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It shouldn’t have been a big deal. The sitting president invited the incoming president to the White House, to offer congratulations and talk about ensuring a smooth transition from one administration to the next. This is how it is supposed to work.
Unfortunately, this was not the approach that former and now future President Donald Trump took when he lost the election in 2020. But thankfully, President Joe Biden has declined to make this a new tradition. Instead, he chose to return to a more orderly and respectful process.
In doing so, Biden has shown respect to a political adversary, to the American people and to the institutions that help hold us together. The U.S. Senate must do the same in carefully and independently reviewing Trump’s Cabinet nominees, giving him broad deference to choose qualified candidates but resisting any attempts to muscle through unqualified individuals via pressure campaigns or recess appointments.
Trump has received the courtesy and commitment to a smooth transition that he denied Biden four years ago. Biden has responded by putting democratic traditions over political pettiness. In this climate, that is no small gesture. Biden acted within the norms of the office, even if these feel like less than normal times.
Just as Trump is benefiting from this deference to the norms, he must also fall under the normal scrutiny that accompanies the checks and balances of our government. In particular, the Senate must play its normal role in carefully reviewing Trump’s nominees — giving deference to the commander-in-chief to have his desired team in place, while doing their due diligence to make sure that those team members are actually qualified to serve in some of the most critical roles in our government. The constitutional imperative to advise and consent must include not consenting to plainly unqualified candidates. This is how it is supposed to work.
Trump’s pick of now former Florida U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz to serve as attorney general clearly falls in the unqualified category. Gaetz — who until he gave up his U.S. House seat abruptly this week was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for a wide range of allegations including sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and accepting improper gifts — should be rejected outright by the Senate.
Politico reported this week that one of Gaetz’s own House Republican colleagues described him as someone who “ran around here last term like a six year old with a loaded revolver and a happy trigger finger.” That is clearly not someone who should lead the Justice Department, under Trump or under any president. He is such an unqualified choice that it is worth wondering if his nomination is meant as a distraction from others.
Maine U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King will play an important role in the confirmation process. That is especially true for Collins as a member of the incoming Republican Senate majority. She understandably expressed shock over Gaetz’s nomination this week.
“Obviously the president has the right to nominate whomever he wishes, but this is where the Senate’s advise and consent process is so important,” Collins said, as reported by PBS. “I’m sure that there will be many, many questions raised at Mr. Gaetz’s hearing if in fact the nomination goes forward.”
This is how it is supposed to work. Trump has won the White House, and Republicans have won the Senate. Tradition and basic math mean that the incoming president should quickly be able to have his team in place. But the qualifications of that team must still matter, and so too must the Senate’s tradition of careful review as an independent body.
Senate Republicans took a step this week to demonstrate their preserved independence by choosing U.S. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota as majority leader over U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who had support from many prominent Trump allies. They can and must continue to demonstrate that independence by rejecting plainly unqualified nominees like Gaetz, and opposing any backdoor efforts to sneak those nominees through using recess appointments.
This is the role laid out for the Senate in Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. This is how it is supposed to work.
Correction: This editorial has been updated to correct the name of Sen. Rick Scott of Florida.