Nov. 22: With New AG Pick, Trump Throws a Bone to the Establishment
The BlueSky blues; Protests in Quebec; IDF pushes deeper into Lebanon
The Big Story
On Thursday evening, a few hours after Matt Gaetz withdrew his name for consideration as attorney general, Donald Trump named Pam Bondi, the attorney general of Florida from 2011 to 2019, and one of Trump’s lawyers during his first impeachment, as a replacement.
The initial buzz on Bondi is that parts of the MAGA world are quite disappointed, whereas mainstream Washington, D.C., is mostly happy. Bondi has already passed what Matthew Continetti of Commentary calls “the Jeb Bush test.” The idea of the test is that if Jeb tweets out his praise of a pick, it’s overwhelmingly likely that it will pass through the Senate. Gaetz, of course, did not pass the Jeb test.
Bondi’s most obvious advantage over Gaetz is that she can get the job. As Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, an on-again, off-again ally of Trump, put it in a tweet:
“Well done, Mr. President. Picking Pam Bondi for Attorney General is a grand slam, touchdown, hole in one, ace, hat trick, slam dunk, Olympic gold medal pick. She will be confirmed quickly because she deserves to be confirmed quickly.”
One man’s endorsement is another’s red flag. The shift from Gaetz to Bondi is a reminder that, while the Republican Party is outwardly wholly united under Trump, there is a subterranean civil war between GOP institutionalists and MAGA forces eager to bring the federal bureaucracy to heel. Gaetz was a bomb thrower popular with Trump’s base but hated by the institutionalists (and not just by them). Bondi appears far more popular with the latter crowd.
One person familiar with the thinking of Trumpworld told The Scroll that a few of the more enthusiastic MAGA movement figures were disappointed in the choice of Bondi—not because there is anything wrong with her in particular, but because the AG job is extraordinary, in terms of both importance and difficulty. Bondi, a former lobbyist for Qatar, might not be the steel-spined fighter fit to clean out an entrenched bureaucracy of massive scale. That’s a potential issue for the Trump administration because the Department of Justice served as the center of institutional progressive resistance during his first term. It’s the central staging ground for important legal battles and, last go-round, was a wellspring of leaks to the media. If Bondi can’t clean house, the house might run roughshod over Trump.
If there’s such acute disappointment over Bondi within pro-MAGA factions of media and elsewhere, then why isn’t it public? The answer is simple: She’s Trump’s pick. Now that Trump is appointing officials, as opposed to staging a presidential campaign out of the wilderness, criticism of his named allies is muted. Those interested in saving Trump from “the swamp” must also be wary of offending Trump, even when they disagree with his decisions.
As for the Democratic side, Bondi is disfavored, but almost any Trump appointee would be. The New York Times refers to her as a “Trump loyalist,” citing Bondi’s refusal to prosecute Trump University in 2013, and Trump’s subsequent $25,000 campaign contribution to her reelection. Bondi also supported Trump’s claims of election fraud in 2020, suggesting she is not as much of a squish as some on the right are making her out to be. Her biggest asset, however, is that she’s not Gaetz, which makes us think the Republican-controlled Senate will be happy to confirm her in January.
The Rest
→Speaking of Matt Gaetz, he’s announced that he does not intend on joining the 119th Congress next year, despite winning reelection. Gaetz told Charlie Kirk in an interview released Friday, “I’m still going to be in the fight, but it’s going to be from a new perch. I do not intend to join the 119th Congress.” Gaetz, who was elected to the House in 2016, appears to be retiring from elected office, at least for now. “I’m going to be fighting for President Trump. I’m going to be doing whatever he asks of me, as I always have. But I think that eight years is probably enough time in the United States Congress.” If Gaetz had returned to Congress, of course, the House Ethics Committee would have published its report into his alleged sexual misconduct.
→And because we’re not done with news regarding Gaetz, the ladies of The View keep having to glumly air legal notes to correct their impassioned commentaries on Trump nominees. This might signal that, in a world where Donald Trump is president, there’s less media latitude to embellish when attacking figures on the right. On Friday morning, for the third time this week, co-host Sunny Hostin had to read a walk-back statement, this time about how Gaetz had not been charged with a crime and how Defense Secretary pick Pete Hegseth had paid a woman in 2023 to, as his lawyer put it, “head off the threat of a baseless lawsuit.” Another note could be forthcoming because, after Hostin concluded her reading, Joy Behar added, “That’s interesting. Pay off the witness.”
→The Bluesky Falls on Thee:
There’s been a lot of buzz about the exodus of liberal journalists and others in the blue world from Twitter/X over to BlueSky, but it remains to be seen whether discourse over there will be fruitful and sustainable. While many of the converts have offered rave reviews, not everyone is so far enjoying the self-selected echo chamber. Staunchly anti-Trump figures Mark Cuban and Rob Reiner have found that their moderate appeals to civility have resulted in a less than civil response. On Wednesday night Cuban posted, “Why are Trump supporters not wanted? You don’t have to follow them. You can block them … Don’t you want [Bluesky] to have all perspectives? As long as it’s civil, why not welcome different viewpoints?” to which Reiner replied, “This platform has turned into a vile cesspool already. No different now [than] from Twitter.”
→Canada continues to be a less than favorable environment for Jews. On the heels of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claiming that Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant will be arrested if they enter Canada, a massive 85,000-person protest against Israel took place mostly on Quebec campuses and in downtown Montreal. According to The Jerusalem Post, the two-day protests, which included 13 campuses, are calling for the universities to divest from the world’s only Jewish-majority nation.
→As its actions are getting protested in Canada, Israel appears to be making military progress in Lebanon. According to the Times of Israel, the IDF has advanced the fight against Hezbollah by pushing toward “second-line villages” in southern Lebanon. Israel’s Walla News reported earlier this week that the IDF Northern Command was lobbying to push deeper into Lebanon to continue dismantling Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, a move being resisted by the upper reaches of Israel’s military leadership.
SCROLL TIP LINE: Have a lead on a story or something going on in your workplace, school, congregation, or social scene that you want to tell us about? Send your tips, comments, questions, and suggestions to scroll@tabletmag.com.
“… a move being resisted by the upper reaches of Israel’s military leadership.”
And many of those upper echelon military leaders are also in league with the witch-hunt currently underway in Israel attempting to bring down Netanyahu and his government, clearly having been coached in some of the same efforts finer points used by members of the Biden administration to bring down Trump.
Some of these same military leaders also happen to be among those whose abject failure to recognize the warnings and alerts given to them on Oct. 6, 2023, or to even alert the Prime Minister of said warnings, enabled one of the worst massacres of Jews in history.
Not a coincidence.
That Bondi was a lobbyist for Qatar is somewhat concerning. If she did it because she believed in Qatar, that’s deeply troubling. If she did it for what must have been a fat paycheque, it means she can be bought. I’m not sure which is worse.