Numerous House Republican legislators, including former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), reportedly expressed strong disagreement and frustration toward Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) during a private GOP conference meeting aimed at deliberating the best approach to select a new Speaker, as per reports.
Axios Capitol Hill reporter Juliegrace Brufke noted on the X platform on Thursday, “Per a source in the room, McCarthy screamed at Matt Gaetz to sit down when he went to the mics, with the source saying Rep. Bost ‘almost lunging at him.’” Rep. Mike Bost is a GOP lawmaker from Illinois.
“McCarthy advocated for empowering McHenry while Jordan stayed on as speaker designee, per two sources,” she added.
Per a source in the room, McCarthy screamed at Matt Gaetz to sit down when he went to the mics, with the source saying Rep. Bost “almost lunging at him.”
— Juliegrace Brufke (@juliegraceb) October 19, 2023
Subsequently, both McCarthy and Gaetz seemed to acknowledge the incident when speaking with reporters.
In reply to an inquiry from an MSNBC journalist about the atmosphere in the GOP conference meeting, Gaetz stated that, as an attorney by profession, he approaches his arguments in a composed and unemotional manner.
“I’m not for everyone, as it turns out, and I have my detractors, but I’m an attorney by trade,” he began. “I don’t get emotional about the presentation of arguments, listening to other people’s arguments, that doesn’t affect how I think about people.
“I was there to make the substantive argument that ‘Speaker light’ is a bad idea, just like Bud Light,” he continued. “I prefer for us to continue having votes, going forward, and you know, when I held out with Speaker McCarthy, we had goals. We had specific things we were fighting for. I think a reasonable question to those holding out and not voting for [Rep. Jim] Jordan [R-Ohio] is, ‘What are you fighting for? What are your goals? What are your objectives other than just recalcitrance?’”
McCarthy also confirmed the incident but was less charitable with his explanation.
“I was at the mic, I was speaking, and Matt Gaetz tried to interrupt essentially, and I told him to sit down, and he sat down,” the California Republican began.
When asked whether he “screamed” at the Gaetz, McCarthy said, “I think the entire conference screamed at him.”
“Listen, the whole country, I think, would scream at Matt Gaetz right now,” he added. “Remember that the Crazy 8’s under the leadership of Matt Gaetz and every single Democrat were responsible for getting us into this situation. We’ve never been in this situation before. But how do you have 4 percent of your conference remove a Speaker when 96 percent are there? This is why we’re here. He had no plan afterwards.”
“It’s a difficult situation driven by one person for his own personal beliefs, his own animosity towards me, and his concern about what’s inside an ethics complaint that was filed before I was even Speaker,” McCarthy added.
