Who is Matt Gaetz, the Trump loyalist elected attorney general? | republican

Donald Trump has announced his intention to nominate as attorney general Matt Gaetz, a right-wing congressman from Florida known for stoking tensions within the House Republican conference.

Gaetz, a longtime Trump supporter, gained attention last year after leading the successful effort to oust fellow Republican Kevin McCarthy as House speaker. Gaetz and seven other House Republicans joined Democrats in voting to remove McCarthy last October, setting off a weeks-long battle to find a new speaker.

McCarthy held Gaetz personally responsible for his ouster and even financed an unsuccessful primary against his former colleague. McCarthy suggested that Gaetz was pushing for his ouster because an ethics committee was conducting an investigation into allegations that Gaetz paid for and had sexual relations with an underage woman.

In February 2023, the Justice Department declined to file sex trafficking charges against Gaetz, who has denied any wrongdoing since the allegations emerged.

Even before McCarthy's ouster, Gaetz had earned a reputation as a right-wing hothead who was not afraid of conflict with Democrats and Republicans alike.

“Florida man. Built for battle,” says Gaetz’s biography on X, formerly Twitter.

Gaetz followed his father into politics more than two decades ago. After serving in the Florida Statehouse, Gaetz was elected in 2016 to represent a ruby-colored portion of Florida's panhandle.

Like Trump, to whom he is loyal, Gaetz, according to his critics, is more interested in exchanges of blows with political opponents than in the dry business of government. On Capitol Hill, he repeatedly disrupted House proceedings, including once storming into a secure facility where Democrats were holding a testimony hearing.

In 2018, he was convicted of inviting a Holocaust denier to Trump's State of the Union address. A year later, he hired a speechwriter who had been fired by the Trump White House after he spoke at a conference that attracted white nationalists.

Months after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Gaetz embarked on an “America First” tour with far-right Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, during which they amplified the former president's false claims of fraud in the 2020 election .

After House Republicans performed worse than expected in the 2022 midterm elections, Gaetz used his conference's razor-thin majority to extract promises of rule changes from McCarthy, who endured 15 rounds of votes before becoming speaker in January 2023. Nine months later, Gaetz used these rule changes to oust McCarthy from the speaker's chair.

More recently, Gaetz served as an adviser to Trump as the former president successfully sought a second term. According to ABC News, Gaetz helped Trump prepare for his debate against Kamala Harris in September by peppering him with questions about his potential vulnerabilities, including Trump's multiple criminal charges and his changing stance on abortion access.

As attorney general, Gaetz would have powerful power to prosecute Trump's political enemies, as the president-elect has promised. Gaetz may also seek to purge the Justice Department of many long-time employees after Trump spread baseless claims that the federal government had been “weaponized” against him.

But before Gaetz can take on the role, he needs approval from the Senate, where he may face a cool reception. With Republicans' 53-seat majority in the Senate, Gaetz could still be confirmed, but there were some early warning signs immediately after Trump's announcement.

Susan Collins, a Republican senator from Maine, told reporters on Capitol Hill she was “shocked” by the news.

“This shows why the consultation and consent process [of Senate confirmation] is so important,” Collins said, according to Politico. “And I’m sure a lot of questions will be raised at his hearing.”