Welcome to the NewsHour. Former Florida Congressman Matt Gates has withdrawn from the running as Donald Trump's pick for Attorney General. Sexual misconduct allegations against Gates fueled intense scrutiny, threatening his chances to be confirmed. Today, in a statement on social media, Gates wrote, quote, while the momentum was strong, it's clear that my confirmation was

unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump-Vance transition. Yesterday,

the House Ethics Committee deadlocked on a decision to release a report of a lengthy investigation

into the allegations against Gates. He abruptly resigned from his role in Congress last week following Mr. Trump's nomination.

Our Laura Barone Lopez joins us now for more.

So Laura, tell us why do we know, what do we know, about why Gates stepped aside?

Sources that I talked to today close to the transition said that Matt Gates simply did not have the votes.

And the more and more that came out, the details

that came out about these sexual assault allegations, sexual abuse allegations, it made his

pathway harder, Omna. And the timing of the announcement is notable because Matt Gates announced

this. A day after meeting with senators on the hill, he was joined by Vice President-elect J.D. Vance.

And he can only lose, he could have only lost three votes in the Senate.

And Gates never requested a meeting with some of the senators who were most likely to oppose him,

like Senator Susan Collins, of Maine.

But ultimately, it appeared as though he didn't

have the support at all. And in a post on truth social, President-elect Trump thanked Gates

for trying to get the Senate approval and said that Gates was doing very well, but at the same

time did not want to be a distraction for the administration, for which he has much respect. Now, that distraction

that the president-elect, as well as Gates, have talked about, is sexual misconduct allegations

that also the House Ethics Committee was investigating. And as a reminder, Omna, two women

testified to the House Ethics Committee investigators that Gates paid them for sex on multiple occasions,

beginning in 2017 while he was a congressman, and one of the women testified that she saw Gates having sex with a 17-year-old at a party.

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