Logos Stick said:

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unmade bed said:

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Logos Stick said:

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Midnight Yale said:

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Logos Stick said:

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Infection_Ag11 said:

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Logos Stick said:

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Infection_Ag11 said:

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Logos Stick said:

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Infection_Ag11 said:

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Ellis Wyatt said:

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The Swamp

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Nah, the walls are just closing in on a guy with too many skeletons in the closet.

It's incredibly obvious at this point there's some really damning stuff that was going to come to light if he remained in public life.

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Completely baseless accusation. Nice.

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There are financial records and emails documenting his use of prostitutes.

Now sure, the underage boy/girl stuff may very well be false. But we're at the point where that's a question for the legal side of things. He's clearly not a viable candidate for AG of the United States regardless.

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Your DOJ investigated and cleared him. Just stop with your bull**** accusations.

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They didn't clear him, they declined to prosecute but withheld all the evidence. It's pretty obvious what happened there.

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The DOJ investigation ended it's investigation two years ago!. The House doesn't prosecute people. They don't do criminal investigations.

It's pretty obvious you make baseless claims and dont understand what happened here.

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Just to be clear, Gaetz's right hand man in any alleged wrongdoing got sent to prison for 11 years for the things Gaetz is accused of. It seems facially clear that he wasn't being prosecuted because he's a sitting Congressman.

Friends who work in DC also note that Gaetz does not hide how constantly drugged up and horny he is. Not the character I want out of the highest ranking legal officer in the country.

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That makes zero sense. Less than zero actually. Garland would have been more than happy to prosecute Gaetz had there been anything there.

Are you aware that many sitting congress people have been indicted on federal charges while in office? Some have even been convicted. You're obviously not aware because you've come up with that cockamamie theory about why he wasn't charged.

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DOJ can only prosecute for FEDERAL crimes. Paying for sex is not a federal crime. Having sex with a minor (as long as they are older than 12) is not a federal crime. Paying a minor for sex isn't even a federal crime unless trafficking is involved. In order to charge Gaetz with a federal crime, the DoJ would have needed to use trafficking laws, which is where their case was not strong enough to go after a sitting US representative. Fwiw, the DoJ investigation begun under the Trump Administration.

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So that proves that he wasn't prosecuted by the DOJ because he's a sitting congressman, which was the assertion?!

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No the assertion was a little further up the chain of quote, by you - with regard to there being evidence of payments to hookers, you said:

Quote:

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Your DOJ investigated and cleared him. Just stop with your bull**** accusations.

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I was pointing out that the DOJ did not "clear" him of paying for sex (or banging minors for that matter).

Paying for sex via Venmo is the 2024 equivalent of Jerry Springer paying for sex with a personal check.

J. Walter Weatherman said:

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Heineken-Ashi said:

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J. Walter Weatherman said:

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Heineken-Ashi said:

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Infection_Ag11 said:

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Heineken-Ashi said:

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Infection_Ag11 said:

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Heineken-Ashi said:

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Infection_Ag11 said:

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Logos Stick said:

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Infection_Ag11 said:

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Logos Stick said:

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Infection_Ag11 said:

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Ellis Wyatt said:

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The Swamp

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Nah, the walls are just closing in on a guy with too many skeletons in the closet.

It's incredibly obvious at this point there's some really damning stuff that was going to come to light if he remained in public life.

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Completely baseless accusation. Nice.

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There are financial records and emails documenting his use of prostitutes.

Now sure, the underage boy/girl stuff may very well be false. But we're at the point where that's a question for the legal side of things. He's clearly not a viable candidate for AG of the United States regardless.

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Your DOJ investigated and cleared him. Just stop with your bull**** accusations.

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They didn't clear him, they declined to prosecute but withheld all the evidence. It's pretty obvious what happened there.

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Obvious? Then say the answer in clear and simple terms. You think he's guilty?

