Corey Lewandowski, senior adviser to Donald Trump's presidential campaign, shot down rumors that the president-elect's nomination of Matt Gaetz for attorney general is a red herring, telling Newsmax on Thursday that it's "not a head fake."
The Bulwark and Politico reported that Gaetz, eager to sidestep a House ethics report that was set to be voted on for release later this week, would be a "sacrificial lamb" for Trump in the Senate confirmation process for the purpose of getting other controversial nominations passed. Then, Trump would nominate another AG.
"Absolutely not," Lewandowski told "National Report." "Listen, when Donald Trump makes a decision, it's because it's what he believes to be best for the country. And I support that 100%. This is not a head fake. This is not somebody who we're putting up only to lose so that we can nominate somebody else.
"I know that the elites in Washington, D.C., have gone into meltdown mode because they don't want to give Matt Gaetz the opportunity to come and talk about the reforms that are necessary inside the Department of Justice. "It is time that the people at the Justice Department are held accountable. Not one person has ever been sanctioned or fired for lying to the FISA court and spying on American citizens. Not one person has been held accountable for the FBI coming and knocking on doors and making up stories about people. Not one.
"And Matt Gaetz, as the attorney general, is going to ensure that the weaponization of the Justice Department is over and the American people go back to Lady Liberty and Lady Justice, and it's a blind justice."
Lewandowski also addressed the concerns of Republican senators regarding the ethics investigation into Gaetz. Now that Gaetz has resigned from Congress, that ethics report will not be released.
"The reality is I don't know what's in the ethics report. Neither does anybody else except the people who are on the ethics committee. And the fact that that report is not going to see the light of day has no bearing on the fact that Matt Gaetz is qualified under the Constitutional requirements to serve in this capacity," Lewandowski said. "And if this is who Donald Trump wants, then we are going to use all of the resources at our disposal as the president-elect and his full campaign to make sure that Congressman Gaetz is duly confirmed in the U.S. Senate.
"What's troubling to me is that we've got U.S. senators coming out immediately saying, 'Hey, we're concerned about this.' They haven't even looked at his qualifications. They haven't looked at his political acumen or the skill set that he brings to the table."
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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