What Did We Learn, Palmer?

Gaetz appears before the House Rules Committee.

Rep. Matt Gaetz appears before the House Rules Committee at the Capitol. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

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.”