Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz’s nomination to be President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general has created a remarkable amount of hesitation from Republicans, who are otherwise inclined to follow Trump’s wishes.
Gaetz is unpopular with many fellow House Republicans for his push to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and a long trail of stories about his personal conduct, including a federal investigation into allegations that he arranged to have sex with a minor. The investigation was closed without charges and Gaetz denies wrongdoing.
Other Republicans on Wednesday and Thursday said they would consider Gaetz’s nomination with an open mind or noted favorably his advocacy for Trump. Gaetz is a longtime Trump supporter and frequently campaigned for him.
Here are what Republicans are saying about him:
REP. DON BACON, Nebraska:
“I was told growing up that if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all.”
JOHN BOLTON, former U.N. ambassador and national security adviser:
“It must be the worst nomination for a Cabinet secretary in American history. I think this is something that falls well outside the scope of deference that should be given to a president in nominating members of the senior team. Gaetz is not only totally incompetent for this job, he doesn’t have the character. He is a person of moral turpitude.”
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, Maine
“Obviously the president has the right to nominate whomever he wishes, but this is where the Senate’s advise and consent process is so important. I’m sure that there will be many, many questions raised at Mr. Gaetz’s hearing if in fact the nomination goes forward."
SEN. JOHN CORNYN, Texas:
“We’ll handle it like any other nomination. I’m not going to prejudge any of these.”
SEN. KEVIN CRAMER, North Dakota:
“I think it’s a little bit of a test.” “It will take a lot of political capital to get him" confirmed.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina:
"I’m predisposed to try to help presidents with their picks. But he’ll have to answer some tough questions in the hearing, and we’ll see how he does,” Graham said in a statement released Wednesday.
Later Wednesday, Graham said during a Fox News Channel interview, “I think Matt Gaetz is very bright. I think he's qualified. He'll have a hearing and he'll have some tough questions to answer," and suggested that Republicans “Give Matt a chance.”
SENATE GOP LEADER JOHN THUNE, South Dakota:
“That’s probably a good question for the chairman of the Judiciary Committee.”
SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY, Iowa, the likely next chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee:
“I suppose I’ll have to look at it. That’s all I can say at this point because I don’t know much about Matt Gaetz.”
HOUSE SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON, Louisiana:
Gaetz is “one of the most intelligent” members of Congress and “a reformer in his mind and heart." “I think he'll bring a lot to the table on that.”
REP. ANNA PAULINA LUNA, Florida:
“So a lot of people will try to brand him just as a firebrand. But the fact is that there is a lot of strategy behind" Gaetz's effort to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN, Oklahoma:
“Matt Gaetz and I, there’s no question, we’ve had our differences. I completely trust President Trump’s decision-making on this one. But at the same time, (Gaetz) has to come to ... the Senate and sell himself. There’s a lot of questions that are going to be out there. He’s got to answer those questions.”
SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska:
“I do not see him as a serious candidate. The president is free to nominate whoever he may wish. Our constitutional role in nominations is to provide advice. ... I don’t know that any of my Senate colleagues advise that Matt Gaetz name should go up, but it’s what (Trump) apparently has advanced. But, then our role is to determine the consent end of it. Do we give our consent or do we not?”
SEN. MARCO RUBIO, Florida.
“I’ve known Matt for a very long time. We’re friends. I think he would do a very good job for the president.”
REP. MIKE SIMPSON, Idaho:
“That was about as big a surprise as I’ve had in a long time. I have a really hard time believing he could get through the Senate confirmation process. You never know.”
SEN. THOM TILLIS, North Carolina:
“I've got very few skills. Vote-counting is one. I think he's got a lot of work to do to get 50” votes in the Senate. “Presumably, the folks who have put him forward have gamed that out. But, I'm sure it will make for a popcorn-eating confirmation hearing. Mr. Gaetz and I have jousted on certain issues between the House and the Senate. ... There’s obviously been a lot of disagreements between members of the Senate and Mr. Gaetz."
Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri, Stephen Groves, Kevin Freking, Mary Clare Jalonick and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.
FILE - Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., departs after speaking during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2024, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Feb. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
FILE - Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2024, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Feb. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., meets with reporters after he was elected to succeed longtime GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
FILE - Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., arrives during the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
The satirical news publication The Onion won the bidding for Alex Jones' Infowars at a bankruptcy auction, backed by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims whom Jones owes more than $1 billion in defamation judgments for calling the massacre a hoax.
The purchase turns over Jones’ company, which for decades has peddled in conspiracy and misinformation, to a humor website that plans to relaunch the Infowars platform in January as a parody. Within hours of the sale’s announcement Thursday, Infowars’ website was down and Jones was broadcasting from what he said was a new studio location.
