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According to a New York Times correspondent, there was a great sigh of relief among Republicans as well as officials at the Department of Justice when ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) withdrew his name for consideration to be the next attorney general.

Speaking with MSNBC host Alex Witt, Peter Baker stated that was a great deal of trepidation about the embattled Florida Republican becoming America's top cop when there existed a reportedly "damaging" House Ethics Committee report in the works that allegedly would link him to sex and drugs parties with underaged women.

Witt brought up new AG nominee Pam Bondi and asked. "Is she just as concerning to folks inside of DOJ as Matt Gaetz was? I'm curious what the first order of business might be be, this is supposed to be a politically neutral position."

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"Well, look, I don't think anyone can concern people more than Matt Gaetz," he began. "He was so far out there in their view that he was seen as a time bomb that would have gone off the minute he got in there"

"But Bondi is a partisan loyalist to Trump," he cautioned. "She may not be as flamboyant as Matt Gaetz but she holds some of the same views on the Justice Department and how it should be used."

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With ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz out of the way as Donald Trump's nominee to be his attorney general, a noted election lawyer made the case that the Florida Republican's replacement is also ripe for a take-down.

Appearing on MSNBC's "The Weekend," attorney Mark Elias called out the Gaetz replacement nominee, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, as an "election denier" who should be grilled at her Senate confirmation hearings about the 2020 presidential election.

Asked if he was preparing Senate Democrats for the Bondi hearing, what he would ask, he replied, "So look, the question I always asked before the election was somebody ask Donald Trump what state he legitimately lost in 2020."

ALSO READ: The America-attacking Trump is coming for our military — and then he's coming for us

"So one thing I would do with her is revisit these comments in 2020 and ask if she stands by them and what evidence she now has of fraud in Pennsylvania and where else?" he elaborated. "She will say that is ancient history, we don't need to cover that and the truth is we do need to cover it. The moment we move on from allowing people to make irresponsible statements about the 2020 election, which they still stand by, she won't repudiate it, she'll say let's move on."

"The moment she continues to be allowed to wiggle out there, we lose something important," he added. "The other thing is, I think a very important clip you guys played, and I think everyone needs to focus on this: she has said that there needs to be political prosecutions. She has said they need to investigate the investigators, not because she had any knowledge, not because she was privy to any wrongdoing on their part, but simply because Donald Trump has said that he wants to go after his political opponents, he wants to go after Jack Smith and his investigators and anyone who stood up to him. "

"To have the power to oversee criminal investigations and parrot that language, she has to be asked about that.," he added. "That is not only not normal, that is absolutely dangerous."

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According to an expert on public policy, members ofDonald Trump's incoming administration may already find themselves behind on their jobs the moment that they take over for the outgoing President Joe Biden administration.

Appearing on CNN early Saturday morning, Professor Heath Brown of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice raised alarms that the Trump transition team has yet to submit much-needed documentation to the General Services Administration (GSA) which would allow senior members of the president-elect's team to have access to information they will need on day one.

Speaking with host Victor Blackwell, Brown was asked, "So this agreement with the General Services Administration allows them to get some office space, get some money but also there are documents related to ethics agreements and anti-conflict of interest commitments. Is this abnormal, disruptive or is it more than that?"

ALSO READ: The America-attacking Trump is coming for our military — and then he's coming for us

"I think it's very worrisome for two primary reasons," Brown replied. "If the agreements aren't signed that means the key information that the incoming administration needs about the major threats, challenges facing our country are not going to be shared in the same way as if the agreements were signed."

"That's a problem for all of these Cabinet positions and all of the sub -Cabinet roles to be ready for day one," he warned. "They need information and that's contingent to partner with federal agencies, and the agreements have to be signed to do that."

"The second concern is that if the agreements aren't signed, we'll never know who's funding this transition," he added. "Those agreements establish caps on the amount of money that can be donated to the transition team as well as requiring public disclosure of who those donors are. If we don't see those agreements signed, we'll never know that information and I think many people would worry about that."

