Rep. Matt Gaetz reveals the former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s covert scheme to discredit other Republican contenders. Gaetz discloses McCarthy’s attempts to stifle Representatives Steve Scalise, Tom Emmer, Mike Johnson, and Jim Jordan until the scheme was uncovered during a meeting behind closed doors.
Gaetz informed Bannon that immediately after Rep. Emmer became the third member to get the Republican conference nomination following McCarthy’s ouster, things escalated. Gaetz then informed Emmer that he would not be able to obtain the votes, which would just cause the procedure to drag on and, “play into what Kevin McCarthy was working the whole time to try to get people to believe that the only person that could govern the Republican conference is Kevin McCarthy.”
“So Emmer agrees that he’s going to have his shot, but that it’s going to be quick so we get that through the gestation system early yesterday,” Gaetz explained. “So as Emmer is withdrawing, Marc Molinaro, a moderate New York freshman Republican stands up at the microphone and says, ‘well, instead of restarting this process and having a candidate forum,’ and sending everybody home for a good cry, let’s just take a non-binding poll on where people would be on the person who came in second to Tom Emmer. And that was Mike Johnson.”
Gaetz reports that Molinaro sought unanimous approval for an impromptu vote on Johnson’s support after Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) notified him of a possible rule breach.
“And guess who objects to that unanimous consent request? Kevin McCarthy,” Gaetz said. “Kevin McCarthy stands up and erupts and says, ‘I object to doing a roll call on Mike Johnson.’ And Mike Johnson was exasperated. All the times he voted for McCarthy, carried his water, maybe voted for bills he didn’t like because he was he was working toward republican conference’s stated objectives under McCarthy.”
“It showed everyone that it was actually McCarthy who was working to knife Scalise. It was actually McCarthy who was working to knife Jim Jordan, it was McCarthy working to knife everyone, and he hadn’t yet figured out a way to knife Mike Johnson,” Gaetz continued. “And so he was worried that there was gonna be this great unifying moment and he scuttled the unifying moment. So because of McCarthy’s objection, we had to have this three hour delay and you know, candidates announce again, have another forum.”
Gaetz revealed that House Speaker pro tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC) hurried to call a special session of the House to order after recess. “Now, why did he do that? Because they were setting up a play to block Mike Johnson with write-in votes in the intra-conference process for Kevin McCarthy. They were promising people hearings on their favorite legislation, passage of bills. I heard people promise, ‘oh, maybe you’ll get a chairmanship.’”
Additionally, Gaetz verified prior rumors that McCarthy and his supporters were proposing that Jim Jordan take on the role of “assistant House Speaker” under a McCarthy speakership.
Gaetz characterized this scheme as “some sort of like, Dwight Schrute assistant to the regional manager posture,” alluding to the enduring figure from The Office who is renowned for having a meaningless “assistant to the regional manager” position. “And that would have been debasing to Jordan, someone I like a great deal, and it would have been empowering to McCarthy,” Gaetz told Bannon.
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Republicans forewarned their comrades that Johnson would receive more than 100 write-in votes. Still, the write-in group first garnered only 33 votes. In a secret ballot, McCarthy increased the total to 43 votes, but Johnson held onto his majority.
Johnson then requested a roll call vote, forcing the forty-three Republicans to “announce themselves as being for a candidate who wasn’t even running instead of a unifying force like Mike Johnson,” Gaetz explained.
“And when we called for the roll call, do you know how many people voted for Kevin McCarthy? Zero. He went from promising 100 votes, to delivering 43, to zero willing to vote for him. And everyone in the room knew at that moment that I wasn’t the force for chaos. I wasn’t causing disunity,” he continued.
