Gaetz made history as quickest Cabinet flameout — and left 'a lot of damage': analyst

With his withdrawal from consideration to be Donald Trump's next attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has made history as the fastest withdrawal of a failed Cabinet nominee in history, wrote Philip Bump for The Washington Post — and managed to do "a lot of damage" in the process without even having commanded the Justice Department.

Gaetz, a hardcore Trump loyalist who resigned his House seat to take the nomination, made the move in the wake of days of controversy and wrangling over whether to release a House Ethics Committee report into allegations he engaged in child sex trafficking, accepted improper gifts, and engaged in illicit drug use at crazed sex parties.

He has broadly denied all these allegations and claimed they are part of a scheme to extort him.

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There's simply no competition for this rapid and spectacular flameout, wrote Bump.

"Gaetz withdrew 16 days after the election. The next closest withdrawal, Barack Obama’s choice of Bill Richardson to serve as commerce secretary, came 61 days after the 2008 election," he said. "Two weeks vs. two months. Since 1992, there have been seven people identified as potential Cabinet officials by presidents-elect who have later withdrawn. Relative to Election Day, Gaetz’s withdrawal came before any of those other candidates had even been identified."

Moreover, wrote Bump, the saga over the Ethics Committee report "is a reminder that Gaetz’s withdrawal doesn’t erase the significant political damage his selection did to his party and to Trump" — starting with the fact that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) tried to quash any release of the report, and the fact that Trump's loyalists went on TV openly threatening any lawmaker who wasn't all in to confirm him. Trump, he continued, spent precious "goodwill" in a futile effort to get this confirmation done.

Ultimately, Trump will get another nominee confirmed, wrote Bump, but choosing Gaetz so quickly means he will likely have to go with someone who is less of a hardline loyalist — so "in that sense, Gaetz’s withdrawal might have done a significant amount of damage to Trump’s second-term agenda as well."