Matt Gaetz, under House ethics investigation, is Trump’s pick for attorney general

Matt Gaetz, under House ethics investigation, is Trump’s pick for attorney general
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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — President-elect Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he has chosen Rep. Matt Gaetz as his pick for attorney general, a move that, if he’s confirmed by the Senate, would place a firebrand and one of Trump’s most loyal allies at the head of the Justice Department.

“Matt is a deeply gifted and tenacious attorney, trained at the William & Mary College of Law, who has distinguished himself in Congress through his focus on achieving desperately needed reform at the Department of Justice,” Trump said in his social media post.

Gaetz is an explosive selection by Trump to be the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government, leading the very same executive branch of government that spent years investigating allegations regarding the Florida congressman. Gaetz was informed that the Justice Department would not seek changes just last year. He has long denied any wrongdoing.

House Speaker Mike Johnson announced later Wednesday that Gaetz offered his resignation from Congress effective immediately.

Johnson said the resignation took him by “surprise” but that the Florida congressman did so to “start the clock” on the process for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to call a special election to fill the vacancy.

“So Matt would have done us a great service by making that decision, as he did, on the fly. And so we’re grateful for that so we move forward,” Johnson added.

Gaetz’s resignation will narrow the slim majority that Republicans will have in the new Congress in January, but he represents a reliably Republican district in the Florida Panhandle.

Gaetz has been a member of Congress since winning in 2017, riding the MAGA wave that brought Trump to Washington eight years ago. Over the years, Gaetz has become one of Trump’s most ardent, and according to some allies, effective, defenders in Washington while also growing close to Trump.

Gaetz has been down at Trump’s residence in Mar-a-Lago almost every day since Election Day, helping make suggestions and input on other administration selections, sources tell ABC News. Gaetz was also seen traveling with Trump in his motorcade during his visit to Washington on Wednesday.

Notably, Gaetz is very close with Trump’s newly selected chief of staff, Susie Wiles, who also has deep and storied roots in Florida politics.

Beginning in 2019, Gaetz faced a yearslong Justice Department investigation into allegations related to sex trafficking and obstruction of justice. Gaetz has long denied any wrongdoing, and the Justice Department informed Gaetz in 2023 that it was declining to bring charges against him after its investigation.

The investigation into Gaetz stemmed from a probe into the Florida congressman’s one-time friend, former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg, who was sentenced in 2022 to 11 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges, including sex trafficking a minor and introducing the minor to other “adult men.”

Since the Justice Department declined to charge Gaetz following its investigation, the Florida congressman has faced an ongoing probe by the House Ethics Committee regarding the same allegations.

In September, Gaetz released a lengthy statement concerning the ongoing House Ethics probe into his alleged conduct. Gaetz stated that he would no longer voluntarily participate in the probe and included a string of answers seemingly to questions the committee asked the Florida congressman earlier that month.

The House Ethics Committee drops an investigation into a member once they leave Congress, House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest told ABC News.

“You know, once a member is no longer a member of Congress, then ethics has no jurisdiction. So if Matt Gaetz were to be appointed as the Attorney General, the ethics investigation is currently ongoing, would cease at that point,” Guest said.

House Republicans were meeting behind closed doors when Trump announced he would be nominating Gaetz to serve as attorney general. There was an audible gasp in the room, several members who were inside told ABC News.

Many House Republicans on Capitol Hill are reacting to Trump’s pick of Gaetz.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Rep. Guest expressed support for Trump’s selection of Gaetz as attorney general. Republican Rep. Max Miller, a former aide to Donald Trump who was particularly critical of Gaetz following Florida congressman’s efforts to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year, said the pick was “silly” and that Gaetz would “never get confirmed by the Senate.”

“I believe that the President is probably rewarding him for being such a loyal soldier to the president, but the President is smart enough, and his team is smart enough to know that Mr. Gaetz will never get confirmed by the Senate. Whatsoever,” Miller said.

ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Lauren Peller and Isabella Murray contributed to this report.

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‘Dangerous’: Trump’s escalating 2024 election rhetoric criticized by officials, experts
‘Dangerous’: Trump’s escalating 2024 election rhetoric criticized by officials, experts
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(WASHINGTON) — On the presidential debate stage, Donald Trump was given an opportunity to acknowledge he lost the 2020 election. He did not take it.

ABC News moderator David Muir read aloud recent quotes from the former president in which he appeared to admit being defeated by President Joe Biden, including last week when he said he “lost by a whisker.”

“I said that?” Trump responded. He went on to say that such remarks were sarcastic and that he did not, in fact, accept his loss.

Trump’s false claims and grievances about the 2020 race have long been a central theme of his third campaign for the White House. But recently, his rhetoric’s escalated to threats to prosecute election workers and attempts to sow doubt on the 2024 outcome before a single vote has been cast.

