McCarthy: 'Everybody Knows' Gaetz Won't Be Confirmed

President-elect Trump stunned DC on Wednesday with his pick of Matt Gaetz to be attorney general. But former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy predicted Thursday that his bitter political rival would never actually become AG. "Gaetz won't get confirmed, everybody knows that," McCarthy tells Bloomberg. McCarthy called the pick a "good deflection from others" by Trump, but he declined to elaborate, per Politico. "You'd have to ask the president, but Gaetz couldn't win in a Republican conference, so it doesn't matter." McCarthy praised all of Trump's other choices. Related:

• Criticism on the right: The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial page also criticized the choice of Gaetz as one that "would undermine confidence in the law." Gaetz is "a nominee for those who want the law used for political revenge, and it won't end well," write the editors.
• A challenge: Trump is all but daring the GOP to defy him on the Gaetz pick—as well as that of Tulsi Gabbard for national intelligence and Pete Hegseth for defense—per a Washington Post analysis. But why the controversial Gaetz, who was facing a House ethics probe before his resignation? "He wants someone who will go to war for him," says one Trump ally.
• No deflection? McCarthy may think Trump nominated Gaetz to soften up the Senate for his real AG, but the Bulwark reports that "those familiar with Trump's thinking say he's deadly serious about getting Gaetz in at DOJ." The piece suggests both men are willing to "work around the Senate should confirmation there become too big a hurdle." That could involve Trump pushing through what's known as a recess appointment, when the full chamber isn't in session, per the New York Times.

(More Matt Gaetz stories.)