Matt Gaetz Lists The Five Votes He Claims Will Stop Kevin McCarthy From Becoming Speaker
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) doubled down Tuesday on his vow to keep Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from becoming speaker of the house when the GOP retakes the majority in the next Congress.
Gaetz appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast on Tuesday and told Bannon he has the “critical mass” to deny McCarthy the speakership given the slim GOP majority. Gaetz made similar comments to Charlie Kirk last week, ahead of the GOP leadership vote, which McCarthy won.
“To catch everyone up, last week there were 36 votes against Kevin McCarthy in the Republican conference, and again, Kevin has had years to try to convince people of the worth of his candidacy. Since that time, zero of those 36 have come out to say, ‘You know what, I voted against McCarthy previously, but I’m now prepared to vote for him on the floor. Zero,’” Gaetz said, noting the opposition McCarthy faced in the leadership vote last week.
“Meanwhile, five members, which include myself, Andy Biggs, Bob Good, Matt Rosendale, and now most recently Ralph Norman, have all come out and said that our ‘no’ vote on McCarthy is firm. It was not just a no vote within the Republican conference. It is a ‘no’ vote we intend to carry to the floor,” Gaetz added, listing the votes he believes will tank McCarthy.
“The reason that’s significant is because Republicans are expected to hold a four-seat majority. So five of us saying publicly we have no intention of voting for McCarthy—we are firm in our opposition to him—well, that ought to trigger a realization among Republicans that we need a consensus candidate,” Gaetz continued, adding:
We need someone who is more broadly respected throughout the Republican conference, and we need someone who believes in a bottom-up, membership-empowered House of Representatives.
Bannon then asked Gaetz to respond to moves from GOP House members, including McCarthy, vowing a slate of investigations into the Biden administration and Hunter Biden. Bannon specifically asked if McCarthy made “too late a conversion?”
“It’s interesting to see McCarthy going around talking about all the subpoenas he wants to issue, because when he was in the majority last, when he was the majority leader last, he did not utter one word in support of subpoenas that Jim Jordan and, at the time, Ron DeSantis and Mark Meadows and I were calling for on the House Judiciary Committee. So Kevin McCarthy will revert to his establishment mean the moment he gets power, and that’s why there are enough of us now, a critical mass, standing as a bulwark against his ascension to the speakership,” Gaetz replied.
Watch the full clip above
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
