Gaetz Escalates Feud With ‘Misogynist’ McCarthy: ‘Reckless and Unhinged and Rattled’
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) re-upped his attacks on Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and accused him of being misogynistic toward a member of the Republican conference.
Appearing on Tuesday’s episode of The Balance on Newsmax, Gaetz discussed ongoing negotiations among House Republicans, who are having a whale of a time trying to come up with spending legislation that will fund the government beyond Sept. 30. If Congress and the White House cannot come to an agreement, the federal government will shut down.
Gaetz has been a fierce critic of congressional reliance on continuing resolutions to fund the entire government. Instead, he wants Congress to pass multiple single-subject funding bills.
Amid the negotiations, Gaetz has feuded with McCarthy and accused the speaker of breaching the terms of an agreement the two made in January, whereby Gaetz dropped his opposition to McCarthy’s speakership bid in exchange for single-subject funding bills, among other pledges.
Newsmax host Eric Bolling showed Gaetz a clip of McCarthy alleging that Gaetz asked him to quash an Ethics Committee investigation into him.
“Tell us what’s going on with you and McCarthy,” he said.
“Well, in that particular clip, Kevin was lying,” Gaetz said. “There’s no other way to put it. I have never asked Kevin McCarthy or anyone else to interfere in an ethics matter… So, this is just Kevin deflecting from his own failures.”
Gaetz then called the speaker “unhinged” before accusing him of misogyny:
It’s not an Ethics Committee matter that led us to be here without our appropriations bills passed. And this is also a pattern, Eric, because when I was critical of Kevin’s leadership, “Oh, I’m just an ethically challenged congressman.”
But then, when Victoria Spartz, a congresswoman from Indiana came forward and said, “No, I agree with Matt Gaetz that it’s Kevin McCarthy, who failed us.” Well, then he said, “Well, she’s just a quitter.”
Now, this is a woman who said that she was gonna be returning to her family because they needed her and Kevin called her a quitter. Meanwhile when a man in Congress actually left in the middle of his term – Chris Stewart – Kevin McCarthy didn’t call him a quitter. So he’s been reckless and unhinged and rattled and misogynist in how he’s attacked those who are making a substantive argument.
Bolling asked Gaetz if he wants McCarthy’s job.
“No,” he said. “I have no interest in running for speaker. I just want the Congress to do its actual work. I think there are other people that have better leadership skills than I do. I don’t want to man the wheel, but when necessary. I know how to be the rudder to help guide this thing and to keep us on course.”
Watch above via Newsmax.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
