Matt Gaetz, who Donald Trump just picked to be his Attorney General, has already resigned from Congress, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said late Wednesday.
“I think out of deference to us, he issued his resignation letter immediately to accommodate us a little bit,” he told members of the press. “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,’” referring to Florida state law that dictates that a vacant political office must be filled within eight weeks.
The Speaker continued, “If we start the clock now, if you do the math, we may be able to fill that seat as early as Jan. 3, when we take the new oath of office for the new Congress. So Matt would have done us a great service by making that decision, as he did on the fly, and so we’re grateful for that.”
Johnson further shared that both he and Gaetz are good friends after serving together for seven years on the Judiciary Committee.
“Everyone who served with him will tell you he’s one of the most intelligent members of Congress,” he continued, noting that Gaetz is “very concerned” with “what has been occurring in the Department of Justice and the Biden administration, and the fact that the American people have lost their faith in our institutions of justice.”
Johnson described the now-former Florida congressman as “a reformer in his mind and heart” who will “bring a lot to the table.”
He went on to quip, “President Trump is poaching all of our talent, yes, but we have an embarrassment of riches here. The Republican Conference is full of talented people who are extraordinary leaders and have great expertise. And everyone in this Congress, in this conference, could serve in a leadership position in the administration.”
So far, Trump’s picks for his second-term Cabinet include Stephen Miller as Deputy Chief of Staff, Kristi Noem as Head of Homeland Security, Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary, Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence and Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, to name a few.
Additionally, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have been named as co-leads of the still-to-come Department of Government Efficiency.