Speaker Kevin McCarthy hammered fellow Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz on Wednesday over the Florida GOP congressman’s threat to oust him, further exposing the deepening divide among House Republicans, many of whom had forced unprecedented concessions from their leader before allowing him to take the gavel after 15 votes back in January.
CNN’s Manu Raju reported McCarthy “took a swipe at Gaetz,” and said he was “working with Democrats.”
“Matt is working with Eric Swalwell, but let me be very clear. Matt is upset about an ethics complaint,” McCarthy told reporters. “I don’t care what they threaten against me. I am not going to interject into an independent committee like Ethics, and I’m not going to put Swalwell back on the Intel Committee, so they can do whatever they want.”
McCarthy approved to be referring to the recently revived House Ethics Committee investigation into Congressman Gaetz, which is seeking to determine if he had an unlawful “sexual relationship” with a 17-year old girl, unlawfully used drugs, or engaged in other illegal acts.
On Tuesday in a House speech Rep. Gaetz, one of the original and longest holdouts on McCarthy’s vote to become Speaker, declared: “I rise today to serve notice − Mr. Speaker you are out of compliance with the agreement that allowed you to assume this role.”
USA Today reported that “Gaetz cited several reasons for his threats, including McCarthy not holding votes on issues like term limits for lawmakers or balanced budgets. He also criticized McCarthy for not releasing the full security tapes from the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.”
“Gaetz on Tuesday denounced McCarthy for what the Florida lawmaker called insufficient accountability for President Joe Biden’s family and the lack of subpoenas filed against Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.”
Watch McCarthy below or at this link.
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