WASHINGTON ― Some members of the House of Representatives cheered Friday when the acting House clerk announced former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) wouldn’t be taking his seat in the new Congress.
“The clerk is in receipt of a letter from the honorable Matt Gaetz of the state of Florida indicating that he will not serve in the House in the 119th Congress,” the clerk said.
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Some members on both sides of the room, many of whom loathe Gaetz, applauded the news.
Gaetz won reelection, but resigned from Congress in November after President-elect Donald Trump announced he planned to nominate Gaetz to be his attorney general.
Several Republican senators balked at the prospect of Gaetz, the subject of both a federal investigation and a congressional ethics probe into alleged sexual relations with a minor, and he wound up withdrawing himself from consideration.
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Gaetz could still have taken his seat this month, since he won reelection in November, but he has instead launched a new career as a media personality on the far-right cable channel One America News Network.