Trump announces Pam Bondi as his choice to replace Matt Gaetz as attorney general
Trump has announced his choice to replace Matt Gaetz as attorney general: the former Florida attorney general and one of Trump’s defence lawyers.
In a statement on Truth Social, he said:
I am proud to announce former Attorney General of the Great State of Florida, Pam Bondi, as our next Attorney General of the United States. Pam was a prosecutor for nearly 20 years, where she was very tough on Violent Criminals, and made the streets safe for Florida Families. Then, as Florida’s first female Attorney General, she worked to stop the trafficking of deadly drugs, and reduce the tragedy of Fentanyl Overdose Deaths, which have destroyed many families across our Country. She did such an incredible job, that I asked her to serve on our Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission during my first Term — We saved many lives!
For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans – Not anymore. Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again. I have known Pam for many years — She is smart and tough, and is an AMERICA FIRST Fighter, who will do a terrific job as Attorney General!
Key events
After meeting with US senators on Capitol Hill, Matt Gaetz determined that his nomination was “becoming a distraction to the critical work’ of the new Trump administration,” he explained on X.
“There’s a sense of relief about it of course, I think he did a pretty noble thing frankly, an honorable thing by getting out himself,” said Republican senator from North Dakota, Kevin Cramer.
A lawyer who represents two women who say they were paid by Gaetz for sex also said his clients are “relieved to have this chapter behind them”.
Here is our video report:
Reuters: McKinsey is in the final stages of negotiating a deferred prosecution agreement to resolve a US criminal investigation into the consulting firm’s work helping opioid manufacturers boost sales that allegedly contributed to a deadly addiction epidemic, people familiar with the matter said.
McKinsey is in talks to pay more than $600m to resolve the longstanding US Department of Justice investigation, which also encompasses findings of civil violations, the people said.
The settlement, expected to be unveiled before the end of the year, would result in prosecutors seeking to dismiss criminal charges against McKinsey after a period of time as long as the company abides by the agreement’s terms.
Analysis: Tesla’s path in China clears as Musk courts both Trump and Xi
Amy Hawkins
If it pays to have friends in high places, few among us can claim to be better placed than Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and one of the only people to have cosy relationships with both Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. His commercial and political connections to both may prove pivotal as the feud between the US and China plays out over the next four years, particularly as Trump promises steep tariffs.
Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, once supported Joe Biden. But his relationship with the current US president soured over the past four years as, among other perceived insults, Musk felt that the White House gave Tesla, his car and green energy company, “the cold shoulder”. Trump, meanwhile, has described Tesla as “incredible” even while pledging to do away with subsidies for electric vehicles. This year, Musk formally endorsed Trump as the presidential candidate, campaigned for him online and off and donated more than $100m to his re-election effort.
Musk’s loyalty has been rewarded with his appointment as the leader of a newly created Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), which, despite its name, will be an advisory body, not a government agency. Perhaps more important for the global economy than his official role will be the influence he has on the dynamic between the leaders of the world’s two superpowers. With a trade war that was started by Trump and expanded by Biden, and mounting geopolitical tensions, the US-China relationship has been tumbling downhill for years, with negative global consequences, not least for consumers in the US and China, who have seen prices rise as a result.
Hugo Lowell
Donald Trump announced that he would nominate for attorney general Pam Bondi, the former Florida state attorney general, hours after the former representative Matt Gaetz withdrew in the face of opposition from Senate Republicans who had balked over a series of sexual-misconduct allegations.
The move to name Bondi reflected Trump’s determination to install a loyalist as the nation’s top law enforcement official and marked another instance of Trump putting his personal lawyers in the justice department.
Trump settled on Bondi soon after Gaetz, his first pick, withdrew from the running earlier on Thursday. Trump was told by advisers that she was a good alternative because she has allies across the Republican party as well as inside Trump’s world, according to people familiar with the matter.
“I am proud to announce former attorney general of the Great State of Florida, Pam Bondi, as our next attorney general of the United States. Pam was a prosecutor for nearly 20 years, where she was very tough on Violent Criminals,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
“Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again. I have known Pam for many years – She is smart and tough, and is an AMERICA FIRST Fighter, who will do a terrific job as attorney general!”
Bondi has been inside Trump’s orbit for some time, and is widely seen to have demonstrated her loyalty to Trump during his first term, when she helped with his impeachment defense, and more recently when she repeatedly attended Trump’s criminal trial in New York.
Longtime Trump ally Roger Stone has congratulated Bondi, saying he is “confident she will clean out the nest of corruption at our currently politicised DOJ”.
Bondi would be third female US attorney general if confirmed
If confirmed, Pam Bondi would be the third woman to serve as attorney general, after Janet Reno, who served in the role from 1993-2001, and Loretta Lynch, who served in the role from 2015-2017.
Pam Bondi has replaced Matt Gaetz as Trump’s choice for attorney general.