In a social media post over the weekend, Trump pledged to jail election workers, donors, lawyers and others “involved in unscrupulous behavior” related to voting in the 2024 election if he wins. They’d be prosecuted, he said, under his scrutiny and “at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”

Election officials and law experts condemned the statement as irresponsible and damaging at a time when public servants charged with overseeing elections face increased threats and harassment.

“The remarks are despicable and dangerous,” Richard Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, told ABC News.

“The continued claims of cheating are unsupported by any reliable evidence — but they will cause millions of people to continue to believe the false claims that U.S. elections are rigged,” Hasen said. “After Jan. 6, 2021, a responsible person would be more circumspect with rhetoric about elections and cheating. Donald Trump is doubling down.”

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat whose state was an epicenter of false claims of fraud in 2020, similarly worried about the impact of Trump’s statements.

“It makes me concerned that this will set other people off. I think the one thing that we’ve seen before is that words have consequences and meaning,” Fontes told ABC News. “And while we are concerned, we are also prepared. Elections officials across the country have been working with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to monitor and track threats, to make sure we’re keeping our voters safe and make sure we’re keeping our elections officials safe.”

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat who experienced protests at her home after Trump’s 2020 loss, said her duty is to “rise above the noise and continue to ensure our elections are fair, secure, accessible, and that the results are accurate.”

The Pennsylvania Department of State, noting it conducts two audits after every election, told ABC News it was “confident in the integrity of county officials and election administrators across the Commonwealth, despite irresponsible statements that are not based in fact or supported by evidence.”

Several secretaries of state, including Benson and Fontes, were on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to testify on their 2024 election preparations.

Asked for comment on the concern from officials, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said, “President Trump believes anyone who breaks the law should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, including criminals who engage in election fraud. Without free and fair elections, you can’t have a country. Ask Venezuela.”

Trump’s allegations of fraud in the 2020 election were debunked by his own administration officials. Dozens of legal challenges brought by his campaign or his allies in battleground states failed in the courts.

But the impact of the efforts to overturn results were tangible on election officials and poll workers.

Lawrence Norden, vice president of elections and government at the Brennan Center for Justice, earlier this year reported a survey of local election officials across the U.S. found 38% reported experiencing threats, harassment or abuse. Fifty-four percent said they were concerned about the safety of their colleagues. In some cases, Norden said, offices reported installing bullet proof glass or provided extra security training to staff. Some have left their positions altogether.

Norden said it was “very frustrating” to see Trump’s comments after the steps taken by election workers to bring down the temperature these past four years, including efforts to combat misinformation and to improve transparency.

“Any political leader, and certainly somebody running for president of the United States, implying that election officials could be prosecuted is potentially doing two things,” he said. “It’s not going to change the behavior of any election worker or election official, but it’s potentially encouraging further threats or violence, and it is laying the groundwork to potentially undermine or question election results that you don’t like later on.”

In addition to his threat to prosecute election workers, Trump has repeatedly accused Democrats of staging a “coup” in nominating Vice President Kamala Harris after Biden dropped out of the race. He’s sent mixed messaging on voting methods, at times encouraging his supporters to vote in any way possible and at other times baselessly claiming mail-in ballots are ripe for abuse, despite using a mail ballot in Florida’s 2020 primary. He’s said a focus of his campaign is to make sure Democrats don’t “cheat.”

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When asked during the CNN debate in June if he would commit to accepting the November outcome, he only said: “If it’s a fair and legal and good election, absolutely.”

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Early in-person voting begins in three key states
Early in-person voting begins in three key states
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(WASHINGTON) — The 2024 voting season officially kicked off Friday, as voters in three states can now line up at early voting polling sites or election offices to cast their ballot.

Early in-person voting sites opened throughout Virginia, on Friday, marking the first state to offer their voters that option. The state’s early voting sites will remain open until Nov. 2.

Over 1,796,000 votes were cast early in person in Virginia in the last presidential election, roughly 40% of the total vote, according to data from the Virginia Department of Elections. An additional 962,877 Virginia voters cast their 2020 ballot through the mail, with roughly 574,000 submitting their mail-in ballot before Election Day, according to the election data.

While the voters will be lining up at the polls in Virginia, voters in two other states will have the opportunity, starting Friday, to cast their ballot in person through a different method.

Minnesota and South Dakota are among 23 states that allow voters to hand in their absentee ballots in person to an election office or other designated location instead of mailing them.

In the last presidential election, over 1.9 million Minnesota voters voted via absentee, with 1.7 million of those ballots being returned before election day, according to the state’s Office of the Secretary of State.

Roughly 57% of the total Minnesota 2020 election ballots were cast before Election Day, according to the state data.

