Kevin McCarthy Says Matt Gaetz Tried To Get Him To Do ‘Something Illegal’

During a recent interview, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that there is something fundamentally different about the current effort by Marjorie Taylor Greene to oust Speaker Mike Johnson than what Matt Gaetz did to him. McCarthy says that Greene's issues are policy differences, whereas Gaetz was asking McCarthy to do "something illegal." That "illegal" activity was to shut down the House Ethics probe into Gaetz, which McCarthy wouldn't do. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what happened.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

During an interview on CBS's Face, the Nation, this past Sunday, former Republican congressman and former Republican House speaker, Kevin McCarthy was asked obviously about Marjorie Taylor Green's effort to oust current Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, who of course is the guy that replaced Kevin McCarthy, leading to Kevin McCarthy leaving Congress and McCarthy almost seemed a little sympathetic towards Marjorie Taylor Greene, of course, before saying that Matt Gaetz engaged in illegal activity. So interesting what McCarthy had to say here. Here's what he said. The one thing I've always found, when you sit down with a member and talk to them, find out where their concerns are, uh, especially when it's based upon policy, you can solve that problem. And I watched that with Marjorie from the vote to speaker, to the vote for the Fiscal Responsibility Act. There's times she had a difference of opinion, and you sit down and find common ground.

Okay? So he's saying like, listen, Marjorie Taylor Greene is doing this, not because she's a petulant child, but because obviously she disagreed with Mike Johnson on this, so she what wants him to lose his job. Like that's, that's not a policy difference. That's a being a grownup versus being a child difference, Kevin. But then Kevin got into the meat of it. He said Matt's case was much different. It was about a personal thing that he had done, and that's what he was trying to get. Something illegally stopped. I think the ethics committee, it was purely Matt coming to me trying to get me to do something illegal to stop the ethics committee from moving forward with an investigation that was started long before I became speaker. Wow, those are bold words. Those are big, bold accusations saying that Matt Gaetz did something illegal. I mean, let's be crystal clear here.

Kevin McCarthy has already been on record following his ousting in October that Matt Gaetz did this because I wouldn't shut down the house ethics investigation. Now, I do believe that that is true, but you always gotta be crystal clear here. Would it have been illegal for Kevin McCarthy to just shut down that investigation? No. That's, that's not illegal. So, Kev, you gotta choose your words a little more carefully here, bud, because Matt Gats asking you to just, let's stop this investigation. It's unethical. Sure, but illegal, absolutely not. And if you're accusing somebody, by the way, even a public official of illegal activity, and you say that they did something illegal, not that they may have, but that they did, then they can actually still sue for defamation. So Kevin, again, choose your words a little more carefully because you could be looking at the wrong end of a, a lawsuit from Matt Gaetz on this particular issue. But while we're on the subject, it's important to remind the people of what the House Ethics Committee is

Investigating for Matt Gates. Um, they're investigating, according to the New York Times that he engaged in sexual misconduct, uh, misconduct and illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the house floor misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use and accepted impermissible impermissible gifts, under house rules, among other allegations. So those are the things the House Ethics Committee is investigating. Those are pretty serious accusations, but at the time, remember, they're not charges.