Allegations about Rep. Matt Gaetz having sexual relationships with underage girls have resurfaced after Donald Trump announced the Florida representative as his pick for Attorney General.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin slammed Gaetz earlier this year for showing images of girls he ‘slept with’ to colleagues on the floor of the U.S. House.
The Oklahoma Senator now tells CNN that he trusts Trump’s decision to pick Gaetz to join his cabinet.
But he warned Geatz about questions he will have to face during Senate confirmation hearings.
While Republicans regained control of the Senate in the 2024 election, Gaetz is controversial even among members of his own Party.
Trump announced on Wednesday that he is nominating Florida Rep. Gaetz to lead the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Mullin said that Gaetz was ‘seeking fame’ when he initiated the motion to vacate House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year because the media ‘wouldn’t give him the time of day’ after allegations of inappropriate relationships emerged.
Gaetz says it’s a lie that he was showing the women he was having sexual relationships with to Republican colleagues on the floor of Congress.
Following an investigation, the Florida lawmaker was never charged by the Justice Department for sex trafficking or engaging in sex with minors.
‘This is a guy that the media didn’t give the time of day to after he was accused of sleeping with an underage girl. And there was a reason why no one in the conference came and defended him because we had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor … of the girls that he had slept with,’ Mullin told CNN earlier this year.
‘He’d brag about how he would crush ED (erectile dysfunction) medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night,’ Mullin explained. ‘This is obviously before he got married. So when that accusation came out, no one defended him.’
‘All of the sudden he found fame because he opposed the Speaker of the House back in November,’ he concluded.
Gaetz is a hardline pro-Trump lawmaker and has been one of the most vocal supporters of the former – and now future – president. He is a controversial figure among Democrats and Republicans.
Democratic Rep. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who has praised Trump for some of his other picks for his 2025 Cabinet and White House, spoke out against the selection of Gaetz as Attorney General.
‘There have been serious, qualified individuals nominated to posts, like Rubio or Stefanik. Eric Schmitt would be a solid choice for AG,’ Fetterman wrote.
‘But Dem opinions on Gaetz aren’t that interesting,’ he continued. ‘The good ones will come from my GOP colleagues to justify a vote for that jerkoff.’
Fetterman’s X post noted that Republicans have plenty of opposition to Gaetz, as well. But it’ll be left to see next year whether members of the GOP will go on record voting against a Trump nomination.
‘Matt Gaetz and I, there’s no question we’ve had our differences,’ Mullin said following Trump’s announcement on Wednesday. ‘They’ve been very public about it.’
He noted: ‘I completely trust President Trump’s decision-making on this one.’
‘But at the same time he’s got to come to the Senate and sell himself,’ Mullin countered. ‘There’s a lot of questions that will be out there. He has to answer those questions. And hopefully, he’s able to answer the questions right.’
‘If he can, then we’ll go through confirmation process.’
Trump said he picked Gaetz, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, after he emerged as a vocal critic of the agency of which his panel provided oversight and called for serious reforms.
‘Few issues in America are more important than ending the partisan Weaponization of our Justice System,’ Trump wrote of Gaetz’s pick. ‘Matt will end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department.’