Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida taunted Kevin McCarthy when he was in the middle of a CNN interview on the floor of the Republican convention Tuesday.
Gaetz introduced a motion to vacate the chair on Oct. 2, 2023, which eventually resulted in McCarthy’s ouster as speaker when Gaetz and seven other Republicans joined 208 Democrats in a 216-210 vote on Oct. 3, 2023, to pass the resolution.
Video was posted on X and aired on CNN show Gaetz, interrupting McCarthy’s interview with CNN host Kaitlan Collins.
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“What night are you speaking?” Gaetz asked McCarthy in the video posted by NewsNation Washington Correspondent Joe Khalil. “Are you speaking tonight? If you took that stage, you would get booed off it. You would get booed off the stage.”
McCarthy initially appeared to ignore Gaetz but then shot back during the interview with Collins.
“He‘s got an ethics complaint about paying, sleeping with a 17-year-old,” McCarthy said.
The House Ethics Committee announced a probe into Gaetz in April 2021.
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“The Committee is aware of public allegations that Representative Matt Gaetz may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct,” the statement by the chairman and ranking member of the committee said. “The Committee, pursuant to Committee Rule 18(a), has begun an investigation and will gather additional information regarding the allegations.”
CNN reported that the Justice Department announced in February 2023 that it would not seek charges against Gaetz in the matter. Investigators had recommended against filing charges in September 2022.
Gaetz did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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