WASHINGTON — Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said Friday that he doesn’t plan to rejoin Congress after he withdrew his name from consideration to be President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general amid sexual misconduct allegations.
“I’m still going to be in the fight, but it’s going to be from a new perch. I do not intend to join the 119th Congress,” Gaetz said in an interview with conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
“There are a number of fantastic Floridians who stepped up to run for my seat, people who have inspired with their heroism, with their public service. And I’m actually excited to see Northwest Florida go to new heights and have great representation,” he added.
Gaetz noted he has been in elected office for 14 years, having first been elected to Florida’s state House when he was 28 years old.
“I’m 42 now, and I’ve got other goals in life that I’m eager to pursue — my wife and my family — and so I’m going to be fighting for President Trump,” he said. “I’m going to be doing whatever he asks of me, as I always have. But I think that eight years is probably enough time in the United States Congress.”
Gaetz said it seems like “a pretty poetic time to allow that great new blood to come in, to allow my district to have high-quality representation.”
He also alluded to playing a continued role in Trump’s plans, without getting into specifics.
“We need a leadership structure under President Trump that’s going to allow for durability of our movement and the ability to continue this great realignment of our politics, and so I’ll play a part in that,” he said. “I plan to be a big voice, but maybe not as an elected member of the government.”
NBC News reached out to his former House aides for comment.
After Gaetz removed his name from consideration to be Trump’s attorney general on Thursday, there was some question as to whether the Florida Republican would choose to rejoin Congress since he had just been re-elected to another two-year term.
If he were to rejoin Congress, there was also the question about whether the House Ethics Committee would proceed with releasing its report on its investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations against Gaetz.
The panel had been investigating him over allegations that he paid a minor and an adult woman for sex at a party in 2017. During the probe, the committee was informed that the minor, who was 17 years old, had had two sexual encounters with the then-congressman at the party, NBC News reported Thursday, according to a source familiar with the discussions.
The Department of Justice had also been investigating Gaetz on sex trafficking allegations, but chose not to pursue charges against him. Gaetz has denied those allegations as well.
Gaetz’s forthcoming nomination was on shaky ground because of the allegations. On Friday, he told Kirk that those allegations are false and an attempt to “smear” him.
“Like if the things that the House Ethics report [said] were true, I would be under indictment and probably in a prison cell,” Gaetz said. “But of course, they’re false, because when you test them against other records, when you test them against other testimony, it all falls apart very quickly.”
Gaetz resigned from Congress last week after Trump announced he had selected him to serve as attorney general. Gaetz cannot return to the current Congress because of his resignation.
The congressman joined the U.S. House in 2017 and was disliked by some members of the House Republican Conference because of his role leading the successful effort to the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as House speaker last year.
Jake Traylor, Kyle Stewart and Sarah Fitzpatrick contributed.