The office does not have data on the number of 2020 voters who opted to hand in their absentee ballot to an office.

Roughly 83,000 South Dakota voters cast their ballot through in-person absentee drop-off before Election Day in 2020, according to South Dakota’s secretary of state office.

Voters in a handful of other states who requested an absentee ballot can soon start checking their mailboxes, as this weekend also marks the deadline for some election offices to begin sending out their absentee ballots.

Idaho, Maryland, New York and West Virginia are all required to send out their absentee ballots Friday to all voters who requested one, according to the respective states’ election offices.

North Carolina must send out absentee ballots to military and overseas voters on Friday, according to the state’s election office.

Delaware, Indiana, New Jersey and Tennessee are required to send absentee ballots to their voters by Saturday, according to the states’ respective election offices. Some counties in Oklahoma may start sending their paper ballots to voters on that day, too, according to the state’s election office.

Experts predict there will be a large number of early voters this election season as the voting method has risen in popularity.

During the 2020 election, more than 69% of votes cast in the election were done through either mail-in ballots or early in-person voting, according to election data compiled by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s election data science lab.

By comparison, only 40% voted early in the 2016 election and 33% in the 2012 election, the data showed.

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Racist, crude comments at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally overshadow his ‘closing argument’
Racist, crude comments at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally overshadow his ‘closing argument’
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(NEW YORK) — Former president Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday was framed as his “closing argument” in his bid for the White House and as a way to bring a diverse group of supporters together.

Instead, it included divisive language and racist insults aimed at some of the very voters Trump has been working to attract.

Causing the most backlash were comments from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who made explicit jokes about Latinos and turned to Trump recently calling the United States the “garbage can” of the world.

With just about a week until Election Day, the rally was an opportunity for the Trump campaign to connect with Hispanic and Black Americans, voters the Trump campaign is attempting to court in deep-Blue New York.

His campaign instead was forced to try to respond to distance Trump from the comedian the campaign had chosen to speak at his high-profile event.

“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” Trump campaign’s senior adviser Danielle Alvarez wrote in a statement to ABC News about the “island of garbage remark.”

Trump Campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt added on Fox News on Monday morning that Hinchcliffe’s joke was in “poor taste.”

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign immediately slammed Hinchcliffe’s comments, pointing to how Harris would work to support Puerto Rico — a key voting bloc that Harris targeted during a stop in swing state Pennsylvania over the weekend.

“Puerto Ricans deserve better,” she said in a Sunday video post on X.

The backlash to Hinchcliffe’s comments kicked up in Puerto Rico from both sides of the political aisle. Jenniffer Gonzalez, a Republican who is running to be the island’s governor, called the comedian’s comments “despicable, inappropriate and disgusting.” The Republican Party of Puerto Rico also denounced Hinchcliffe’s comments, with party chair Angel Cintrón writing that they were “unfortunate, ignorant, and entirely reprehensible.”

Hinchcliffe responded to criticism from Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz — who ripped the comedian for the “island of garbage comments.

“These people have no sense of humor. Wild that a vice presidential candidate would take time out of his ‘busy schedule’ to analyze a joke taken out of context to make it seem racist,” Hinchcliffe wrote on social media. “I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I made fun of everyone…watch the whole set.”

While Puerto Rico does not vote for president in the general election since it is a U.S. territory, the Republican Party of Puerto Rico held a primary in April as part of its presidential nominating process. That primary was won by Trump, who netted the territory’s delegates.

The controversy is not a first for Hinchcliffe, who has a history of making racially charged jokes.

In 2021, he came under fire after calling fellow comedian Peng Dang racist names in a mocking Chinese accent.

It was during a Big Laugh Comedy show in Austin, Texas, where Dang had just introduced Hinchcliffe to the stage after doing a series of jokes related to #StopAsianHate. During the set, Hinchcliffe reportedly further made racist jokes against Chinese people.

The incident led to the cancellation of several of Hinchcliffe’s upcoming shows and reportedly caused him to be removed from his agency, WME.

Other pre-program speakers at the Madison Square Garden rally also made false and harmful remarks about Harris. Businessman Grant Cardone told the crowd that Harris “and her pimp handlers will destroy our country;” Trump’s friend David Rem called her “the devil” and “the anti-Christ.”

Former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson also made racially charged jokes aimed at Harris; radio host Sid Rosenberg used expletives to describe undocumented immigrants and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani also repeated disparaging rhetoric on Palestinians.

Trump’s campaign has still only condemned one comment — those from Hinchcliffe — in a long list of sexist, racist and profane remarks that were made during his Madison Square Garden campaign rally.

In the final weeks of his campaign, Trump has regularly used vulgar, dark and shocking rhetoric to paint a picture of a country being “destroyed” – attacking migrants and his opponent’s intelligence.

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