Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is clearly still very agitated by the fact that he was removed as Speaker of the House.
He now appears very focused on exacting some revenge on the man who led the effort to have him removed… Rep. Matthew Gaetz (R-FL).
When Paul Ryan retired from the House, McCarthy was installed as the leader of the GOP House Caucus.
McCarthy has been a phenomenal fundraiser for the party, and it was clear from the outset that he wanted that gavel in his hand.
However, the transition that took place at that time started to weaken the GOP with each election.
They lost the House in 2018, they lost the Senate in 2020, and even though they got the House back in 2022, the majority was razor-thin, and now it is clearly at risk as the House has stumbled through this term.
McCarthy was on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” to discuss the expulsion of Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), which I cite as one of GOP leadership’s major failures during McCarthy’s reign.
McCarthy refused to take action against Santos when it was clear he misled voters with a completely fabricated resume, which has led us to this debacle of having a sitting member of Congress facing expulsion with 23 federal indictments against him.
However, he also dropped a bit of a bombshell about Rep. Gaetz, saying that he expects Gaetz to be expelled as well.
McCarthy stated:
“I think once that Ethics complaint comes forward, he could have the same problem as Santos has.
“I think the conference would be probably better united to be able to move forward and get this all done.”
Gaetz has had several investigations launched against him, always coming away clean.
There was a federal investigation against Gaetz for an alleged relationship with a teenage woman, but no charges were filed.
Gaetz was also under investigation for allegedly using campaign funds to cover legal bills, which, ironically, Trump has been doing with all of his campaign funds for the lawsuits and indictments against him.
But, again, the FEC cleared Gaetz in the investigation, so I am not really sure what McCarthy expects to drop against Gaetz via the Ethics Committee that would be enough to have him expelled.
I can tell you this, however… If Gaetz does get expelled, it will light the caucus on fire, as this would clearly be a revenge-motivated move with McCarthy using his influence to remove Gaetz for having him ousted as Speaker.
I believe they all need to bury the hatchet and get back to work because right now, all this infighting is doing nothing more than providing material for Democrat attack ads against Republicans in the 2024 cycle.
One other important note is that Trump supports both Gaetz and McCarthy, so why is he not intervening to get them to settle this beef privately instead of airing all this dirty laundry in public?