Gaetz withdrew Thursday amid continued fallout over a federal sex-trafficking investigation that cast doubt on his ability to be confirmed as the nation’s chief federal law enforcement officer.
The announcement caps a turbulent eight-day period in which Trump sought to capitalize on his decisive election win to force Senate Republicans to accept provocative selections like Gaetz, who had been investigated by the justice department before being tapped last week to lead it. The decision could heighten scrutiny on other controversial Trump nominees, including Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth, who faces sexual assault allegations that he denies.
“While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” Gaetz, a Florida Republican who one day earlier met with senators in an effort to win their support, said in a statement.
Bondi is a longtime Trump ally and was one of his lawyers during his first impeachment trial when he was accused – but not convicted – of abusing his power as he tried to condition US military assistance to Ukraine on that country investigating the then former vice-president Joe Biden.
She has been a chair at the America First Policy Institute, a thinktank set up by former Trump administration staffers.
Bondi is from Tampa and spent more than 18 years as a prosecutor. She was Florida’s first female attorney general.
Trump announces Pam Bondi as his choice to replace Matt Gaetz as attorney general
Trump has announced his choice to replace Matt Gaetz as attorney general: the former Florida attorney general and one of Trump’s defence lawyers.
In a statement on Truth Social, he said:
I am proud to announce former Attorney General of the Great State of Florida, Pam Bondi, as our next Attorney General of the United States. Pam was a prosecutor for nearly 20 years, where she was very tough on Violent Criminals, and made the streets safe for Florida Families. Then, as Florida’s first female Attorney General, she worked to stop the trafficking of deadly drugs, and reduce the tragedy of Fentanyl Overdose Deaths, which have destroyed many families across our Country. She did such an incredible job, that I asked her to serve on our Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission during my first Term — We saved many lives!
For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans – Not anymore. Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again. I have known Pam for many years — She is smart and tough, and is an AMERICA FIRST Fighter, who will do a terrific job as Attorney General!
Matt Gaetz has added to his earlier statement on his decision to withdraw his attorney general nomination.
“While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” Gaetz said in an earlier statement.
“There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as attorney general. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1,” he added.
Hours later, in a response to a post from the vice-president-elect, JD Vance, he added that he looks “forward to continuing the fight to save our country”, adding: “Just maybe from a different post.”
Some more context on that offer of land from Texas: Trump has said he plans to begin his deportation efforts on the first day of his presidency. He frequently attacked illegal immigration during his campaign, linking a record spike in unauthorized border crossings to issues ranging from drug trafficking to high housing prices.
There are an estimated 11 million people in the country illegally, the Associated Press reports. Questions remain about how people would be identified and where they would be detained.
The president-elect’s transition team did not say whether they would accept Texas’s offer but sent a statement.
“On day one, President Trump will marshal every lever of power to secure the border, protect their communities, and launch the largest mass deportation operation of illegal immigrant criminals in history,” Karoline Leavitt, the transition spokesperson for Trump and JD Vance, said Wednesday.
The Texas general land office did not disclose the amount paid for the land, but Buckingham stated the previous owner resisted the creation of a border wall.
A 1.5-mile (2.4km) stretch of border wall was built under the Republican governor, Greg Abbott, in 2021 on that land. Buckingham said with the recent purchase, the state had created another easement for more border wall construction.
Pennsylvania senator Bob Casey concedes to Republican Dave McCormick
The Democratic senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania has called Dave McCormick to concede a closely fought race in Pennsylvania. The race was decided by less than a quarter of a point.
In a post on X, Casey said: “During my time in office, I have been guided by an inscription on the Finance Building in Harrisburg: ‘All public service is a trust, given in faith and accepted in honor’.”
Texas offers land to use as staging area for mass deportations – report
In case you missed this yesterday, Texas is offering a parcel of rural ranchland along the US-Mexico border to use as a staging area for potential mass deportations under the president-elect Donald Trump.
The property, which Texas originally bought last month, is located in rural Starr county in the Rio Grande valley. Republican Dawn Buckingham, the Texas land commissioner, sent a letter 14 November to Trump extending the offer.
“We do hear through back channels that they are taking a look at it and considering it. But we just want them to know we’re a good partner. We’re here. We want to be helpful,” Buckingham told the Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday.
The property has no paved roads and sits in a county with one public hospital and limited local resources. But Buckingham stressed its location.
“We feel like this is actually very well-located. The land is very flat there. It’s adjacent to major airports. It’s also adjacent to a bridge over the river,” Buckingham said. “So if it’s helpful, then I would love to partner up with the federal government. And if it’s not, then we’ll continue to look to ways to be helpful to them.”
The land offer is the latest illustration of a sharp divide between states and local governments on whether to support or resist Trump’s plans for mass deportations of immigrants living in the US illegally. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles city council voted to become a “sanctuary” jurisdiction, limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities to carry out deportations.
