BREAKING: Matt Gaetz says he may run for Florida Senate seat

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz told a Turning Point USA conference in Phoenix Sunday that he might run for Sen. Marco Rubio’s vacated Senate seat in Florida.

“We have been asked which perch I will be fighting from next, and some of you throughout this conference have even given me a few suggestions,” Gaetz began, noting that people have mentioned running for governor of Florida or perhaps being a “special counsel to go after the insider trading for my former colleagues in Congress.”

“It seems I may not have had enough support in the United States Senate,” Gaetz said, referring to opposition in the upper chamber for his nomination as attorney general. “Maybe I'll just run for Marco Rubio's vacant seat in the United States Senate. Enjoyed some of those folks, and my friend Steve Bannon and others have suggested that I return to the House of Representatives on Jan. 3, but I would remind Steve when he got out of prison, he didn't punch a guard on the way out,” Gaetz said.

“For the moment, I'll enjoy being one of you. It was [President] James Madison who said that the most powerful position in America would not be congressman or senator or even president, but that of citizen because we put such an obligation on the citizenry to ignite the patriotism that the country needs."