Graham begs Republicans to not 'join the lynch mob' after meeting with Gaetz and Vance
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is hoping to be confirmed as the next attorney general despite allegations he had sex with a minor. And his confirmation battle may have just gotten even harder, according to one Senate Republican.
The Daily Beast reported Wednesday that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee — has acknowledged the allegations against Gaetz in his defense of President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Department of Justice (DOJ). When a CNN reporter asked Graham about the allegations against Gaetz, the South Carolina Republican dodged the question.
"No, no no. Nobody should be disqualified because of a media report," Graham said.
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On Wednesday, Semafor reporter Burgess Everett tweeted that Graham met with Gaetz and Vice President-elect JD Vance, and reiterated that the DOJ declined to formally charge Gaetz in 2023.
"I would urge all of my Senate colleagues, particularly Republicans, not to join the lynch mob and give the process a chance to move forward," he said. "After years of being investigated ... no charges were brought against Matt Gaetz."
After Trump picked Gaetz as his attorney general-designate, the Florida Republican announced he was resigning from Congress. This meant that the House Committee on Ethics — which has been spending the past year compiling a report on Gaetz — no longer had jurisdiction over him. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has already signaled he wants the Republican-controlled committee to bury the report.
"I'm going to strongly request that the Ethics Committee not issue the report because that is not the way we do things in the House, and I think that would be a terrible precedent to set," Johnson said Friday. "If someone is no longer a member of Congress, we are not in the business of investigating and publishing reports about people who are not part of this institution. The House Ethics Committee's jurisdiction is over sitting members of Congress."
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However, scuttling the report will likely be easier said than done, as some of the more scandalous details have already made their way to the public. ABC News reported earlier this week that two women who testified about Gaetz before the Ethics Committee provided Venmo records showing they received more than $10,000 from the former Florida lawmaker. The payments ranged from $100 to $700 apiece, and were made over a two-year period between July 2017 and January 2019.
The memo field for those payments included explanations like "just because" and "love you," according to ABC. Those payments also notably coincided with a 2018 flight to the Bahamas, when Gaetz was reportedly dating a Capitol Hill staffer who corroborated the allegations in a sworn testimony to the committee in February.
In order to be confirmed, Gaetz will not only need to win a majority of votes in the Judiciary Committee, but will also need at least 50 senators to vote for his confirmation on the Senate floor (with Vance casting the tie-breaking vote). Republicans currently have just 52 seats, with the Pennsylvania Senate race currently in the middle of a recount. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C) have already indicated a hesitancy to support Gaetz's confirmation.
Click here to read the Beast's report in its entirety (subscription required).
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