Texas leaders have long backed aggressive measures on the border to curb crossings, including installing razor-wire barriers and passing a law last year that would allow law enforcement to arrest people who cross the border illegally.
Today so far
Matt Gaetz, the former Florida representative, withdrew from consideration as attorney general amid allegations including sexual misconduct with a 17-year-old girl, drug use and misappropriating campaign funds. His rapid fall came following likely opposition from Republican senators who had squirmed at the notion of approving his nomination, all as the House ethics committee mulled releasing its investigation into his alleged misconduct. Meanwhile, CNN reported that the woman who said she had sex with Gaetz when she was a minor had had a second sexual encounter with him, involving an adult woman.
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Rainn, the US’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, wrote that Gaetz’s decision “was in response to survivors and advocates using their voices to demand accountability”. Other women’s rights and empowerment groups, including UltraViolet, acknowledged that it was right for Gaetz to withdraw, while also pointing out that Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees include several others accused of sexual abuse and misconduct.
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A handful of Republican senators reacted to Gaetz’s withdrawal, issuing a variety of responses. The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, called the decision “appropriate” according to the Washington Post. Meanwhile, the senator Cynthia Lummis told CNN that it was good that Gaetz recognized he was a distraction, and that this will allow Trump to appoint someone “equally tenacious” to lead the justice department.
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The scrutiny around Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, grew as police unveiled an investigative report into the former Fox News host that further detailed the sexual assault allegations surrounding him. According to the report, Hegseth assaulted a woman after he took her phone, blocked the door to a hotel room and prevented her from leaving.
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Meanwhile, the woman who publicly accused Robert F Kennedy Jr of sexual assault when she worked for him as a babysitter said she was motivated to do so when he released a campaign ad based on a famous advertisement for his uncle, President John F Kennedy. “I literally was just watching the Super Bowl and saw the ad and thought: ‘You’ve gotta be kidding me,’” Eliza Cooney told USA Today.
Revealed: trans rights case at US supreme court features doctors previously discredited by judges
Sam Levin
The doctors have been dismissed by judges across the US as “conspiratorial”, “deeply biased”, “far off” and deserving “very little weight”.
But their testimonies were nonetheless submitted by the state of Tennessee in defense of an anti-trans law the US supreme court will consider in December, in one of the most important cases of the court’s session and among the most consequential LGBTQ+ rights cases in its history.
In US v Skrmetti, the court will weigh whether transgender youth have a constitutional right to access healthcare treatments endorsed by every major medical association in the country, who say the care improves patients’ mental health and reduces the suicide risks of vulnerable teens. The case originated with three trans youth and their parents who sued Tennessee last year over its ban on gender-affirming healthcare for minors, arguing the care was medically necessary and “life-saving”. The outcome could have profound implications for trans rights, bodily autonomy and the government’s authority over people’s private healthcare decisions.
If the court’s conservative supermajority upholds Tennessee’s ban, it would, in effect, be siding with doctors who, LGBTQ+ advocates and trans healthcare experts say, have repeatedly peddled misinformation and, in some cases, espoused religious doctrine in the name of science. Six doctors who filed expert declarations for Tennessee have a history of advocating against trans healthcare, and five of them have previously been rebuked or discounted by judges due to their backgrounds.
Four of those doctors cited by the Tennessee attorney general, Jonathan Skrmetti, to defend the ban have been linked to a rightwing Christian legal group and have profited from their continued testimony on gender-affirming care, and three of them have never provided trans youth healthcare, according to research from Accountable.US, a progressive watchdog organization, which shared its findings with the Guardian.
The Guardian’s David Smith offers this analysis of Matt Gaetz’s whirlwind rise and fall:
Florida congressman Gaetz had styled himself as a “Maga” bomb thrower, adopting the Trump playbook of riding out any scandal and turning the tables on his accusers. He vehemently denies the allegations and points out that a justice department investigation into sex-trafficking claims involving underage girls had ended with no federal charges against him.
The brazenness worked until it didn’t. The miasma of scandal that trailed Gaetz around Capitol Hill was too odorous. His unpopularity with colleagues was a bridge too far. Not even Trump’s patronage was enough to save his Senate confirmation. Finally, in a supposedly post-scandal era in which “nothing matters”, something mattered.
One theory is that Gaetz was a sacrificial lamb, a decoy that will ease the path of similarly outlandish selections such as the Russian sympathiser Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, former Fox News host Pete Hegseth (also accused of sexual assault) as defence secretary and anti-vaccine activist Robert F Kennedy Jr as health secretary.
That probably credits the 45th and soon-to-be 47th president with too much guile and cunning. As a former White House official once observed, Trump does not play “the sort of three-dimensional chess people ascribe to decisions like this. More often than not he’s just eating the pieces.”
