House Speaker Mike Johnson Delivers Gracious and Heart-Felt Endorsement of Matt Gaetz After He Is Nominated for Attorney General

On 11/13/2024, On Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump announced his endorsement of Rep. Matt Gaetz as Attorney General in the upcoming Trump administration. Following today’s announcement, Speaker Mike Johnson spoke to reporters about Trump’s AG pick. Johnson had nothing but glowing remarks for his compatriot Matt Gaetz, who he knows well as a fellow congressman.

Speaker Mike Johnson: Matt and I were classmates. We came to Congress at the same time in the 115th Congress in January 2017. And alphabetically, we’re seated right next to one another in Judiciary Committee. We serve there together for seven years. Some of you all who cover Judiciary know those are long meetings. So I got to know Matt very well.

I’ll say this. Everyone who has served with him will tell you he’s one of the most intelligent members of Congress. He’s an accomplished attorney. He’s very concerned about the welfare that has been occurring in the Department of Justice under the Biden administration, and the fact that the American people have lost their faith in our institutions of justice because of everything that you’ve seen. He’s a reformer in his mind and heart, and I think that he’ll bring a lot to the table on that. I think out of deference to us, he issued his resignation letter effective immediately of Congress. That caught us by surprise a little bit, but I asked him what the reasoning was, and he said, Well, you can’t have too many absences. So under Florida state law, there’s about an eight-week period to select and fill a vacant seat.

By doing so today, that allows me… I’ve already placed a call to Governor DeSantis in Florida and said, “Let’s start the clock.” He’s in Italy at the moment, and so we’re going to talk first thing in the morning about this. If we start the clock now, if you do the math, we may be able to fill that seat as early as January 3rd when we take the new oath of office for the new Congress.

Matt would have done us a great service by making that decision as he did on the fly. We’re grateful for that. So we move forward. Look, I’ll say this… People have asked me all day long, President Trump is poaching all of your talent. Yes, we have an embarrassment of riches here. The Republican Conference is full of talented people who are extraordinary leaders and have great expertise. Everyone in this conference could serve in a leadership position in the administration.

Matt Gaetz’s resignation from Congress is official. Next job: United States Attorney General.
Matt Gaetz resignation is read in the House of Representatives: “I do not intend to take the oath of office for the same office in the 119th Congress to pursue the position of Attorney General in the Trump Administration.”

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House Speaker Mike Johnson Delivers Gracious & Heart-Felt Endorsement of Matt Gaetz Nominated for AG