Geraldo Rivera: Donald Trump and his gang of pirates

Home » All Videos » Gang of Pirates

November 17th, 2024

Abraham Lincoln led what historian Doris Kearns Goodwin dubbed a Team of Rivals; a Cabinet assembled to abolish slavery and win the Civil War. To accomplish those monumental goals, Lincoln chose three esteemed former candidates for President to be his secretaries of State, Treasury and Attorney General.

Flouting his resentment and distrust of Establishment figures and perhaps to exact retribution and quash any resistance to his second-term agenda, President-Elect Trump has put together a Gang of Pirates. They aren’t literal pirates; none are plundering ships at sea. Rather, most are anti-establishment outsiders, disrupters, fervent loyalists to the Pirate King of politics, Donald Trump.

Former congressman Matt Gaetz is so gross a choice for Attorney General that many thought his announced selection as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer was a bad joke. An audible gasp was heard from the closed-door meeting of House Republicans when his choice was announced. He is barely a lawyer-at-all, with scant experience in a family firm, never having prosecuted a single case.

To the chagrin of his colleagues in the House, Mr. Gaetz is a gadfly with the demeanor of an eight-year-old, an agent of chaos whose principal achievement was to sabotage then House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Last week he resigned his House seat in anticipation of his new job as Attorney General. Critics allege the sudden resignation was to escape the jurisdiction of the House Ethics Committee, which was about to issue a scathing report on allegations involving sex with minors and drug abuse. In fairness, the Department of Justice, which he is designated to run as Attorney General, notified Gaetz that it was declining to prosecute him. Yet last Friday, November 15, a Miami lawyer announced that he represented two witnesses to the conduct alleged.

That day I tweeted,

‘Under no circumstances can former representative Matt Gaetz be allowed to sleaze into the Cabinet via Recess Appointment. For the good of the American people, he must be subjected to intense scrutiny via the Senate.’

Because the former Congressman’s background is so sketchy, some in Congress believe his announced appointment is just sacrificial, a scape goat so grotesque that the other controversial picks seem savory by comparison.

President Trump has a backstop. Last week he named Todd Blanche the capable lawyer who oversaw his defense in various New York criminal cases to supervise the day-to-day operations of the sprawling DOJ. Presumably Blanche will step up to Attorney General if, as many expect, the nomination of Gaetz goes down in flames.

To comment briefly on several other controversial picks by President Trump for his Pirate Cabinet, Major Pete Hegseth, a combat veteran and Fox News weekend anchor for Secretary of Defense, former Democratic Congresswoman and Army Reserve Lt. Colonel Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as Ambassador to Israel, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the Department of Health and Human Services, all are wildly unconventional, yet weirdly acceptable.

Major Hegseth and Governor Huckabee worked with me for years at Fox News, and I like both, and hold them in high regard. Pete is a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, twice awarded the Bronze Star. He has been one of the foremost advocates for veterans’ rights. He will have a steep learning curb, but I expect he will do his best to serve competently, and I am sure, honorably.

I have heard from high-ranking Pentagon veterans regarding his lack of experience running an organization, especially one with 3 million employees. Fair enough, but this guy has great heart, patriotism and courage. The revelation late last week of a 2017 allegation of sexual assault, which Pete vehemently denies, will also have to be sorted out.
Governor Huckabee was an excellent governor, and I hope he can moderate his objections to a Two-State Solution in the Mid-East that protects the rights of all people, Palestinian as well as Israeli. That will be tough considering Mike believes God gave the Holy Land to the descendants of Abraham, which many Evangelicals believe means the Jews of Israel.

My feelings about Colonel Gabbard and RFK Jr are also guardedly positive. Certainly, they are unexpected and far outside Washington DC norms, yet if confirmed both hold the longshot promise of upending dysfunctional agencies and changing them in ways more establishment figures could not abide. A more comprehensive view of their prospects and those of the other Trump appointees will have to wait until next week. In the meantime, picture the White House flying the Skull and Crossbones alongside Old Glory.