What Did We Learn, Palmer?

Today’s notice: What’s weird and not weird about the day Matt Gaetz’s nomination crashed and burned. What it’s like to secure Hill office space. A look at some threatening texts sent to minorities after the election. And saying “climate change” without saying it.

Matt Gaetz Finds Out

The tragedy of Matt Gaetz and his nomination for AG is a real stem-winder, but it ended in a fairly straightforward Washington way: The laws of political gravity took effect. After days of largely anonymous bellyaching from Republican senators, the House GOP working overtime to keep an Ethics Committee report from public view and a failed outreach campaign by President-elect Donald Trump, Gaetz withdrew his nomination Thursday. Within minutes, lawmakers seemed eager to move on.

“In interviews, members expressed confidence that they’ll support whoever comes next,” NOTUS’ Haley Byrd Wilt, Tinashe Chingarande, Ben T.N. Mause, Helen Huiskes and Katherine Swartz report, “and they said that person would be just the right candidate to lead the DOJ.”

Republican senators had ideas in the immediate aftermath. Perhaps with a hopeful energy, someone suggested Ted Cruz. “I’m staying right where I am,” Cruz told NOTUS. “Not going anywhere.”

That turned out to be true, as Trump nominated former Florida AG Pam Bondi to run the DOJ. She has close Trump ties, but as Ben reports, she has her own political baggage too. (“What are they going to say? ‘It’s a woman, oh shit’?” a strategist close to the transition said.)

Anyway, it’s never a great look when a president’s chosen nominee flops, especially before a Senate controlled by his own party. After Trump got tacit support for recess appointments from new Senate GOP Leader John Thune, Gaetz’s nomination was pushing the bounds of Senate tolerance, potentially threatening the whole recess appointment ploy. Gaetz stopped his own nomination before we got a definitive answer to that question, but the movement to recess appoint Gaetz never materialized.

There are more controversial nominees to come, and we’ll see what happens. One thing is certain, though: A lot of Republicans are glad to be rid of this particular Florida Man.

“I guess we have all been spared the wrath of Attorney General Jimmy Neutron,” one GOP consultant texted as the Gaetz news came in.

—Evan McMorris-Santoro | Read the latest NOTUS reporting here.

Next in the Barrel: Pete Hegseth

Speaking of controversial nominees, who’s the Pam Bondi of the defense world? Maybe we won’t need to start googling that quite yet. NOTUS’ John T. Seward reports Trump’s secretary of defense nominee Pete Hegseth is largely getting the benefit of the doubt from Republican senators on the Hill as ugly sexual assault allegations from his past emerge. But the allegations are “a matter that the senators were especially interested in discussing.”

“The biggest thing is how to get him confirmed,” said Markwayne Mullin. “I think we can get him there. Obviously, there’s a lot of questions that have got to be answered, but I think we can get him there.”

Read the story here.

You’re Probably Not Going to Have Matt Gaetz to Kick Around Anymore

Gaetz resigned from this Congress as the AG saga began, but he was elected earlier this month to serve in the next Congress. The question floating around Washington has been whether Gaetz could take his seat in January.

His Nov. 13 resignation letter included the line “I do not intend to take the oath of office,” which an expert told NOTUS’ Claire Heddles and Reese Gorman is fuzzy enough language to leave the door slightly ajar.

“The authority to interpret Gaetz’s ‘intend’ as a resignation or not from the next Congress — and whether to put it up for a floor vote — would likely come down to Speaker Mike Johnson,” the pair write. “His office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.”

Read the story here.

Front Page

• Pete Hegseth’s Nomination Is in Trouble. Republican Senators Are Letting the Process Play Out: His path through the Senate confirmation process is still uncertain.
• Obamacare Gave HHS a Lot of Power. Democrats Say They Never Expected RFK Jr: Kennedy, if confirmed, would oversee 13 public agencies and be able to make broad changes to the ACA.
• Trump Nominates Pam Bondi for Attorney General After Matt Gaetz Withdraws: The former Florida attorney general has her own baggage.

Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery,’ but for Congressional Office Space

For Rep.-elect Tom Barrett, Longworth 1232 isn’t just an office. It’s a tie through time to his great-grandfather former Rep. Louis Rabaut.

“I never had the opportunity to meet him, but his story is one my family’s very proud of,” Barrett told NOTUS’ Katherine Swartz.

Rabaut held the office in 1954, when he sponsored the bill that added “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. Barrett called it Rabaut’s “most memorable piece of legislation.”

The freshman lottery is a ritual, and getting a bad first office is almost a right of passage. But after a lucky draw, and some impromptu lobbying, Barrett landed just where he wanted.

Read the story here.

Should Congress Step In After Some Disturbing Postelection Texts?

Some representatives are examining whether there’s a role for Congress to play after a flurry of threatening texts were sent to Black, Hispanic and LGBTQ+ people after Election Day. The texts are currently under FBI investigation. (The agency declined to comment on the investigation’s timeline.)

“We’ve got to see what the FBI comes up with, because there may be things affecting telecommunications companies that would allow for something like this to be caught early,” Rep. Kweisi Mfume said. “If that’s the case, then Congress can do a lot in terms of regulatory policy and making sure that it prevents it.”

—Torrence Banks

The Name Game That Could Save Climate Change Policy

Goodbye “join the fight against climate change,” hello “join the fight against China.”

“That’s the pitch that a coalition of domestic minerals companies brought to Congress this week,” NOTUS’ Anna Kramer reports. It goes like this: “The industry, and the subsidies created for it during the Biden administration primarily in the name of climate change, must now be protected for national security and for competitiveness with China.”

Climate policy wonks think this is how they stay at least somewhat effective in the GOP trifecta. Anna reports that Dept. of Energy vet Dave Howell, who worked in the first Trump administration, is now pushing the China line for the minerals lobby,“and is convinced that officials in the second administration will embrace that angle.”

Read the story here.

Not Us

We know NOTUS reporters can’t cover it all. Here’s some other great hits by… not us.

• Anthony Weiner’s Latest Redemption Tour Starts With a Haircut by Benjamin Oreskes for The New York Times
• Why Trump may get off to a slow start by Kadia Goba for Semafor
• Progressive groups share many of RFK Jr.’s goals. They’re opposing him anyway. By Marcia Brown, Daniel Payne and Megan Messerly for Politico.
• Inside Josh Shapiro’s covert push for influence at Penn by Ben Binday for The Daily Pennsylvanian

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