President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement that he is selecting Matt Gaetz to be his attorney general sent shock waves through Washington, D.C.—and certain other parts of the country. The selection has drawn criticism from both Democrats and Republicans, who openly wondered whether Gaetz could be confirmed, even in a Republican-controlled Senate.
The former Florida Representative (he resigned from the House following Trump’s announcement) comes with a lot of baggage. He had been under a House ethics investigation looking at whether he engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. And he alienated some Republicans with his role in the ousting of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year.
Gaetz earned his law degree from the William & Mary Law School in 2007, later working for a firm in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. His license was briefly suspended in 2021 by the Florida Bar due to unpaid fees, but he is currently a member in good standing.
The matter of Gaetz’s confirmation is certain to be debated among friends, politicians, and way too many people sitting around the dinner table at Thanksgiving this year. What’s more certain is where Gaetz stands on important issues, particularly on Big Tech, as determined by his previous statements and votes.
Here’s a look at where this controversial pick has come down in the past.
Where does Gaetz stand on breaking up Big Tech companies?
Like the Biden administration, Gaetz has been a regular critic of Big Tech, though his reasons are much different. Gaetz’s complaints center on what he says has been ongoing censorship of conservatives. That has made him an ardent supporter of antitrust enforcement.
He worked with Democratic Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island and Republican Representative Ken Buck of Colorado, who led the House antitrust panel in the most recent Congress, on legislation that would have made it easier to break up giant tech firms. (The bills never made it to the House floor.) He also praised Jonathan Kanter, President Joe Biden’s antitrust chief in the Justice Department, ">saying, “I think you’re doing a good job, and that is a painful admission for me to have to make about anyone who works at the Department of Justice.”
Do Gaetz and FTC chair Lina Khan agree on antitrust issues?
They frequently do—so much so, in fact, that Gaetz has floated the idea of keeping Khan as head of the Federal Trade Commission (something Vice President-elect JD Vance has also endorsed), saying, “I hope her work continues in the Trump administration.”
Gaetz and Khan both served on the House Judiciary’s antitrust subcommittee five years ago and he’s been a fan ever since. Speaking about her earlier this year, he said, “She has brought litigation against big business more aggressively than any person to hold her position in a generation.”
What might this mean for tech companies Trump considers “enemies”?
Amazon, Alphabet, and especially Meta might have reason to be nervous about the Gaetz selection. Trump has been quite vocal in the past about his beef with Meta and Mark Zuckerberg, calling the social media company “an enemy of the people” (though he has backed off of that over the past couple of months). Trump regularly criticized Amazon during his last administration and still holds a grudge for the two-year suspension of his YouTube channel. (Many CEOs have looked to improve relationships with Trump, sending congratulatory messages following his election victory last week.) Like Trump, Gaetz has criticized tech companies in the past.
“The internet’s hall monitors out in Silicon Valley, they think they can suppress us, discourage us. Maybe if you’re just a little less patriotic, maybe if you just conform to their way of thinking a little more, then you’ll be allowed to participate in the digital world,” Gaetz told a crowd at an “America First” rally in Georgia in 2021. “Silicon Valley can’t cancel this movement, or this rally, or this congressman. We have a Second Amendment in this country, and I think we have an obligation to use it.”
Does Gaetz want to ban TikTok?
While Trump has vowed to prevent the U.S. ban of TikTok from taking place, his pick for attorney general has been vocal about his thoughts on the social media app—calling it a national security concern. That said, he has also criticized the legislation meant to ban it, and was one of 65 votes against it in the House.
“Banning TikTok is the right idea,” he wrote in a post on X. “But this legislation was overly broad, rushed, and unavailable for amendment or revision.”
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