Bharara says Trump is ‘choosing a bomb thrower for’ attorney general in Gaetz

Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Sunday that President-elect Trump is a “choosing a bomb-thrower” in former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) for attorney general.

On ABC News’s “This Week,” a clip was played of Gaetz calling for taking away funds and doing away with “the FBI, CDC, ATF, DOJ, every last one of ‘em, if they do not come to heel.”

“Again, you talk about a president being able to choose whomever he wants,” ABC News’s Martha Raddatz said. “The voters chose Donald Trump. They know this is what he wants. So, if he is confirmed, how much power would he have to do what he says?”

“He would have a tremendous amount of power, and he has the backing of a president who is a flame-thrower himself, a bomb-thrower himself, who’s choosing a bomb-thrower for that job,” Bharara said.

Earlier this week, the president-elect announced that Gaetz will be nominated to head the Justice Department.

“It is my Great Honor to announce that Congressman Matt Gaetz, of Florida, is hereby nominated to be The Attorney General of the United States. Matt is a deeply gifted and tenacious attorney, trained at the William & Mary College of Law, who has distinguished himself in Congress through his focus on achieving desperately needed reform at the Department of Justice,” Trump said on his social media site.

Gaetz was one of the president-elect’s strongest supporters in the House but has critics within his party, most notably ex-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), with whom he has publicly feuded.

“And again, [the] president has a right to a substantial deference, but not complete and total deference,” Bharara said Sunday. “There’s the United States Senate, they’re accountable to the public as well, and they have a role to advise and consent.”

Gaetz will most likely have to earn votes in the upper chamber to claim the role of attorney general, which Republicans will have control of next year, but GOP senators have expressed reservations about casting their votes for him.

Gaetz, who resigned from the House immediately after the announcement, has recently been the subject of a probe by the House Ethics Committee looking into whether he had taken part in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, alongside other allegations. He has denied allegations of wrongdoing, but Gaetz’s resignation essentially kills the probe by taking himself out of the panel’s jurisdiction.

The Hill has reached out to the Trump transition team for comment.