Kevin McCarthy Adds Fuel to Fiery Feud with 'Crazy 8 Led by Gaetz'
Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy isn’t done with Rep. Matt Gaetz.
McCarthy blamed Gaetz for the House Republicans’ inability to elect a speaker in public remarks at the Capitol on Friday.
“Unfortunately, Jim [Jordan] is no longer going to be the nominee [for speaker].”
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) says party is in a very bad place after GOP votes against Jordan as their nominee: “I’m concerned about where we go from here.” pic.twitter.com/uSNPkwGLej
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 20, 2023
“What history will look at — the crazy eights led by Gaetz. The amount of damage they have done to this party and to this country is insurmountable.”
“I’ve never seen this amount of damage done to just a few people, for their own personalities, for their own fear of what’s going through,” McCarthy continued.
“We are in a very bad position as a party, one that has won the majority, one that America has entrusted us with, that a simple eight people have put us in this place.”
McCarthy was referring to the eight Republicans, including Gaetz, who voted to vacate him from the position of speaker earlier this month.
To call Gaetz and McCarthy intra-Republican rivals would be an understatement.
Gaetz nearly prevented McCarthy from becoming speaker of the House in January before he finally secured a majority of support and the speaker’s gavel, according to The New York Times.
Gaetz later led the charge to remove McCarthy as speaker.
.@SpeakerMcCarthy is going to get his wish. I’m going to file a motion to vacate against him this week.
If at this time next week Kevin McCarthy is still Speaker of the House, it will be because the Democrats bailed him out. He can be their Speaker, not mine. pic.twitter.com/ITlcwynY39
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) October 1, 2023
Gaetz indicated he’d be willing to accept removal from the Republican caucus in order to secure Rep. Jim Jordan’s bid for the speaker’s gavel on Friday.
https://t.co/2GtJGH06aD pic.twitter.com/VIatNMG42w
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) October 20, 2023
In spite of his offer, Jordan bowed out of consideration for the speaker position, leaving House Republicans unmoored without a clear path towards electing a speaker.
The party is expected to hold a candidate forum for the position on Monday, according to CNN.
McCarthy was unsure who would emerge as speaker candidates after Jordan’s candidacy failed.
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