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I think it's pretty clear their investigation uncovered some pretty unsavory things but came up short on the underage/minor claims and they didn't want a perceived political witch hunt going down over something as "trivial" as prostitution. Especially with how many congressmen have probably utilized those services. But had they released the findings as they usually do but refused to prosecute, the other side would have been outraged.

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So a Merrick Garland DOJ uncovered "unsavory things" about one of the loudest and most outspoken bulldogs against them, and did nothing?

And you somehow think that's obvious that he did something wrong?

Say it, stop dancing. You said there are facts and its obvious. What exactly are accusing him of?

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It's beyond reasonable dispute at this point that he has paid prostitutes for sex. We have his messages and Venmo receipts and multiple witnesses. So that would be what I'm accusing him of. I'm sure a lot of congressmen have done the same. But the AG of the United States can't be someone whom it's understood by everyone pays prostitutes for sex.

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Can you post them? I haven't seen them.

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This article (and a number of others) outline the Venmo payments that were in the report.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/11/20/documents-link-gaetz-to-10000-in-payments-to-2-women-in-house-probe/76464554007/

Quote:

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Documents under review by the House Ethics Committee, first reported by ABC News and later the Washington Post, outline 27 payments Gaetz made through Venmo and Paypal between July 2017 and January 2019 totaling $10,224 to the two witnesses. Both women were over the age of 18 years old at the time of the payments, ABC reported.

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Certainly not a fan of him paying prostitutes, and won't vouch for his moral code if that's proven to be factual, but I'm not sure where the crime is here. And how did ABC and Washinton Post found out about this?

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It would be a state crime but no clue what the statute of limitations are and probably below the threshold of anything a Florida prosecutor would be worried about. Either way, I don't think anyone is calling for him to be arrested for it, just saying it should be disqualifying for someone that's nominated to be the chief law enforcement officer of the entire US.

I think the same set of documents that leaked to the NYT that showed the chart of accounts he was using to make the payments had all of this information in it. It's also corroborated by what the two witnesses said as well. NYT article is paywalled but here's the chart they obtained that's allegedly in the report:



I'm assuming there are at least a handful of other congressman who have done similar stuff at some point, but I don't think anyone was as blatantly obvious and obviously not in the running for something as important as AG.

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Seems damning. But I'm going to wait for actual proof, not leaks behind the scenes. Simply withholding judgement and letting the process play out.

Dan Scott said:

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If you're going to do something you wouldn't want your mom to read about, pay for it in cash.

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I really don't care all that much about paying prostitutes. I think it generally should be legal but it isn't and it does present a very high risk of being compromised and basically indicates a lack of judgment.

However, the sex with underage girls with multiple eyewitnesses is a much bigger problem. And those eyewitnesses are way more than the nonexistent evidence against Kavanaugh with what's-her-name or Trump with the other what's-her-name.

AtticusMatlock said:

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Paying for sex via Venmo is the 2024 equivalent of Jerry Springer paying for sex with a personal check.

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So dumb. But I noticed that Hunter Biden was effectively doing the same things with his drug and hooker orders loosely using construction terms in his communications, during the dead of winter. Who paints the exterior of a house when it is snowing and below freezing?

Heineken-Ashi said:

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J. Walter Weatherman said:

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Heineken-Ashi said:

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J. Walter Weatherman said:

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Heineken-Ashi said:

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Infection_Ag11 said:

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Heineken-Ashi said:

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Infection_Ag11 said:

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Heineken-Ashi said:

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Infection_Ag11 said:

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Logos Stick said:

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Infection_Ag11 said:

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Logos Stick said:

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Infection_Ag11 said:

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Ellis Wyatt said:

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The Swamp

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Nah, the walls are just closing in on a guy with too many skeletons in the closet.

It's incredibly obvious at this point there's some really damning stuff that was going to come to light if he remained in public life.

---

Completely baseless accusation. Nice.

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There are financial records and emails documenting his use of prostitutes.

