Republican Florida House Rep. Matt Gaetz made it clear on Monday that he does not support California Rep. Kevin McCarthy as the next Speaker of the House following last week’s miserable midterms.
Gaetz took to Twitter to rip McCarthy with a list of lowlights.
Kevin McCarthy:
Defended Liz Cheney when @jdanbishop first sought her ouster
Told GOP Leadership Trump should resign after J6
Kevin is FLIGHT over FIGHT when the chips are down
He is not a Speaker for these times
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) November 11, 2022
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A few days later, Gaetz told conservative commentator Charlie Kirk “there is “a critical mass of people” in the GOP who agree with him and will ensure McCarthy won’t win again. Gaetz, however, was tight-lipped when asked about who these people are.
“Well, I think that they would be the people that reliably adhere to the promises that they make to their voters. I’m not here to like out or dox anybody. I’ll let people make their own announcements in their own time.”
According to Gaetz, this critical mass only needs five republican house representatives to refuse to vote for McCarthy. At that point, further persistence from McCarthy would be risking the House Majority and, thus, political suicide.
Gaetz framed the decision as little more than a hurdle.
“And so the sooner we can sort of dispense with the notion that Kevin is going to be speaker, then we can get to the important work of actually looking at who are the people that Brian Fitzpatrick and Matt Gaetz can agree on.”
Matt Gaetz says Kevin McCarthy will not be Speaker and he will vote against him. pic.twitter.com/Pvraq1tazv
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) November 14, 2022
Gaetz made similar comments earlier that same day with MAGA ally and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on his own podcast. Greene has also come out as part of the “critical mass” seeking to oust McCarthy.
Marge is worried that challenges to McCarthy from Biggs, Gaetz & others might cause a few Republicans to team up with Democrats to vote against their Speaker choice: “Politics is a blood sport. We have to do anything we can to stop our enemy. And the enemy is the Democrat Party.” pic.twitter.com/mJINsIBkEe
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) November 14, 2022
Besides the recent national Red Mirage, Gaetz took McCarthy behind the woodshed on a policy level, saying many of his preferred ideas “offend federalism.”
“His Commitment to America is predicated on the notion of using federal tax dollars to go hire 200,000 more cops. You know what? In my community, we hire our own cops and pay for them out of our own tax funds. And so if in Detroit, they want to go defund the police, I don’t think the Floridians should have to pay for it.”
Arizona Representative Andy Biggs, who shares the House Freedom caucus with Greene, looks to be a promising candidate for replacing McCarthy. Gaetz argued that while McCarthy is an incredible fundraiser, he’s not a true leader for the GOP.
“I have spoken with many Republicans in Congress and many who will join our ranks soon. None are actually inspired by Kevin McCarthy, though many feel financially beholden to him because he is the LeBron James of special interest fundraising in this last cycle. Kevin McCarthy, his team, they raised half a billion dollars in campaign money. That buys a lot of friends. Or at a minimum, rents them.”
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