McCarthy Calls out 'Truth' Behind Him Losing Speaker Role

As House Speaker Mike Johnson (R) faces the possibility of losing his leadership role, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R) is revisiting his own ousting. While speaking at Georgetown University this week, Speaker McCarthy accused Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) of leading the charge against him due to the ethics complaints against Rep. Gaetz. The "truth," Rep. McCarthy says, is because Rep. McCarthy didn't interfere in the investigation.

While the former speaker of the house didn't mention the Florida lawmaker by name, he did allude to a House ethics investigation that opened in 2021 against Rep. Gaetz. At the time, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D) was speaker.

The investigation was paused however after the U.S. Department of Justice opened its own investigation against Rep. Gaetz for sex trafficking and over allegations that he had paid for sex and had sex with an underage woman.

While discussing his time as speaker, Rep. McCarthy lashed out against his Republican colleague.

"I'll give you the truth why I'm not speaker. Because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old, an ethics complaint that started before I ever became speaker. And that’s illegal and I’m not gonna get in the middle of it," he explained.

The California Republican went on to comment on the investigation, assuring that he doesn't know if the accusations against Rep. Gaetz are true.

“Did he do it or not? I don’t know. But ethics was looking at it. There’s other people in jail because of it. And he wanted me to influence it," he commented.

Rep. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing, and he suggested that Rep. McCarthy's assessment of his ousting is a lie.

"Kevin is a liar. Which, actually, is why he isn’t speaker. Just ask any of the 224 people who voted to remove him.”