{"id":2722,"date":"2024-11-21T01:07:28","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T01:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/black-mark-lawmakers-seethe-over-ethics-gaetz-report-imbroglio\/"},"modified":"2024-11-21T01:07:28","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T01:07:28","slug":"black-mark-lawmakers-seethe-over-ethics-gaetz-report-imbroglio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/black-mark-lawmakers-seethe-over-ethics-gaetz-report-imbroglio\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Black mark\u2019: Lawmakers seethe over Ethics\u2019 Gaetz report imbroglio"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Matt Gaetz is plunging the House into chaos, again.<\/p>\n

Members of the House Ethics Committee deadlocked over whether to release the findings of an investigation into the former Florida lawmaker, who is Donald Trump\u2019s pick for attorney general. The inaction is triggering outrage among Democrats, who argue the committee is dragging out the process, while Republicans remain furious that Gaetz put them in this position.<\/p>\n

In a bid to force the release of the Ethics report, which is expected to cover several allegations, including that Gaetz had sex with a minor, Democratic Reps. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) and Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) are offering motions that would open up the decision to the full House.<\/p>\n

Conservative allies of Trump and Gaetz are threatening retribution over such a move, but several Republicans are still insisting they want the report to come out. In a manifestation of the tumult, expelled Rep. George Santos, the recent subject of another Ethics Committee report, stopped by the Capitol to get in on the action.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is awful,\u201d said Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.). \u201cIt’s a black mark on the House of Representatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The havoc is the latest illustration of how Trump\u2019s looming return to Washington is shaking the foundations of Capitol Hill and forcing Republican lawmakers to make a series of immediate, high-stakes calls about the integrity of the legislative branch.<\/p>\n

Several House and Senate Republicans want to see the report, a demand some of them reiterated after a Wednesday Ethics Committee meeting on the subject resulted in no clear action. Another panel meeting on the matter is scheduled for Dec. 5.<\/p>\n

Asked if he would still want the report to be given to the Senate, even if Ethics Committee Republicans didn\u2019t support releasing it, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said: \u201cThe Senate deserves to have it, so they can make a good decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Democrats do not plan to let the GOP bury the findings of the Gaetz investigation, and that strain could pose a serious threat to the Ethics Committee itself. Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, the panel\u2019s top Democrat, accused Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) of having \u201cbetrayed the process\u201d by suggesting to reporters that the panel\u2019s decision not to release the report was final.<\/p>\n

Guest countered: \u201cThat\u2019s her choice, if that\u2019s what she feels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Internally, the panel doesn\u2019t even seem to agree whether the Gaetz report is complete or still in draft form. Republicans publicly insisted the report wasn\u2019t finished yet, though two people familiar with the process granted anonymity to speak about private deliberations countered that it was final. Gaetz has repeatedly denied the allegations against him.<\/p>\n

Even before Guest announced to a swarm of reporters that the committee hadn\u2019t reached an agreement on releasing the report, Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) vowed to leapfrog House leadership and force a vote on the floor. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) then called Casten, according to a person familiar with the matter granted anonymity, and said he wanted to work together. Casten rejected the offer, so Cohen introduced his own motion to force a vote, leading to a floor pileup.<\/p>\n

If Cohen\u2019s and Casten\u2019s efforts to force a vote are allowed to move forward \u2014 which is still unclear, since they might not meet the rules of a so-called privileged motion \u2014 they would either need support, or absences, from a handful of Republicans. While GOP members may want the report out, it\u2019s unclear if they would back those efforts if they thought the Ethics panel was still working it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would hope that if you are at home and you are a Republican, a Democrat, an independent, that you would want to see the information on the nominee to become your attorney general or any other member of the Cabinet,\u201d Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said, adding that it was \u201cnot a good sign\u201d that there is information the committee apparently doesn\u2019t want released.<\/p>\n

And California Rep. Pete Aguilar, the No. 3 House Democrat, said Wednesday he would \u201csupport ranking member Wild\u201d and her calls in recent days for the report to be public.<\/p>\n

Though at least one Democrat was hesitant to support a bid to force the committee\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis committee will become partisan if we vote to release a report on any member. And so that’s my concern,\u201d said Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), who is friendly with Gaetz.<\/p>\n

The hours-long Ethics Committee meeting and subsequent fury happened a week after Gaetz was tapped to be attorney general and abruptly resigned from the House. Gaetz told leadership that his decision to step down was tied to wanting to be able to fill his seat quickly, but dozens of his colleagues speculated that it was actually to avoid the release of the Ethics Committee\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

Even as some Republicans have clamored for the report to be made public, Gaetz allies argue many are seeking retribution against a former lawmaker \u2014 one who made a lot of enemies in the chamber, most notably when he orchestrated the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and left the House without a speaker for three tumultuous weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ethics Committee is not a fair investigation,\u201d said Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), who attended a Freedom Caucus meeting this week where Gaetz made an appearance to thank his allies. \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody believes what happens in the Ethics Committee is actually unbiased.\u201d<\/p>\n

And conservatives are threatening retribution of their own if Democrats successfully force a vote on the House floor to release the report, warning that it could pave the way for them to try to get Ethics reports involving current or former Democratic members. Those threats are unlikely to deter Democrats, who have been largely unified in wanting the Gaetz report to be released.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you release this report, then you know, what\u2019s good for the goose is good for the gander. Let\u2019s start talking about releasing other reports,\u201d Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said, adding that he would defer to the Ethics Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that would be a valid move,\u201d echoed Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.), when asked about the potential GOP countermove. \u201cI mean, if they’re gonna try to dig up that sort of stuff, why not?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt Gaetz is plunging the House into chaos, again. Members of the House Ethics Committee deadlocked over whether to release the findings of an investigation into the former Florida lawmaker, who is Donald Trump\u2019s pick for attorney general. The inaction is triggering outrage among Democrats, who argue the committee is dragging out the process, while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}