House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) barely made it back to his leadership position last January, as conservatives took exception to his leadership and held up the votes until McCarthy agreed to some terms.
One of those who was not happy with McCarthy’s leadership was Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). Goetz has been loudly voicing frustration at the Speaker for not following through on promises made during the speaker’s race.
Tensions between McCarthy and Gaetz were on the rise over the August recess, with the Florida Republican warning the Speaker that he could lose his gavel if he stood in the way of Gaetz’s efforts to force votes on impeachment.
The war between the two legislators culminated with a fiery floor speech on Tuesday when Gaetz sent a clear warning to McCarthy — even after the Speaker launched an impeachment inquiry into Biden without holding a formal vote.
The Hill reported that the Florida Republican dubbed the inquiry a “baby step.”
“I rise today to serve notice: Mr. Speaker, you are out of compliance with the agreement that allowed you to assume this role,” Gaetz said in his floor speech. “The path forward for the House of Representatives is to either bring you into immediate, total compliance or remove you pursuant to a motion to vacate the chair.”
Upping the pressure another notch, a coalition of conservatives on Wednesday blocked an effort to advance legislation funding the Pentagon over demands for deeper spending cuts — amid increased conversations over potentially ousting the Speaker.
The tension was evident the next morning.
“If you want to file a motion to vacate, then file the f‑‑‑ing motion,” McCarthy said during a closed-door GOP conference meeting on Thursday, according to Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.).
The California Republican acknowledged he had displayed “frustration” during the meeting, saying after the gathering that he was “frustrated with some people in the conference” after the Pentagon appropriations bill tanked.
Gaetz responded by saying McCarthy should better handle his emotions.
“Instead of emotionally cursing, maybe the Speaker should just keep his word from January on balanced budgets, term limits and single-subject spending bills,” Gaetz told The Hill.
Gaetz on Thursday took the feud a step further, giving McCarthy a nickname on X: “McFailure.”
The Hill noted via Yahoo News:
Departing Washington on Thursday — with just eight legislative days left before the funding deadline — Gaetz pointed to the Speaker’s race as the foundation for his clash with McCarthy.
“I’ll tell you how I got there,” Gaetz said when asked how the feud came to the fore this week. “You know, during the August work period, I spent time with Americans from Florida to Arizona to California, and I got a common question: ‘Has the deal you made with McCarthy been followed through, or are you going to do anything about it?’”
“And, you know, I feel compelled to hold him to comply with the deal we made in January,” he added.
Asked if there were any ongoing efforts to negotiate between just the two men, Gaetz claimed McCarthy “never calls, he never writes.”
“There’s not much to negotiate. We did the negotiation in January,” the Florida Republican added. “We’re not going to pay twice for the same hostage. We want full compliance with the deal we made in January.”
McCarthy, for his part, has said Gaetz is taking him on for personal reasons, claiming that the Florida Republican thinks the Speaker is meddling in his Ethics Committee investigation.
The House Ethics Committee opened a probe into Gaetz in 2021 on a list of allegations, but rather than continue the investigation, the panel eventually deferred its investigation to the Department of Justice (DOJ) per their request, as the congressman was under investigation for alleged sex-trafficking.
The wide ranging charges proved non-based, as Gaetz’s office announced in February that the DOJ had concluded its probe and decided not to charge him. But the House committee for some reason chose to reinstate the investigation even though Goetz was cleared.
In June, Punchbowl News reported that the Ethics Committee restarted its investigation into Gaetz, and one month later, CNN and ABC News said the panel was contacting witnesses for the probe.
Gaetz has not publicly accused McCarthy of playing a role in his Ethics Committee investigation. The Speaker, however, thinks that is the source of his conservative colleague’s frustration and not how the appropriations and egislative processes are being handled. Goetz has denied such, but the fact that the investigation is being moved forward in the House hints at House desires to charge Goetz.
I am the most investigated man in the entire Congress, and right there you saw Kevin McCarthy lying like a dead dog because I have never asked him to interfere in any Ethics matter,” Gaetz said on MSNBC’s “The Beat with Ari Melber” on Wednesday.
The post Full Ugly Hell Breaks Loose Between Gaetz And McCarthy Over The Weekend appeared first on The Republic Brief.
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