Narratives of the Right: Playing '4D Chess' or 'More Than Meets the Eye'
According to the Right, Matt Gaetz withdrawing from consideration as Donald Trump's nominee for Attorney General is evidence that Trump is playing '4D chess' or that there's 'more than meets the eye.'
In many ways, former Congressman Matt Gaetz is the perfect reflection of who the MAGA faithful would believe is the ultimate warrior of president-elect Donald Trump, because he is both a creature of the swamp that they claim to so despise and embodies their attitude of “fuck your norms.”
Trump’s nomination of Gaetz for U.S. Attorney General was celebrated by far right influencers and right-wing media, most significantly because of his “loud support for Trump supporters convicted in relation to the January 6 attack on Congress, and his promises to seek revenge against Trump’s political opponents.”
However, Gaetz’s nomination would last only eight days.
Only moments before CNN published yet another damaging story, Gaetz posted on Twitter/X that “it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition. There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I'll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General.”
Responding to Gaetz withdrawing from consideration, Trump posted on TruthSocial that he “greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General,” adding that “Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!”
Only hours after, Trump announced that he would “nominate former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead the Justice Department,” a vocal defender of Trump who was “one of his lawyers during his first impeachment trial.”
During the next four years, Trump will be successful at placing numerous loyalist and sycophants within various positions of power within his administration, and be successful implementing horrible and harmful policies. However, Trump will also spectacularly fail, and various nominations will implode and several policy initiatives will face roadblocks.
MAGA will rage. Far right influencers and right-wing media will blame “RINOs” and the “liberal media” and literally everyone else, but remain faithful to Trump. Rinse and repeat. This will be the next four years, and it will be exhausting.
‘Holding the evildoers accountable’
Far right influencers and right-wing media was delighted with Trump’s nomination of Gaetz for Attorney General, and they viewed the nomination as an opportunity to both eradicated the so-called “deep state” from federal law enforcement agencies and exact retribution from all of their perceived political opponents—particularly those who they view as unlawfully prosecuting Trump.
Gil Gutknecht, a former Republican Congressman, wrote in Townhall that Trump nominating Gaetz is “pure genius,” that you shouldn’t “doubt that he will clean house in both the DOJ and the FBI,” and “will be undeterred in holding the evildoers accountable.”
Rick Manning, president of the right-wing organization Americans for Limited Government, echoed the far right demands to ending the prosecutions of Capitol Riot defendants, and wrote in the Daily Caller that the Department of Justice is “ruining the lives of grandmas and grandpas across the country who were let into the Capitol by the Capitol Police by prosecuting them for taking pictures in the Rotunda,” and Gaetz will “hold accountable those who ran roughshod over any semblance of civil liberties running trumped up prosecutions.
Tim Pool, the right-wing podcaster, celebrated Trump’s selection of Matt Gaetz for Attorney General, and “called on Gaetz to prosecute anyone who brought legal proceedings against Trump — including Fulton County DA Fani Willis, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, and NY AG Letitia James.” Pool has repeated used violent rhetoric, including, invoking the idea of a civil war, and called for revenge and retribution against Trump’s political opponents.
During a livestream of Pool’s podcast, Pool said that if Trump is elected he should imprison his political opponents, “should there be list of Democrats who need to go to jail? One hundred percent.” Laure Loomer, the far right conspiracy theorist, responded that “not just jail, they should get the death penalty,” and seconds later the video feed abruptly stop broadcasting.
Lynne Lechter wrote in American Thinker that the “accusation that President Trump and his amazing (to date) cabinet nominees are cruising for revenge. Revenge may very well be a byproduct of the future actions of his stellar cabinet to-be, but revenge is not his goal.” However, Lechter later writes that “Trump, with his entire cabinet, will be avenging the innocent girls and women who have been kidnapped, raped, and murdered by criminals who did not belong in America.”
Catherine Salgado writes in PJ Media that “Republicans need to investigate and hold all those accountable who were responsible for abusing the U.S. justice system both against Trump and against other political prisoners, including the Jan. 6 protesters and pro-lifers,” and that “this is not a political witchhunt but a recognition that no American is safe if the justice system can be used and abused against anyone with whom those in power disagree.”
‘It was actual 4D chess’
In the wake of the announcement, every right-wing media personality shared both theirs as to why the movement was some type of Machiavellian plan brilliantly orchestrated by Trump, and predicted everyone from U.S. Repo. Marjorie Taylor Greene to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito would be Trump’s next pick for Attorney General.
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