Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) isn’t sure voting to confirm former Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general is worth the trouble.
President-elect Donald Trump shocked Washington on Wednesday when he nominated Gaetz for the nation’s top law enforcement post. Gaetz was the subject of a House Ethics Committee probe looking into accusations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, obstruction of an investigation, and other allegations. Last year, the Department of Justice ended a probe into the lawmaker and declined to bring charges against him. With Gaetz’s resignation, the committee’s probe will also end, and no report will be issued.
On Thursday, Cramer was asked outside the Capitol if he has concerns about any of Trump’s nominees.
“Well, just to name one, Matt Gaetz comes to mind,” he replied in a clip aired on MSNBC. “I have concerns that he can’t get across the finish line, and we’re gonna spend a lot of political capital… on something that, even if they got done, you’d have to wonder if it was worth it.”
The senator then cited Gaetz’s actions last year when the Florida lawmaker filed a motion that triggered a vote on whether to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The gambit worked, but it took the house three weeks and several failed candidates to choose a new speaker.
“I have concerns about him, about the way he disrupted and really destroyed the House of Representatives for several months,” Cramer continued. “What he did to a really good speaker in Kevin McCarthy, and accomplished nothing except getting rid of him, and, you know, ruined the reputation of the House of Representatives to the point where they didn’t catch the wave in this most recent election.”
Cramer later added that while he’d be “open” to voting to confirm Gaetz’s, but the ex-representative has “a really steep hill to climb to get lots of votes, including mine.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
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