Why Matt Gaetz backed out of the race to become Trump’s attorney general

In Washington, you don’t name anyone disruptive or potentially transformative to your administration without dealing with flack from the Senate. They like things straightforward, predictable, vetted, established and preplanned — and Donald Trump’s cabinet of outsiders is anything but. The Brett Kavanaugh nomination was widely considered to be dead even among his most emphatic supporters (reportedly even the president himself) before his stunning performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee righted the ship. Now, several members of the incoming Trump 47 team faces a certain onslaught from Democrats and potentially wavering support from some Republicans. So getting the cabinet the president wants will require the expenditure of political capital, as it always does with such a close partisan margin for error.

Given that, Matt Gaetz’s announcement this afternoon that he is withdrawing from contention to be Trump’s attorney general is not surprising.