CNN host Jake Tapper asked House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) if ‘morals’ still matter in the Republican Party after Donald Trump’s recent cabinet picks.
In an interview on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, Tapper cited former Congressman Matt Gaetz, Fox News host Pete Hegseth and Robert Kennedy Jr, Trump’s nominees to lead the Justice department, Defense department and Health and Human Services respectively, as the basis for his question.
“You’re a man of faith, you’re a man of God, you’re a man of family. With some of these nominees, Gaetz, Hegseth, RFK Jr., I wonder — does it matter anymore for Republicans to think of leaders as people who are moral in their personal lives? Is that still important to the Republican Party?” Tapper asked in a clip highlighted by Mediaite.
“It’s an important issue for anyone in leadership,” Johnson responded, but then dismissed the nominees’ questionable moral character claiming that “they are persons who will shake up the status quo.”
Gaetz had been investigated for alleged sex trafficking by the Justice Department. Hegseth reportedly paid off a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2017 and RFK Jr, a prominent anti-vaxxer, had an extramarital affair with former New York Magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi and other women.
“Any president has the right to name their own cabinet to nominate persons that they think will fulfill their agenda,” Johnson argued. And the people that are on this list will do that. They will go into the agencies that they’re being asked to lead and they will reform them…You can’t have status quo appointments in a moment like this.”
Gaetz was also investigated by the House Ethics Committee over alleged sex trafficking, sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. The committee was scheduled to release a “highly damaging” report of their findings but the Florida lawmaker resigned from Congress.
Johnson told reporters last week that the findings should not be released. He defended his decision on Sunday saying it wouldn’t be inappropriate for the Ethics committee to release its findings since Gaetz was no longer a member of Congress.
“What I have said, with regard to the report, is that it should not come out. Why? Because Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress. He is no longer a member,” Johnson said. “There’s a very important protocol and tradition and rule that we maintain, that the House Ethics committee’s jurisdiction does not extend to nonmembers of Congress.”
