Analysis by WorldTribune Staff, November 14, 2024 Real World News
The corridors of establishment power have had enough shocks to the system this week to light up the Swamp many times over.
On Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump said he would nominate Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as his Attorney General and former Democrat Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as his director of national intelligence (DNI).
Eliciting more of those “shockwaves” that Elon Musk was talking about, Trump’s selections were lauded by MAGA and blasted by assorted members of the establishment, leftists, and RINOs.
President-elect Donald Trump selected Matt Gaetz for attorney general and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence.Having an America First attorney general was a priority as Trump plans a massive shake-up of the Department of Justice that has many career department officials quaking in their boots.
Related: ‘Shellshocked’ on FBI’s 7th floor: The white hats are talking and ‘countdown’ has begun, November 8, 2024
In a post on Truth Social, Trump called Gaetz a “deeply gifted and tenacious attorney” who would end the “the partisan Weaponization of our Justice System.”
Political analyst Scott McKay noted in a Facebook post that Trump is “going to get Gaetz a recess appointment, and Gaetz is going to be his lightning rod as he tears DOJ apart (which needs to happen).”
A Trump adviser told The Bulwark’s Marc Caputo: “None of the attorneys had what Trump wants, and they didn’t talk like Gaetz. Everyone else looked at AG as if they were applying for a judicial appointment. They talked about their vaunted legal theories and constitutional bullshit. Gaetz was the only one who said, ‘yeah, I’ll go over there and start cuttin’ f—in’ heads.’ ”
Gaetz, 42, who flew with Trump from Florida to Washington on Wednesday, said it would be “an honor to serve as President Trump’s Attorney General!”
Shortly after the announcement, House Speaker Mike Johnson said Gaetz resigned from Congress effective immediately in order for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to call a special election to fill the seat, which will likely stay Republican, by January.
Debate about the meaning of Trump’s picks is heated.
McKay noted the he believes Gaetz “will move on to TV before the 2026 elections while somebody ‘respectable’ gets confirmed to replace him. It’s really a pretty good plan. You don’t want to burn somebody with a great reputation in that job. It almost literally entails mucking out the stables, and it’s pretty much unsurvivable for anybody who isn’t already filthy.”
Oliver Wiseman of The Free Press noted: “So what’s the takeaway on Gaetz? The left-wing critique is that he’s crazy and this will be a disaster. The conservative critique, expressed by several we spoke to, is that this is needless drama, especially given the other qualified names that had been floated. Some wonder if Trump is playing 4D chess — that he knows Gaetz won’t get confirmed and ultimately has someone else in mind. If Republican senators die on this hill, then he can get the rest of his picks through. Maybe. But that all sounds a little too premeditated.”
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Several Republican senators were taken aback by Trump’s choice of Gaetz for AG.
“This one was not on my bingo card,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, adding that she didn’t believe it was serious.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she was shocked by the selection. “I’m sure that there will be a lot of questions raised at his hearing.”
McKay noted: “So Eric Holder and Merrick Garland are OK for confirmation but Matt Gaetz is not? Is that how it goes, Susan Collins? Lisa Murkowski?”
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina called Gaetz smart and clever while acknowledging “he’ll have some tough questions to answer” during a confirmation hearing.
“What better person to fix the department of injustice,” Rep. Bob Good of Virginia said of Gaetz.
Democrats stuck with the tired narrative of Trump being a threat to democracy.
“The Gaetz nomination obviously is a red alert,” said Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut. “That’s a signal that everything [Trump] said on the campaign trail about using the power of the office to go after his political enemies is coming to fruition. That nomination is a big deal for democracy and the rule of law.”
The Wall Street Journal noted: “Trump has made clear he wants to bring the Justice Department under closer presidential control after years of clashing with the agency as it investigated him and his allies. The department, under the direction of special counsel Jack Smith, prosecuted Trump on charges he plotted to overturn the 2020 election and mishandled classified documents after he left office. Now that Trump has been elected again, both cases are certain to end.”
Gabbard, who critics say has in the past doled out comments favorable to Russia and China, would step into a critical cabinet-level role that oversees the National Intelligence Program, the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council, and advises the president on sensitive intelligence matters.
Gabbard, one of Trump’s most high-profile supporters during the campaign, touted what she said is the president-elect’s ability to restore U.S. national security interests at home and abroad.
One senior congressional staffer told The Free Press that he questioned whether the former congresswoman could even get a security clearance given her flirtations with the Assad regime in Syria, one of Iran’s closest allies. But many MAGA supporters claimed she’d facilitate a needed break from failed Republican policies.
Moreover, they think there’s poetic justice in the idea that a woman who had reportedly been placed on a “secret terror watchlist” by the TSA could now be running the country’s national intelligence apparatus.
Critics have long complained that the post-9/11 DNI is redundant. Is Gabbard moving into a job the Elon Musk-Vivek Ramaswamy Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will call for eliminating?
Tom Rogan, a foreign policy writer and editor for the Washington Examiner, wrote in a Nov. 13 op-ed that Gabbard is “about the worst possible choice” for DNI.
“If Gabbard is approved, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will have an ideological sympathizer holding the keys to the U.S. intelligence community crown jewels. This is not an exaggeration,” Rogan wrote.
In a statement that was played up by Chinese state propaganda outlets, Gabbard previously called on Trump to end the “destructive trade war with China.”
Rogan added: “The former congresswoman also pushed the narrative offered by China sympathizers, such as Ray Dalio, that China should be treated as a partner rather than as an exigent national security threat.”
On Russia, Rogan continued, “Gabbard opposed Trump’s removal from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty in response to rampant Russian breaches of that treaty. She has blamed NATO and the U.S. for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (again, to the celebration of both Russian and Chinese state media), has repeated Russian propaganda claims that the U.S. has set up secret bioweapons labs in that country, and has argued that the U.S. not Russia is wholly responsible for Putin’s nuclear brinkmanship.”
Trump’s selections come against the backdrop of a demand he made at the start of the week: that Republicans should put Congress into recess to allow him to make at least some appointments next year without Senate approval.
The main issue with Matt Gaetz is that he used his office to prosecute his political opponents and authorized federal agents to harass parents who were peacefully protesting at school board meetings.
Oh wait, that’s actually Merrick Garland, the current attorney general.
— JD Vance (@JDVance) November 14, 2024
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Messing with the Swamp: By nominating Gaetz and Gabbard is DJT playing chess or checkers? added by Editor Two on November 14, 2024
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