Former CNN political analyst Chris Cillizza said Friday that Republican senators not supporting President-elect Donald Trump’s initial attorney general pick, former Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, proves Trump will not govern as a fascist.
Gaetz withdrew from consideration for the position after Trump told him there was insufficient Republican support in the Senate, CNN reported, citing an individual with direct knowledge of the conversation. Cillizza, on his YouTube channel, claimed the GOP resistance against Trump’s choice demonstrates that democracy remains intact.
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“Here’s one thing I will say, though, to the people who insist that democracy is about to end and that Trump is gonna run roughshod over everyone … Matt Gaetz was Trump’s first pick to be attorney general. Eight days after he was picked, he stepped away from the nomination,” Cillizza said. “Why? Because Trump told him to. Why? Because Republican senators made clear to Trump that Gaetz wasn’t getting 50 votes. So that’s advise and consent. That’s how the process is supposed to work.”
“So remind me about how Trump is riding roughshod over everyone in the Senate and they’re just his lapdogs. Like, if they were just his lapdogs, they would have confirmed Matt Gaetz, and there wouldn’t have even been a fight, and every single one of them would have voted for it,” he continued. “So, I don’t know. I think the ‘democracy is ending, fascism, America’s Hitler’ stuff is overblown. But people who’ve watched these before know I feel that way.”
Trump did not directly instruct Gaetz to withdraw, CNN reported. Gaetz asserted on X Thursday that his confirmation was “unfairly becoming a distraction” to the work of Trump’s 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,” the former congressman wrote. “Trump’s DOJ [Department of Justice] must be in place and ready on Day 1.”
MSNBC panelists on Friday asserted Trump purposely selected Matt Gaetz to be his attorney general to divert attention from his other cabinet picks, including Pete Hegseth, former Democratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“What it did was it forced a lot of the conversation away from Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr.,” Republican strategist Doug Heye said.
“I think that this was a rather clever, almost diabolical strategy by Donald Trump. We have been so focused on Matt Gaetz that we have lost focus on a nomination, several nominations that are just as concerning if not more so,” former Democratic New York Rep. Steve Israel responded during the discussion.
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