JD Vance arrived on Capitol Hill Wednesday with the bleak task of drumming up support for Trump’s would-be attorney general, Matt Gaetz.
“Donald J. Trump just won a major electoral victory. His coattails turned a 49-51 senate to a 53-47 senate,” the vice president–elect wrote on X. “He deserves a cabinet that is loyal to the agenda he was elected to implement.”
Trump has now named multiple people accused of sexual misconduct or consciously allowing sexual misconduct to his future Cabinet. Gaetz, a former Florida representative and MAGA hard-liner, has been the subject of ongoing investigations from the House Ethics Committee and the Justice Department regarding allegations of sex trafficking and having sex with a minor at a sex party in 2017. Gaetz attempted to end the probe by resigning from Congress last week just before the House Ethics Committee was set to release its finding. Many people now want that report released, and Senate Democrats on Wednesday requested records from the FBI’s own Gaetz investigation so that these could be considered during confirmation hearings if need be.
“This is what the Radical Left Lunatics do to people. They dirty them up, they destroy them, and then they spit them out,” Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social. “They are trying that right now with some great American Patriots who are only trying to fix the mess that the Democrats have made of our Country. WE WILL WIN!!! MAGA.”
This defense comes as evidence continues to mount against Gaetz. ABC News is reporting that the House Ethics Committee has documents that show Gaetz paying over $10,000 to two women between July 2017 and January 2019—women who later served as witnesses in the House and Justice Department probes against Gaetz.
The House Ethics Committee is spending Wednesday debating and voting on whether or not to release the report.