CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten said Wednesday that it appears unlikely that Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz will become President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general (AG).
Trump announced he had selected Gaetz to be his attorney general in a Nov. 13 Truth Social post, sparking left-wing backlash and reported skepticism among Senate Republicans regarding his ability to secure confirmation. Enten, on “CNN News Central,” said the betting markets, Gaetz’ conduct in Congress and public opinion are factors working against Trump’s pick.
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“There is just one word when it comes to Matt Gaetz’s chances in the betting markets and it is yikes, yikes, yikes, yikes. Chance Matt Gaetz becomes Trump’s AG, look at this: 37% say yes, the majority, 63%, say no,” Enten told host John Berman. “And I should note I looked up every other one of Trump’s choices to be in his cabinet. This is the only one in which less than a majority say yes. The bottom line is the conventional wisdom suggests that Matt Gaetz’s chance to be Trump’s attorney general are in big, big trouble.”
The data reporter noted that while betting markets are not infallible, they accurately predicted Trump’s 2024 election victory and serve as “a good gauge of the conventional wisdom.”
“Look, Matt Gaetz just loves to make enemies on Capitol Hill. I mean, Matt Gaetz’s voting record among GOP House members this Congress: number one for most anti-establishment. Remember, he helped lead the effort to overthrow Kevin McCarthy as the House Speaker,” Enten said. “He has called the Senate, I think like the swampiest thing in the world or something like that. He’s gone after individual senators.”
“It turns out that it’s not always good to make enemies on Capitol Hill when you need their votes to be confirmed,” he continued. “And he has in fact gone out of his way to insult folks. So it’s not a real big surprise that there are a lot of senators who might be saying, ‘Hey, why the heck should we help this guy out?’”
Enten also asserted that “the politics of getting confirmed” related to “public pressure,” noting “Matt Gaetz has certainly ginned up a lot of public interest in his nomination.”
“So this is Google searches for Trump’s cabinet picks over the last seven days, Gaetz has been the most searched by far, by far. He has gotten up 1,300% from the median Trump pick so he’s generating a lot of public pressure. That public pressure may be felt by those who are potentially voting to confirm Matt Gaetz in the United States Senate,” he said. “I should note, while the public perception of him could be positive or negative, based upon all those folks who are searching for him, the initial polling data suggests that he is the least popular of Trump’s picks, in fact, the only one that’s underwater in terms of net favorability ratings.”
“So at this particular point, Mr. Berman, what are we dealing with? We’re dealing with somebody who’s not exactly popular on Capitol Hill to begin with,” the data reporter added. “And then you might be dealing with a lot of public pressure from those outside of Capitol Hill saying, ‘Wait a minute, we don’t want this guy to necessarily be the AG.’”
Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Victor Davis Hanson said on Tuesday that he thinks Gaetz could be Trump’s “sacrificial lamb” pick.
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