Fox News Anchor Puts the Screws to Matt Gaetz Following McCarthy Circus: ‘Do You Consider Yourself a Serious Legislator?’

A Fox News anchor pressed Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on his months-long crusade to keep Kevin McCarthy from becoming Speaker of the House, and his late Friday capitulation which ultimately handed McCarthy the job.

In an interview on Fox News Live Sunday, Fox anchor Mike Emanuel quizzed Gaetz on the givebacks McCarthy made to land the Speakership.

“You were quoted as saying the construct of these rules concessions functionally turn the speakership into a ceremonial position,” Emanuel said. “Do you mean that?”

“Speaker McCarthy is our speaker and long live the Speaker,” Gaetz said — in a comment that seemed unfathomable coming from him as recently as 48 hours ago. “I look forward to working closely with him. But he did agree to his great credit to democratize power to the membership.”

Emanuel questioned Gaetz about whether his plan to make the Speaker less powerful was wise.

“What about the concern that this delayed process weakened him?” Emanuel said, referring to McCarthy. “And to recap, we’ve got a Democrat in the White House. We’ve got Democrats running the United States Senate. Don’t you need him to be as strong as possible?”

“I don’t really get the critique that taking from Tuesday to Friday to work this out puts the Republican majority in peril,” Gaetz replied. “I mean, you know, Mike, that in the summer, the entire Congress takes like six weeks off where we’re not even around at all. So to take four days to figure out who’s going to be second in line to the presidency and to ensure that we have a House of Representatives that is a fighting force going to check the Biden administration? Absolutely worth it.”

The Fox News anchor then asked Gaetz about whether his opposition to McCarthy was all about trolling for attention and campaign cash.

“You’ve taken some praise from people who like the fight that you led this week,” Emanuel said. “You’ve also taken some criticism, some people saying this is about fundraising, this is about more media appearances. Do you consider yourself a serious legislator?”

“Absolutely,” Gaetz replied. He added, “I’m someone who appears on your network and others more than any other member of Congress. So it’s an odd criticism to say that I’m doing this for media hits when I do a lot of those anyway.”

Watch above, via Fox News.