“The dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for,” Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed in the 2012 shooting in Connecticut, said in a statement provided by his lawyers.
The Onion acquired the conspiracy theory platform’s website; social media accounts; studio in Austin, Texas; trademarks; and video archive for an undisclosed sales price.
The satirical outlet — which carries the banner of “America’s Finest News Source” on its masthead — was founded in the 1980s and for decades has skewered politics and pop culture, including making Jones a frequent target of mocking articles. Mass shootings in the U.S., such as the Sandy Hook attack, are often followed by The Onion publishing slightly updated versions of one of its most well-known recurring pieces of satire: "'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”
“No price would be too high for such a cornucopia of malleable assets and minds,” The Onion said in its satirical post on the sale. “And yet, in a stroke of good fortune, a formidable special interest group has outwitted the hapless owner of InfoWars (a forgettable man with an already-forgotten name) and forced him to sell it at a steep bargain: less than one trillion dollars.”
On his live broadcast, Jones was angry and defiant, vowing to challenge the sale and auction process in court. He later announced his show was being shut down. Jones, who had told listeners for days that he had a new studio already set up nearby, then resumed his broadcast on a different social media account.
“This is a total attack on free speech, the deep state is completely out of control,” Jones told his listeners, referencing conspiracy theories. “This the tyranny of the New World Order, desperate to silence the American people."
He claimed the takeover by The Onion was premature because the bankruptcy judge had not yet signed off on the winning bid.
A Jones-affiliated company named by the bankruptcy trustee as the backup bid requested an immediate status conference, citing “the apparent defects in the sale process, including changing the procedures, lack of transparency, and inaccurate disclosures to interested bidders." A hearing was scheduled for Thursday afternoon in Houston.
The Onion, based in Chicago, consulted on the bidding with some of the Sandy Hook families that sued Jones for defamation and emotional distress in lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas, lawyers for the families said.
“Our clients knew that true accountability meant an end to Infowars and an end to Jones’ ability to spread lies, pain and fear at scale,” said Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the families.
Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, told The Associated Press in a video interview that it will relaunch the Infowars website in January with satire aimed at conspiracy theorists and right-wing personalities, as well as educational information about gun violence prevention from the group Everytown for Gun Safety. Collins would not disclose the sale price.
“We thought it would be a very funny joke if we bought this thing, probably one of the better jokes we’ve ever told,” Collins said. “The (Sandy Hook) families decided they would effectively join our bid, back our bid, to try to get us over the finish line. Because by the end of the day, it was us or Alex Jones, who could either continue this website unabated, basically unpunished, for what he’s done to these families over the years, or we could make a dumb, stupid website, and we decided to do the second thing.”
Sandy Hook families sued Jones and his company for repeatedly saying on his show that the shooting that killed 20 children and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax staged by crisis actors to spur more gun control. Parents and children of many of the victims testified that they were traumatized by Jones’ conspiracies and threats by his followers.
The Onion bills itself as “the world’s leading news publication, offering highly acclaimed, universally revered coverage of breaking national, international, and local news events” and says it has 4.3 trillion daily readers. Recent headlines have included, “Trump Boys Have Slap Fight Over Who Gets To Run Foreign Policy Meetings,” “Oklahoma Law Requires Ten Commandments To Be Displayed In Every Womb” and “Man Forgetting Difference Between Meteoroid, Meteorite Struggles To Describe What Just Killed His Dog.”
Sealed bids for the private auction were opened Wednesday. Both supporters and detractors of Jones expressed interest in buying Infowars, and Jones had told listeners the outcome would determine whether he stayed on the Infowars platform.
The bankruptcy trustee named First United American Companies, which is affiliated with one of Jones’ product-selling sites, as the backup bid should the sale to The Onion fall through.
Associated Press writer Ken Miller contributed from Oklahoma City.
Global Tetrahedron, LLC, owner of The Onion, is displayed on the entrance screen to the office building that is headquarters to the satirical publication, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024 in Chicago. The Onion won the bidding for Alex Jones'Infowars at a bankruptcy auction, backed by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims whom Jones owes more than $1 billion in defamation judgments for calling the massacre a hoax. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford)
This undated photo provided by ThreeSixty Asset Advisors shows the Infowars set. (ThreeSixty Asset Advisors via AP)
A copy of the satirical outlet The Onion is seen Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, in Little Rock, Ark. (AP Photo/Jill Bleed)
FILE - Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones speaks to the media after arriving at the federal courthouse for a hearing in front of a bankruptcy judge, Friday, June 14, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
