Explainer | Matt Gaetz is a polarising figure. Here’s some of his most controversial moments
US attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz is reportedly a widely disliked figure in the halls of Congress – even in his own Republican Party
US President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of the controversial former congressman Matt Gaetz to be the next attorney general shocked Washington.
In just under seven years in Washington, Gaetz has led the historic ouster of a House speaker and been the subject of a Justice Department investigation into whether he sex trafficked a minor. He has also been the subject of multiple House Ethics Committee probes.
It remains an open question on if Gaetz will get confirmed as attorney general. If he does, the Floridian’s past calls to abolish the Justice Department – which includes the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – will be put to the test.
Here are some of the most controversial moments of Gaetz’s career so far:
He invited a Holocaust denier to the State of the Union
One of Gaetz’s first major moments was the fracas over his 2018 invitation to renowned internet troll Charles C. Johnson to attend Trump’s first State of the Union address.
Gaetz told The Daily Beast he simply invited Johnson because he “showed up at my office”. Gaetz later defended Johnson, who has said he never “believed” six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust, telling Fox Business that his guest was “not a Holocaust denier, he’s not a white supremacist”.
