Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy blasted President-elect Trump’s decision to appoint his political nemesis and MAGA agitator Matt Gaetz as attorney general, arguing that his confirmation will not happen.
Gaetz led the charge to oust McCarthy as chairman last year, so it’s no surprise that McCarthy decried the move, but the former Republican leader didn’t hold back.
‘Gaetz receives no confirmation. Everyone knows that,” McCarthy said in an interview after Wednesday’s announcement sent shockwaves through Capitol Hill.
The former House Speaker laughed when he said Gaetz couldn’t win at a Republican conference, so his nomination “doesn’t matter.”
It was the first time McCarthy spoke out about the nomination after Trump made the controversial choice. In addition to Gaetz, he told Bloomberg that the other picks were “very good.”
Kevin McCarthy chatted with Matt Gaetz on the House floor in January 2023. McCarthy claimed in an interview that Gaetz would never be confirmed as attorney general after Trump’s shocking announcement
The openly hostile relationship between McCarthy and Gaetz dates back to when McCarthy worked to secure the support of Republican lawmakers to become the next speaker after Republicans retook the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterm elections.
The conservative Florida congressman and member of the House Freedom Caucus was among the holdouts who did not support McCarthy’s leadership bid.
That fall, Gaetz led the charge by far-right Republicans to oust McCarthy as chairman, in a historic move after less than a year in office.
The move threw the House into chaos before Republican lawmakers could finally choose little-known Congressman Mike Johnson as the next speaker.
At the time, Gaetz trashed McCarthy by cutting a deal with the Democrats to avoid a government shutdown while pushing the speaker out with the motion to leave.
But earlier this year, McCarthy claimed that the real reason for his ouster had to do with Gaetz wanting him to drop an ethics investigation into the congressman.
McCarthy claimed earlier this year that Gaetz really wanted him as chairman last year because he didn’t want to end an ethics investigation into the Florida congressman, who faced a complaint “for sleeping with a 17-year-old.” Gaetz backtracked on the accusation, calling McCarthy a liar.
“I’ll tell you the truth about why I’m not a speaker,” McCarthy said at an event at Georgetown University in April.
“Because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to drop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old, an ethics complaint that started before I ever became president, and that’s illegal, and I’m not going to get it right in the middle of it,” he continued.
McCarthy noted that he did not know if the accusation against Gaetz was true, but said ethics officials were looking into it.
Gaetz has dismissed the accusation and called McCarthy a liar.
The House Ethics Committee investigation was launched in 2021. Gaetz was investigated for sexual misconduct and illegal drug use. But he abruptly resigned from Congress this week after announcing Trump’s nomination.
Democrats and some Republicans are demanding that the investigation results still be released as the Senate considers Gaetz as attorney general.
When asked what happens next with the report, the commission’s lead attorney responded to DailyMail.com with “no comment.”
The Justice Department also investigated Gaetz for child sex trafficking, but no charges were ever filed.
Although McCarthy claimed Gaetz would not be confirmed, he praised some of Trump’s other choices for Cabinet positions.
He pointed to Senator Marco Rubio as Trump’s pick for secretary of state, singling out Congressman Mike Waltz of Florida as his national security adviser and John Radcliffe as CIA director as good choices.
McCarthy said the difference from eight years ago, when Trump was heading into his first term, is that the president-elect understands the job.
“He knows the people he needs around him to get there, and I think he’ll be much better prepared,” McCarthy said. “This time he’ll hit the ground running.”