Now sure, the underage boy/girl stuff may very well be false. But we're at the point where that's a question for the legal side of things. He's clearly not a viable candidate for AG of the United States regardless.

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Your DOJ investigated and cleared him. Just stop with your bull**** accusations.

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They didn't clear him, they declined to prosecute but withheld all the evidence. It's pretty obvious what happened there.

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Obvious? Then say the answer in clear and simple terms. You think he's guilty?

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I think it's pretty clear their investigation uncovered some pretty unsavory things but came up short on the underage/minor claims and they didn't want a perceived political witch hunt going down over something as "trivial" as prostitution. Especially with how many congressmen have probably utilized those services. But had they released the findings as they usually do but refused to prosecute, the other side would have been outraged.

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So a Merrick Garland DOJ uncovered "unsavory things" about one of the loudest and most outspoken bulldogs against them, and did nothing?

And you somehow think that's obvious that he did something wrong?

Say it, stop dancing. You said there are facts and its obvious. What exactly are accusing him of?

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It's beyond reasonable dispute at this point that he has paid prostitutes for sex. We have his messages and Venmo receipts and multiple witnesses. So that would be what I'm accusing him of. I'm sure a lot of congressmen have done the same. But the AG of the United States can't be someone whom it's understood by everyone pays prostitutes for sex.

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Can you post them? I haven't seen them.

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This article (and a number of others) outline the Venmo payments that were in the report.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/11/20/documents-link-gaetz-to-10000-in-payments-to-2-women-in-house-probe/76464554007/

Quote:

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Documents under review by the House Ethics Committee, first reported by ABC News and later the Washington Post, outline 27 payments Gaetz made through Venmo and Paypal between July 2017 and January 2019 totaling $10,224 to the two witnesses. Both women were over the age of 18 years old at the time of the payments, ABC reported.

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Certainly not a fan of him paying prostitutes, and won't vouch for his moral code if that's proven to be factual, but I'm not sure where the crime is here. And how did ABC and Washinton Post found out about this?

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It would be a state crime but no clue what the statute of limitations are and probably below the threshold of anything a Florida prosecutor would be worried about. Either way, I don't think anyone is calling for him to be arrested for it, just saying it should be disqualifying for someone that's nominated to be the chief law enforcement officer of the entire US.

I think the same set of documents that leaked to the NYT that showed the chart of accounts he was using to make the payments had all of this information in it. It's also corroborated by what the two witnesses said as well. NYT article is paywalled but here's the chart they obtained that's allegedly in the report:



I'm assuming there are at least a handful of other congressman who have done similar stuff at some point, but I don't think anyone was as blatantly obvious and obviously not in the running for something as important as AG.

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Seems damning. But I'm going to wait for actual proof, not leaks behind the scenes. Simply withholding judgement and letting the process play out.

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Had Gaetz not resigned the report likely would have been released (they were meeting on that the Friday after he stepped down). And it seems like the Senate would have wanted to see it before moving forward with voting on the nomination if he hadn't withdrawn. Now it seems likely any information in it that's released will just limited to leaks like this.

FbgTxAg said:

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Well, he is still the Congressman-Elect for his Congressional seat. So he could just be sworn back in to that seat in January.

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He's already told DeSantis he won't take the oath, so he won't be seated. Special election coming.

BoydCrowder13 said:

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William Foster said:

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Serious question, how do Trump and/or his advisors not completely vet someone like this before nominating them? There shoul dbe no stone left unturned...I would even subject an AG candidate who has been accused of sexual improprieties to a polygraph test.

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8 years later and they still can't figure out the personnel part.

Dems will cry foul on most nominees. The important thing is to not make their jobs easy. Gaetz was an easy target. Trump's team should have known that.

Most of the other positions are getting support.

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Trumps team did know that. He did Gaetz a solid by letting him weasel out of the House under the guise of being the AG nominee. Blocks the report about to be released and save face to Maga people. They'll just think dems rinos media out to get him rather than him being a prostitute paying pedo.

