Geraldo Rivera said Wednesday that news of Rep. Matt Gaetz’s attorney general nomination by President-elect Donald Trump left him feeling physically ill.
“When I heard that Matt Gaetz was picked to be attorney general, I threw up in my mouth,” Rivera, 81, told NewsNation’s “On Balance with Leland Vittert” Wednesday.
“I think it is a horrible, creepy choice. I have no idea why he did it,” added the former longtime Fox News personality, a onetime friend of Trump.
Trump, 78, sent shockwaves across Washington by announcing his pick of Gaetz (R-Fla.), who faced a congressional ethics investigation for breaches including sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, accepting bribes or impermissible gifts, misuse of state identification records, and sharing of inappropriate images on the House floor.
“Matt Gaetz is the epitome of everything that is rotten in Washington,” Rivera said Wednesday, calling the Sunshine Stater “privileged, entitled [and] backstabbing.”
“There’s no way the Republicans in the Senate will confirm this man,” he added. “He’ll make the Clarence Thomas [Supreme Court] confirmation hearing look like a walk in the park. They will dig up everything about him.”
Gaetz, 42, resigned from the House “effective immediately” in the wake of Trump’s announcement, despite having won a fifth two-year term last week.
His resignation ended the ethics investigation, though it was unclear whether any report will be released.
Rivera also railed against the Gaetz nomination on social media, writing, “Matt Gaetz is a douche. So bad for Attorney General. Gross.”
The longtime news correspondent and talk show host had backed Trump during his first stint in the White House but abruptly switched gears and threw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris for the 2024 election, calling his former friend “a sore loser who cannot be trusted to honor the Constitution.”