U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) seen by some as the leader of the “Never Kevin” McCarthy movement to keep the House GOP Leader from being elected Speaker, dug his heels in once again Wednesday morning, this time directly defying his party’s leader, Donald Trump.
“Sad!” Gaetz said Wednesday, according to Fox News. “This changes neither my view of McCarthy nor Trump nor my vote.”
Trump barely hours earlier had urged all House Republicans to hand McCarthy the Speaker’s gavel, after an embarrassing Tuesday that ended with three votes, and none with a majority for the embattled and disliked California Republican.
It is the first time in a century that a Speaker was not elected on the first vote.
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Gaetz, who shares a home state with the twice-impeached one-term ex-president, went even further after the Fox News report was published.
“Supporting McCarthy is the worst Human Resources decision President Trump has ever made,” Gaetz tweeted atop the Fox News report.
“Sad!” he added again, appearing to mock Trump.
Conservative CNN commentator Scott Jennings Wednesday morning noted just how impotent Trump and McCarthy appear.
Jennings tweeted that “if the 20” House Republicans who voted against McCarthy on Tuesday “remain intransigent it signals a further (massive) erosion of influence snowballing since the Nov election.”
“If even the Trumpiest members won’t listen to him (and there’s no consequences for defiance), why should anyone else be scared?”
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