The ever-evolving feud between former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz continued on Sunday as dueling stories emerged about an alleged offer centering on an House Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz.
Speaking to CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday morning, McCarthy referenced a motion filed last week by Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene aimed removing House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
McCarthy, who was voted out of the speakership in October after Gaetz filed a similar motion, gave advice to the Republican conference — and dinged Gaetz.
“The one advice I would give to the conference and to the speaker is: Do not be fearful of a motion to vacate,” McCarthy said Sunday. “I do not think they could do it again. That was surely based on Matt Gaetz trying to stop an ethics complaint.”
Pressed about his reference to Gaetz, McCarthy elaborated, saying, “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.”
A fateful conversation on the floor
Reached by phone on Sunday afternoon, South Carolina GOP Rep. Ralph Norman disputed McCarthy’s version of events. His assessment was based on a conversation he witnessed — but didn’t hear — on the House floor between McCarthy and Gaetz that he found unusual because “they weren’t friendly.”
Norman told NBC News that when Gaetz returned to sit near him after that conversation with McCarthy, he asked about their conversation and Gaetz told him that McCarthy had asked, “‘Do you want this to go away?’ or something like that.”
Norman added that Gaetz said he didn’t entertain the notion of an alleged offer in that conversation, and he said that McCarthy didn’t have the chance to ask for something in return for making the ethics investigation “go away.”
“I don’t think it even got that far,” Norman said. “The…
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