Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has called Matt Gaetz’s nomination to become Donald Trump’s attorney general a “fear for all young girls” in the latest war of words between the longtime Republican foes.
There’s been no love lost between the two former GOP congressmen for some time ever since Gaetz led the charge to oust McCarthy as speaker in October 2023.
And so, it seems McCarthy couldn’t resist sticking the knife in over Gaetz’s failed, shortlived bid to join Trump’s administration when he appeared on Fox News’s Jesse Watters Primetime on Monday night.
McCarthy commended the Trump administration for getting rid of the “problem” and took a swipe at Gaetz, saying that young girls “need their justice.”
“At this moment in time, you look at his [Trump’s] poll approval of what he’s doing with this new transition he’s bringing. Got rid of the problem, now he’s in a very good place and the approval’s high,” McCarthy said.
“And you’re saying the problem was Matt Gaetz?” Watters said with an awkward smile.
“Well, that’s a fear for all young girls,” McCarthy retorted. “They need their justice.”
“Oh stop it… You guys hate each other,” Watters replied. “We’re going to have a pay-per-view fight between you two.”
McCarthy continued: “No, no, let’s be very honest. There’s no reason why that man should’ve ever been nominated.
“Those girls need justice and that is not the place for him. He would’ve stayed in Congress if he’d cared about that.”
Gaetz was the focus of a sex trafficking investigation by the Department of Justice, the agency he sought to lead in Trump’s second administration, and a House Ethics Committee probe over sexual misconduct allegations, including that he paid for sex with an underage girl. The DOJ investigation ended without charges and Gaetz has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing.
Gaetz’s attorney general nod on November 13 prompted him to resign from the House, ending the ethics probe.
But calls mounted for the findings of the investigation to be released and doubts grew as to whether he would get enough votes to be approved in the Senate.
Eight days after he was tapped for the role, Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration saying he was “becoming a distraction” to the Trump-Vance transition.
Gaetz and McCarthy’s feud came to a head in October 2023 when the then-Florida lawmaker led the charge to oust McCarthy as speaker.
The House Ethics Committee investigation opened in 2021 while Nancy Pelosi was speaker, before it was paused during the DOJ probe. It was revived in June 2023, when McCarthy was speaker and the same month Gaetz initiated his ouster.
In April, McCarthy said that Gaetz had been motivated to push him out “because he [Gaetz] slept with a 17-year-old.”