Glad Trump has learned from his previous chaotic administration and is only picking Top Men. Glad things will go much smoother this time around.

The last thing Trump ever wants to be is embarrassed and one of his most important cabinet picks having to pull out a week after nomination is not going to sit well with him.

I do not think Trump would ever knowingly participate in something that would make him look bad.

Geminiv said:

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him being a prostitute paying pedo.

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amazing this "pedo" is cancelled right away for venmo'ing an escort service 7 years ago - before he was married, - and yet zero on epstein's clients

TarponChaser said:

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JFABNRGR said:

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I suspect well be seeing more public shaming of any of Trumps picks that may be adversarial to the swamp.

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If Gaetz hadn't already been known as a sleazebag it would be harder to do to him. And if the ethics report didn't find anything he'd be screaming for it to be released.

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Good point. The innocent usually have no problem with things coming out because, well, they're innocent.

Oh there is definitely a double standard. The amount of sleeze in Congress is very high. There's a certain bachelor Senator from South Carolina who's rumored to spend quite a bit of money on male prostitutes.

Gaetz made the mistake of also being a pompous a****** who everyone hated. No one's going to keep his secrets.

Central Committee said:

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It was a horrible nomination by Trump. I love most of his picks but not this one. Everyone hates this guy. Trump needs a bulldog AG like Obama had in Holder, but appointing someone that even your own party hates is not a smart move.

On an unrelated note, I am holding out hope that Trump nominates Cruz to the SCOTUS when Clarence Thonas retires. That would cause the most epic meltdown by the Dems.

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OR it was a great nomination that was always doomed to failure by design.

Maybe you nominate Gaetz knowing that he's a POS that no one likes and has no chance of confirmation because then all the commentary and attention around your picks is on him. No one's playing attention to anyone else. He's nothing more than a distraction.

He also sets the scale that all other nominations will be measured against. Compared to him, everyone else will look great. It's like a group of 6 and 7's adding a 3 to the mix and all of a sudden they all like 8's.

LMCane said:

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Katie Pavlich suggested getting Sam Alito to step down from SCOTUS and become the Attorney General

then Trump could appoint a new 45 year old conservative to the Court.

BRILLIANT 5D chess!

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I'd be perfectly happy with that.

AtticusMatlock said:

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Gaetz made the mistake of also being a pompous a****** who everyone hated.

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he definitely didn't play ball with his own team. It's fine to own the libs and attack leftist lunatics if you're on the right, but he also went after establishment right and forced a house leadership change when Kevin McCarthy was being an ineffective little *****, breaking promises, and going behind the their backs. Very few friends left for him after attacking the uniparty from both sides.

1836er said:

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This loss is a gut punch, as Matt would have been exactly the kind of AG we need. Trump needs someone at DOJ that will be for him what Grant and Sherman were for Lincoln.

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Well, to that point, they were General Grant and General Sherman when they achieved fame, not Lieutenant Grant and Lieutenant Sherman.

Next....

BREAKING: Mitch McConnell was a 'hard no' on Gaetz along with 3 other Senators - Murkowski, Collins, and Curtis

This kept him 1 vote under the threshold for confirmation

— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) November 21, 2024

As usual.

aggiehawg said:

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BREAKING: Mitch McConnell was a 'hard no' on Gaetz along with 3 other Senators - Murkowski, Collins, and Curtis

This kept him 1 vote under the threshold for confirmation

— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) November 21, 2024

As usual.

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Only the right frags itself. We have to get Murkowski and Collins primaried.

Based on the articles I'm reading on The Hill, a lot of GOP senators were breathing a sigh of relief because many, many did not want to vote for him. It was not just Mitch. They didn't want to be in the position of having to make that decision.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5002652-matt-gaetz-attorney-general-senators-relieved/

These three plus maybe a few others who may not be running for re-election in their next cycle don't have much to lose and are going to be much more free to vote how they want.

aggiehawg said:

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BREAKING: Mitch McConnell was a 'hard no' on Gaetz along with 3 other Senators - Murkowski, Collins, and Curtis

This kept him 1 vote under the threshold for confirmation

— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) November 21, 2024

As usual.

