Former Republican Speaker Says He Wants Nancy Mace ‘To Get the Help She Needs’

 

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) deemed Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) one of the “least ethical” and “least respected” members of Congress, and added that he wants her to get help.

McCarthy appeared on Monday’s Jesse Watters Primetime on Fox News, where he mocked the future of the Democratic Party and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who is running for governor of California.

“When I became speaker, I tried to raise the bar in Congress,” McCarthy said before referencing Swalwell’s relationship with a suspected Chinese spy. “It’s not a high bar, but the first thing I did was remove Swalwell from the Intel committee. If you get top-secret knowledge, the very least is, you can’t sleep with a Chinese spy.”

McCarthy went on to say he hopes Swalwell ultimately leaves Congress, prompting this exchange with Jesse Watters, in which the ex-speaker said he wants Mace to seek help:

MCCARTHY: I can only hope the Democrats nominate him because every time in Congress we would vote on a bipartisan basis who was the least ethical, who was the least respected, it was always a tie between Swalwell and Nancy Mace. And I just don’t see these people leading anywhere.

WATTERS: Oh my gosh. You hate Nancy Mace.

MCCARTHY: No, no, I don’t. I want her to get the help she needs. I just don’t want to put her in a position that she makes decisions.

Mace was one of the eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy as speaker in 2023. McCarthy subsequently worked to oust Mace by backing a Republican primary challenge against her, which fell short.

Shortly after McCarthy’s ouster, The Daily Beast published parts of Mace’s handbook for her congressional staff, who “needed to book Mace on a national TV outlet between one and three times per day — a staggering nine times per week, at a minimum, according to former staffers who had seen past handbooks — and on local TV channels at least six times per week.”

Watch above via Fox News.

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Mike is a Mediaite senior editor who covers the news in primetime. Follow him on Bluesky.