During an interview with “War Room” founder Steve Bannon, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) revealed what he claims was a behind-the-scenes scheme of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to stamp out Speaker nominees such as Jim Jordan (R-OH), Steve Scalise (R-LA), Tom Emmer (R-MN), and Mike Johnson (R-LA).
Gaetz said the plan was brought to light in a private meeting.
Allegedly, Gaetz told Emmer that it would be difficult to win votes, and therefore should “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 stated.
“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 then explained that Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) told Molinaro that the vote would break rules, which lead him to push for an agreement among GOP reps to simply set aside the rules and cast a vote on Johnson’s backing.
“And guess who objects to that unanimous consent request? Kevin McCarthy,” Gaetz pressed.
“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 added.
“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 then revealed that House Speaker pro tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC) had made a dash to bring the House out of 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.’”
McCarthy’s scheme ultimately failed, with Mike Johnson winning the speakership following an unanimous GOP vote.
