Pam Bondi to be next Attorney General after Gaetz drops out

 By Ryan Denison, PhD - Posted at Denison Forum:

Understanding the difference between productive trust and empty loyalty

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz was always going to be the most difficult of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet selections to get through the Senate confirmation process. He was nominated under a shroud of investigations by the Department of Justice in 2020 and, more recently, the House Ethics Committee on accusations of illicit drug use, paying for sex—including sex with a minor—and obstruction of government investigations. Gaetz’s conduct gave reason to doubt his worthiness to be the government’s top attorney, despite the charges being dropped in his DOJ case and the House investigation not yet concluded when he had resigned to pursue the AG nomination.

There was some speculation that his nomination was part of why Trump broached the topic of recess appointments last week. Yet, Gaetz was in Washington on Thursday morning, working with Vice President-elect JD Vance to build support for his approval. Eventually, however, it became clear that such approval wasn’t coming.

After the race in Pennsylvania was finally called in favor of Republican Dave McCormick, the GOP will have a fifty-three-seat majority in the Senate, with only fifty votes needed for Trump’s nominations to be approved. Thursday’s conversations confirmed that at least four Republicans were already firm in their opposition, with several more inclined to vote no. Given that no Democrats were expected to vote in Gaetz’s favor, that left intervention from Trump as his only viable path to the position.

Faced with that reality, Gaetz chose to withdraw from consideration, posting on X that:

While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance 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. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.

News broke Thursday evening that Trump has already pivoted to former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi for the cabinet position. So, who is Pam Bondi, and will her path to confirmation be any simpler than that of Gaetz?

Continue here.