Sex Trafficking Row Helped Fuel Gaetz’s Hatred for McCarthy
Kevin McCarthy This was Three people with knowledge of the situation informed him that he was well aware that he would lose his bid to be Speaker of House of Representatives. Rolling Stone. He didn’t know that the beatings would go on for a whole week, something he wasn’t privately anticipating. “He knew he was going to get fucked — he just didn’t know they were going to fuck him this many times, or this hard,” explained one congressional aide.
McCarthy’s major factors are losing over a dozen speakership ballotsPeople familiar with the matter claim that the severity of Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz’s enmity toward the Republican leader. Gaetz’s intense and personal distaste for McCarthy has been an open secret in Washington political circles for years, so much so that Gaetz and McCarthy’s colleagues would argue it isn’t even a “secret” at all.
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But Gaetz’s hatred curdled into something even more powerful after it was revealed in early 2021 that the MAGA congressman was the target of a federal investigation into the sex trafficking of a minor. McCarthy, in Gaetz’s opinion, failed to mount a forceful enough defense on his behalf. According to two sources familiar with the matter, Gaetz has been furious at McCarthy for the perceived lack of support ever since — despite the fact that McCarthy did not strip him of any committee assignments during the probe.
As for the original source of Rep. Gaetz’s acute loathing of McCarthy, that is less clear. Rolling Stone We reached out to members and sources on Capitol Hill as well as activists in conservative groups to find the root cause. All of them knew Gaetz was a hateful House GOP leader. According to one Republican, McCarthy and Gaetz both know McCarthy. He said that McCarthy once asked McCarthy why Gaetz disliked him so strongly. This source recalls McCarthy answering: “I don’t know.”
Gaetz’s animosity toward McCarthy was on full display throughout the week, as he stood to deliver nominating speeches on behalf of both Jim Jordan and Donald Trump. “Maybe the right person for the Speaker of the House isn’t someone who wants it so bad,” Gaetz said when nominating Jordan. “Maybe the right person for Speaker of the House isn’t someone who has sold shares of themself for more than a decade to get it.”
“We have to restore to the Speaker’s Office the actual person who ought to be in the Speaker’s Office, not the Squatter who is currently there,” he later added while nominating Trump. “And if the Architect of the Capitol is listening — I sent a letter, and I would like to know what the basis is to allow someone to occupy the Speaker’s office who comes in second place ten straight times? Is there, like, some basis in law or rule or precedent for that?”
Both men Gaetz nominated were trying to win McCarthy’s support. Jim Jordan nominated McCarthy in a forceful floor speech. Trump made his nomination in the meantime. public call on Truth Social for Republicans to back McCarthy. Two sources have confirmed that the ex-president and his son Donald Trump Jr. made calls to Congressmen in recent days in support of McCarthy. The former president’s recent whipping for McCarthy was described by one person with direct knowledge of one of the calls as “lackadaisical.”
Asked to comment on reports that he personally despises McCarthy — and that his loathing was intensified by McCarthy’s failure to aggressively stand up for him during the sex-crimes probe — Gaetz’s office did not deny it. They instead pointed out Rolling Stone to a TV interview on Thursday in which the congressman said he would not vote for McCarthy “under almost any circumstance,” while insisting his motivation was principled, not personal.
“Kevin McCarthy is the masthead of the lobby core,” Gaetz told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham when asked point-blank if his grudge against McCarthy was personal. “I resent the extent to which Kevin McCarthy utilizes the lobbyists and the special interests to be able to dictate how political decisions are made, how policy decisions are made, and how leadership decisions are made. Kevin McCarthy has been in the top leadership position for 14 years. He has sold shares of his own to special interest groups and to political action boards. And so that’s why I don’t think he is an appropriate choice.”
McCarthy’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
By midday Friday, it became clear that McCarthy’s opponents with less intense feelings toward him were ready to accept his concessions, give in to the McC-mentum, and allow the House to begin its business. 14 of them changed their votes to McCarthy during the 12th vote, while Andy Harris resigned during the 14. McCarthy boasted that he would be able to win the speakership on Friday night. Gaetz appeared to also acknowledge the inevitable. “I think the House is in a lot better place with some of the work that’s been done to democratize power out of the speakership,” he said. “And that’s our goal.”
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