Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) revived his feud with congressman Matt Gaetz (R) on Sunday, accusing the Florida lawmaker of trying to get him to “do something illegal” as speaker.
In an interview with CBS’ ‘Face The Nation’ McCarthy, who was ousted as speaker after Gaetz filed a motion to vacate the chair, gave advice to the current Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who is facing a similar motion to vacate.
“The one advice I would give to the conference and to the speaker is: Do not be fearful of a motion to vacate,” he said. “I do not think they could do it again. That was surely based on Matt Gaetz trying to stop an ethics complaint.”
Asked about his reference to Gaetz, McCarthy said, “it was purely Matt coming to me trying, trying [to get] me to do something illegal to stop the Ethics Committee from moving forward in an investigation that was started long before I became a speaker.”
“Something illegal?” host Margaret Brennan asked.
“I don’t know what the facts are there. It’s a personal issue of what he’d done as a member of Congress. I simply would say the Ethics Committee has the right to look at whatever they’re going forward and I’m not going to get in the middle of it one way or another,” McCarthy said.
Gaetz was under investigation by the Department of Justice for alleged sex trafficking. But the DOJ ended their probe into the Florida congressman last year without bringing any charges.
There is an ongoing House Ethics Committee probe into allegations of sexual misconduct against Gaetz that was opened in 2021.
The investigation was suspended amid the federal probe of Gaetz, but was reopened some time during McCarthy’s short tenure as speaker.
The former speaker told NBC News on Sunday that he found out the probe reopened during a conversation in the speaker’s office with another lawmaker in 2023.
Gaetz has reportedly told colleagues that he led the effort to remove McCarthy as speaker as payback for the Ethics probe.