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If you think it was anywhere near that close to happening, you're lost.

And then immediately hand those seats to the Democrats, especially Maine.

Never understood this logic. Would you rather have someone who votes with you 90% of the time or 0% of the time?

Geminiv said:

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BoydCrowder13 said:

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William Foster said:

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Serious question, how do Trump and/or his advisors not completely vet someone like this before nominating them? There shoul dbe no stone left unturned...I would even subject an AG candidate who has been accused of sexual improprieties to a polygraph test.

---

8 years later and they still can't figure out the personnel part.

Dems will cry foul on most nominees. The important thing is to not make their jobs easy. Gaetz was an easy target. Trump's team should have known that.

Most of the other positions are getting support.

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Trumps team did know that. He did Gaetz a solid by letting him weasel out of the House under the guise of being the AG nominee. Blocks the report about to be released and save face to Maga people. They'll just think dems rinos media out to get him rather than him being a prostitute paying pedo.

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Very swamp like.

Ellis Wyatt said:

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aggiehawg said:

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BREAKING: Mitch McConnell was a 'hard no' on Gaetz along with 3 other Senators - Murkowski, Collins, and Curtis

This kept him 1 vote under the threshold for confirmation

— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) November 21, 2024

As usual.

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Only the right frags itself. We have to get Murkowski and Collins primaried.

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Robert Menendez would like a word with you.

To those of you acting like I was some big Gaetz supporter, I was not. When the nom was first announced, my response was, "Ugh"

https://texags.com/forums/16/topics/3508012

I am sure it was mentioned (not reading all 7 pages of the thread), but did anyone think this was a serious nomination? I'm not sure what the ultimate end game is, but when I first heard he was the AG choice I immediately thought it was a massive troll job.

Good

AtticusMatlock said:

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Based on the articles I'm reading on The Hill, a lot of GOP senators were breathing a sigh of relief because many, many did not want to vote for him. It was not just Mitch. They didn't want to be in the position of having to make that decision.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5002652-matt-gaetz-attorney-general-senators-relieved/

These three plus maybe a few others who may not be running for re-election in their next cycle don't have much to lose and are going to be much more free to vote how they want.

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Right. And it is why republicans can never govern. The leftist "republicans" always block the will of the people. Just like Dade Phelan and Texas. It is disgusting.

But they reliably allow us to spend more and more and ratchet ever leftward.

AtticusMatlock said:

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And then immediately hand those seats to the Democrats, especially Maine.

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If they don't vote for the republican agenda, they aren't republicans.

Murkowski is not and McConnell installed her back into power. Collins is worthless.

fishJones said:

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I am sure it was mentioned (not reading all 7 pages of the thread), but did anyone think this was a serious nomination? I'm not sure what the ultimate end game is, but when I first heard he was the AG choice I immediately thought it was a massive troll job.

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I always thought it was just a favor from Trump to get him out of the house in a reasonably defensible way before the report got dropped. Now Trump will hire him to some other role in the admin and he gets to keep labeling the investigation as a witch hunt because it will never get released.

TarponChaser said:

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Ellis Wyatt said:

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aggiehawg said:

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BREAKING: Mitch McConnell was a 'hard no' on Gaetz along with 3 other Senators - Murkowski, Collins, and Curtis

This kept him 1 vote under the threshold for confirmation

— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) November 21, 2024

As usual.

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Only the right frags itself. We have to get Murkowski and Collins primaried.

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Robert Menendez would like a word with you.

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Menendez was a known criminal long before the dims dropped him.

Nothing but allegations about Gaetz have been floated out there.

Trump needs a loyal pit bull AG who will advance his agenda and hold accountable those who have abused government power, but there are much better options than Matt Gaetz.