Day 2 of the Republican National Convention was an evening of reunions. A Trump Administration reunion took place as Dr. Ben Carson (R) took to the stage to praise former President Donald Trump (R). A more volatile reunion took place as Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) confronted Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R) at the RNC floor.
Earlier this year, Rep. Gaetz led a group of Republicans in ousting Speaker McCarthy from his role as Speaker of the House. It was a contentious effort that called into question party leadership, and it eventually led to the speaker being voted out. Subsequently, there was another contentious effort to find a replacement, which led to Speaker Mike Johnson (R) being elected.
Speaker McCarthy has since posited that Rep. Gaetz's effort to vote him out of office, claiming that the Florida lawmaker led the effort to take him out of office "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."
On the floor of the RNC, CNN's Kaitlan Collins was interviewing Speaker McCarthy when Rep. Gaetz approached him, asking him if he would be speaking at the four day event.
"What night are you speaking? Are you speaking tonight?" the Florida congressman asked.
"Hey, if you took that stage, you would get booed off of it," Rep. Gaetz added as Speaker McCarthy ignored him to speak to Collins.
After the interaction, NBC News' Tom Llamas asked Speaker McCarthy about Rep. Gaetz's comments, and Speaker McCarthy said "I think it shows exactly who Matt Gaetz is." When further asked if he believed that he would be booed offstage, Speaker McCarthy said "not at all."
