Kevin McCarthy delivers scathing rebuke of Gaetz ethics probe: 'He slept with a 17-year-old'

10 April 2024

Were it not for Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida), it's entirely possible that former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California) would still be House speaker.

McCarthy was ousted from that position in October 2023 after Gaetz triggered a "motion to vacate" — a tool that six months later, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) is threatening to use against Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana).

McCarthy and his allies still resent Gaetz for that "motion to vacate." During an April 9 speech at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., the California Republican told attendees he is no longer speaker because "one person wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old." But McCarthy later added, "Did he do it? I don't know."

McCarthy was referring to the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) sex trafficking investigation of Gaetz, which was dropped in February 2023. The DOJ probed allegations that the far-right MAGA Republican paid for sex and had sex with an under-age girl — allegations that Gaetz, who was never charged with anything, has vehemently denied.

Politico's Ben Jacobs reports, "Although McCarthy has long blamed the Florida Republican for his loss of the gavel, telling CBS' 'Face The Nation' in March that he lost the position because of 'Matt Gaetz trying to stop an ethics complaint,' the former speaker had never gone so far in publicly berating his former colleague."

Gaetz, however, has maintained that triggering the "motion to vacate" was strictly policy-motivated — not motivated by a desire to get back at McCarthy for not supporting him during the DOJ's sex trafficking probe.

The Floridian told Politico, "Kevin is a liar, which actually, is why he isn't speaker. Just ask any of the 224 people who voted to remove him."

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