'God help us': Outrage over Trump's pick of Matt Gaetz for attorney general
Donald Trump's nomination of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to be Attorney General has caused an explosion on social media — with a number of MAGA accounts celebrating, but legal experts and other observers horrified.
Furthermore, it appears unclear whether Gaetz, who has been one of Trump's fiercest attack dogs in Congress and faced a highly-publicized FBI investigation and subsequent congressional ethics inquiry over alleged sex trafficking, retaliation, drug use, and campaign finance offenses, will get through even a Republican-dominated Senate.
"Holy s---," wrote Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL). "Trump will nominate Matt Gaetz as Attorney General. The man who was at the center of a sex trafficking probe. God help us."
"I cannot imagine why someone would vote to confirm Matt Gaetz for host at Red Lobster, never mind Attorney General of the United States," wrote conservative analyst Jonah Goldberg.
"I was a teenage girl when Matt Gaetz decided it was appropriate to body shame and belittle me as a sitting member of Congress and now I get to sit and watch him be nominated as Attorney General of the United States," wrote Texas youth activist Olivia Julianna.
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"He nominated Matt Gaetz as the Attorney General," wrote Suffolk Young Democrats chair Skyler Johnson. "This is an administration of criminals."
"Attorney General Matt Gaetz's 'not involved in sex trafficking' T-shirt has a lot of people at his confirmation hearing asking questions already answered by his shirt," wrote liberal podcaster Tommy Vietor.
"Matt Gaetz is about as close as you can get to putting Sean Hannity in charge of the Justice Department," wrote Media Matters fellow Matt Gertz. "A total loyalist who will run investigations into whichever political enemies Trump wants hounded."
"Safe to say that GOP senators are stunned - not in a good way - on Matt Gaetz for Attorney General," wrote Punchbowl News cofounder John Bresnahan.
"We are not a serious country if the Senate confirms Matt Gaetz to lead the Justice Department," wrote anti-Trump conservative commentator Heath Mayo.
"So bad for Attorney General," wrote former Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera, using a vulgar term to describe the congressman. "Gross."