they said, I'm voting for Trump, and then they walked away and didn't vote downticket and downballot. We're probably going to have either the same House majority or smaller than we had coming out of 2022.

So that tells you that we had a red wave. We won the popular vote. Donald Trump won the electoral vote overwhelmingly, but we're still not picking up more House seats. The Senate map was so favorable.

We're not going to have that same Senate map in 2026. So what I would be thinking is, how do we make sure those Trump voters know how important it is to come vote in 2026, when he's not on the ballot?

I will just give you one quick example. John James in Michigan, he ran against the exact same opponent in 2022, very exact same opponent, same district. And he only won by 1,600 votes. With Trump on the ticket, he won by over 30,000 votes in that district.

So Trump brings out an electorate that may not show up in a midterm if his name's on the ballot. And that's going to be important for Republicans to recognize heading into these next midterms.

BASH: And what does that mean, just real quick, about getting things done?

MCDANIEL: I mean, I think they have got to get it done fast. That's why Trump's getting this Cabinet done. He is ready to come in. He knows that he came in, in 2026 with obstruction, even from his own party.

He's not going to do that anymore. He came to play. BASH: Ronna, thank you so much for being here.

MCDANIEL: Thank you for having me.

BASH: Appreciate it. We are out of time.

Thank you so much for joining Inside Politics. Very busy day. CNN News Central starts after the break.

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