McCarthy claimed that Gaetz’s motion to oust him from the speakership was motivated by a personal matter.
NEWSWEEK
On Sunday, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy accused Representative Matt Gaetz of trying to get him “to do something illegal,” which he further claimed led to the motion to oust him from his speakership role last year.
McCarthy, a California Republican, served as speaker of the House from January to October of 2023, presiding over a razor-thin GOP majority and a caucus bitterly divided between more moderate members and those further to the right. Following a deal with Democratic members to get a temporary government funding bill passed, Gaetz, a Florida Republican, filed a motion to oust McCarthy from the speakership, leading to the first ouster of a sitting speaker by a floor vote during a session of Congress.
A similar motion to oust the current GOP speaker, Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana, was just filed by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, though she has characterized it as more of a warning after the passage of a $1.2 trillion government funding bill that she did not support.
During a Sunday appearance on CBS News’ Face the Nation, McCarthy was pressed on the potential similarities between this motion and the one from Gaetz that removed him from the office. The congressman argued that, based on his experiences with her, Greene’s disagreements might boil down to policy matters that can be discussed. The motion against him from Gaetz, however, he blamed on a personal matter and accused Gaetz of trying to get him to illegally shut down an ethics committee investigation.
