Kevin McCarthy rips into Matt Gaetz for ousting him from speakership out of pure revenge

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R) did not mince words when explaining why he believes Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) led the successful effort to oust him from the speakership role late last year.

“I’ll give you the truth why I’m not speaker,” he bluntly told Georgetown University students on Monday, “It’s because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old, an ethics complaint that started before I ever became speaker, and that’s illegal and I’m not going to get in the middle. Did he do it or not? I don’t know. But ethics is looking at it… and he wanted me to influence it.”

Related:

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s vendetta against Mike Johnson has GOP “dreading” return to the House

She wants to chaotically kick out the Speaker just seven months before the general election.

McCarthy was no doubt referring to Gaetz, who is currently being investigated by the GOP-led House Ethics Committee on a range of issues, including alleged sexual abuse of a 17-year-old girl.

Insights for the LGBTQ+ community

Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more.

Daily

Weekly

Good News

The House Ethics Committee officially started its investigation into Gaetz in July 2023, and Gaetz continues to deny any wrongdoing. Gaetz reportedly told a close friend that he launched a vote to kick McCarthy out as House Speaker last autumn for “individually… reviving the investigation,” The New Republic reported. The Department of Justice concluded its investigation in 2022 due to a lack of credibility of two key witnesses.

In response to McCarthy’s recent comments, Gaetz told Forbes that McCarthy was removed because he was a liar. “Just ask any of the 224 people who voted to remove him,” Gaetz said. Actually, only eight Republicans and 208 Democrats voted to oust McCarthy — 216 people in total.

Gaetz has consistently gotten a score of “0” on HRC’s Congressional Scorecard, showing his solid opposition to LGBTQ+ equality. But he has gone beyond voting against LGBTQ+ equal rights and has been an outspoken opponent of LGBTQ+ people.

He has referred to LGBTQ+ people as “degenerate” at least twice, saying that his school prayer bill will keep LGBTQ+ identities out of schools.  He has attacked the military for allowing transgender people to serve their country. He accused USAID, the federal agency that manages foreign aid and developmental assistance to other countries, of having a “perverse ideology” for supporting LGBTQ+ people. He also got the Air Force to shut down a drag event on a military base after he complained about it.