THURSDAY rose on Capitol Hill with few signs of respite for a Senate The Republican caucus is clearly still agreeing to get what it bargained for.

The senators returned for the second day of work in the middle of Gaetz Gate: THE panic over several days which takes place around the appointment of Matt Gaetzthe Republican gadfly and Trump loyalist from Florida, to become Donald Trump’s attorney general.

And what was an open question on Wednesday is now a whispered certainty: Gaetz did not, as he clearly intended, dodge an impending report of the House Ethics Committee regarding long-standing allegations that he slept with a 17-year-old girl – a high school student – ​​while he was a member of Congress.

Gaetz has already been investigated in this matter by the Justice Department, which he will now seek to lead; it ended with no charges brought against him. He strongly denied these allegations.

The Florida congressman would have become Trump’s choice for Attorney General after convincing the president-elect during a trip on Trump Force One this week – just hours before the decision was announced Wednesday.

He then promptly resigned from the House, officially ending the Ethics Committee’s jurisdiction to file the report.

The ethics committee will meet on Friday to determine the official fate of this investigation. Unofficially ? It is almost certain that it will be released, whether by the committee in the coming days, or through a leak to the press, or from the Senate. Several GOP Senators said Wednesday and Thursday they want to see the ethics report released before voting on the former congressman’s confirmation.

A top quality Florida journalist said the unofficial release could come in a few hours, not a few days.

“I think there should be no limits to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation,” John Cornyn, who sits on the panel that will vote on whether to move forward with Gaetz’s confirmation, said Thursday.

Kevin Cramer, another Republican aligned with the chamber’s institutionalists, said the congressman had a “steep hill to climb” for votes in the chamber — including his own.

He added that Gaetz could lose as many as 10 or more GOP votes in the Senate if a vote takes place this week.

John Thune, the new majority leader and successor to Mitch McConnell, had a more measured response to questions about whether Gaetz could win enough votes for confirmation on Thursday.

“I haven’t thought about it yet. I just know that the appointment is not yet formalized, but when it is, we will process it as we usually do and provide our advice and consent.

So what does this mean for Donald TrumpAre there any other candidates? Trump kept his nomination campaign promise Robert F. Kennedy Jr.., a vaccine skeptic and conspirator, to lead America’s largest public health agency on Thursday, drawing new groans from a Republican Senate caucus already unhappy with facing questions from reporters in the hallway.

It also raises the question of whether Trump will actually resort to recess appointments to impose Gaetz and others — a ploy that could quickly sour his relationship with the Republican caucus and endanger his legislative agenda (as he East).

Ultimately, Gaetz could very well become the sacrificial lamb — Trump’s nominee who ignites while others like Kennedy and Tulsi Gabbard are confirmed. To echo Cramer’s point, the Senate will also have to spend its political capital to oppose Trump’s nominees, lest Republicans risk the wrath of the president-elect or his supporters.