'Gaetz doesn't go quietly anywhere': CNN panelists say ex-rep could make a defiant return

A Republican strategist wondered aloud on CNN on Thursday night if Capitol Hill may not have seen the last of embattled former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL).

Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump's first nominee for attorney general, resigned from Congress on Nov. 14, days ahead of an expected House Ethics Committee vote on whether to release a report into the panel's investigation into allegations against him, including sexual misconduct with a minor, drug use, campaign finance violations and accepting improper gifts.

Gaetz has vehemently denied all allegations against him and pointed to the Justice Department's decision not to press charges as proof of his innocence.

But on Thursday night, Scott Jennings, who served as an aide to former President George W. Bush, suggested the Gaetz saga may not be over.

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"I still am wondering if he's not entitled to show up and be sworn into the House in January," said Jennings.

He noted that Gaetz resigned from the current Congress, and said he wouldn't take the oath of office for the 119th Congress.

"But he was duly elected by the people of Florida for this next term. I mean he could technically show up I think and be sworn in in January," said Jennings.

When anchor Erin Burnett questioned whether that would mean the House Ethics panel's report would then come out, Jennings remarked that news "is already coming out."

"He's already suffered through, potentially, the worst of it," said Jennings. "I agree, I don't think we've seen the end of Matt Gaetz. I think there's a couple of different paths he could take here. I just don't know which one it's going to be."

David Axelrod, a former Obama adviser, told the panel the notion of a Gaetz return is not "inconceivable."

"You asked would Matt Gaetz go quietly into the night," he said. "Matt Gaetz doesn't go quietly anywhere," he said.

"Gaetz could probably run in his district again and still win," Axelrod said.

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