Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) accused the former congressman. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) lied to President-elect Trump about a previously unreleased ethics report on Trump compiled by the House Ethics Committee.
“No one thought that [the nomination] It will pass,” McCarthy said on Fox News Sunday. “I condemn Matt Gaetz for lying to the president about the ethics report. The people know that. That's why he filed the motion against me. The people know .”
For months, Mr. McCarthy has accused Mr. Gates of leading the effort to oust him as chairman in October 2023 after Mr. McCarthy refused to stop an ethics investigation into Mr. Gates. Mr. Gates accused Mr. McCarthy of not doing enough to advance conservative priorities such as spending cuts.
In the months that followed, the two sparred frequently in public comment. Since Gates left Congress, the ethics report remains secret, but some of the evidence and testimony allegedly kept by the committee has been leaked. Lawyers for the two women told the panel that they saw Gates “having sex with a minor” at the party.
Mr. McCarthy suggested last week that the former Florida congressman may have wanted an excuse to resign from Congress when he accepted Mr. Trump's short-lived attorney general nomination. A week later, Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration amid signs that he would not be approved by the Senate.
Mr. McCarthy repeated that comment on Fox News Sunday.
“That's why he can't stay in Congress. The ethics report is due in the next few days, so he needed an excuse to resign,” he said. “And that's unfortunate. But today's Congress is better as they move forward.”
Last month, conservative hardliners struck a tentative deal with House Republicans that would raise the threshold for a forced vote to remove the speaker in exchange for concessions on rule changes. This would further protect House Speaker Mike Johnson from “motions to resign” such as: The person who ousted McCarthy.
But Mr. Johnson will be working with a very small number of supporters, especially with several Republican House members who are expected to jump ship to the Trump administration early next year.