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Whether the controversial Project 2025 will officially wind up on Donald Trump’s next administration’s agenda led to a confrontation between a CNN host and two Republicans who continued to defend it.

The moment came Friday during CNN’s “NewsNight” with Abby Phillip when the host asked her guests’ thoughts on Trump’s selection of Project 2025 architect Russell Vought as the next director of the Office of Management and Budget.

President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to oversee labor unions didn't sit well with Rupert Murdoch's prestigious newspaper the Wall Street Journal, whose editorial board lamented Trump's pick Friday night as a "regrettable choice."

Trump nominated Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR) to become the nation's next labor secretary, touting her as the right person for the job to grow languishing wages and resurrect manufacturing jobs. She has the support of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien and teachers union chief Randi Weingarten.

Donald Trump's universe is fixated on the concept of male "virility," Politico's Marc Caputo told CNN anchor Erin Burnett on Friday evening — and that's a major source of the scandals unfolding in his cabinet picks.

Specifically, Trump has nominated a string of people, from former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to Fox News personality Pete Hegseth, to conspiracy theorist and former environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with various sexual misconduct allegations in their past. And now yet another of Trump's picks, Linda McMahon, is facing a lawsuit alleging she overlooked sexual abuse of children by a World Wrestling Entertainment employee starting in the 1980s.

A Democratic lawmaker ridiculed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene after the Georgia Republican scored a new job that will coordinate with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Greene will join a new congressional subcommittee that will work with the Department of Government Efficiency, a largely symbolic agency that Trump announced will identify severe cuts and be headed by Musk and Ramaswamy.

A former Florida Republican said he's breathing a "sigh of relief" that Pam Bondi is now Donald Trump's new attorney general choice, noting that she's not only qualified, she hasn't been embroiled in any sex scandals.

Legal analysts debated ethics and experiences during Friday's MSNBC discussion about Bondi. Former Rep. David Jolly (R-FL) confessed that he's a friend of Bondi's and he sees her as completely qualified for the job.

Donald Trump received a slap on the wrist Friday from the Wall Street Journal in the form of a snarky editorial video that lists multiple lessons they urge the president-elect to learn.

Ominous music pulses underneath a dire video editorial that warns Trump he needs to change his ways after initially selecting former Rep. Matt Gaetz as his attorney general nominee.

Former Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera was overjoyed that former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) dropped out of contention to serve as Donald Trump's next attorney general, he told CNN's Brianna Keilar on Friday.

"I first want to get your thoughts on Gaetz," said Keilar. "Are you surprised that Trump didn't end up going to the mat politically for him?"

New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan has issued an indefinite delay in the sentencing of Donald Trump, who was found guilty in a criminal trial and convicted on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to influence the outcome of the 2016 election, in the so-called "hush money" case. In response, incoming Trump White House communications director Steven Cheung issued a statement whitewashing Trump's record.

Trump's attorneys have asked for the case to be dismissed, or for the judge to overturn the verdict, ABC News reports, adding: "If Judge Merchan tosses the conviction, he could order a new trial -- which would be delayed for at least four years until Trump leaves office -- or dismiss the indictment altogether."

Betting markets are less confident that Donald Trump will get all of his Cabinet nominees confirmed after Matt Gaetz dropped out of the running for attorney general.

The Florida Republican withdrew from consideration after Republican senators spoke out against his nomination over sex trafficking allegations, and CNN's Harry Enten said the betting markets have reduced the odds that Pete Hegseth and other Trump nominee's will make it through Senate confirmation.

A conservative commentator faced outright laughter Friday as he tried to defend the qualifications of Donald Trump's administration nominees.

Republican operative Lance Trover was met with a scoffing chuckle on CNN as he argued Trump faced "overly harsh" criticism over unconventional nominations of prominent loyalists, many of them Fox News regulars, to Cabinet-level positions.