Rep. Matt Gaetz said Monday that a new report about funding the war in Ukraine undermined claims from critics that he ousted former GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy because of a personal vendetta.
The Fort Walton Beach Republican cited a Washington Examiner report from Friday that argued Democrats were now “reaping the rewards of chaos” because they sided with Gaetz to dump McCarthy last year.
Had they not done so, columnist Conn Carroll wrote, President Joe Biden, congressional Democrats, and neocon Republican hawks would have had an easier time locking down military aid for Ukraine.
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Carroll noted that McCarthy’s unconditional support for funding Ukraine’s war with Russia was one reason Gaetz wanted the California Republican tossed from the speaker’s post.
Along the way, however, Ukraine’s military assistance became linked to border security, Carroll added. And almost all Republicans were never going to agree to codify President Joe Biden’s open-border policies.
Given new Speaker Mike Johnson’s skepticism of funding the Ukrainian war, the result was a four-month delay to get where Congress is now: seeking to fund military aid to Ukraine and Israel with border policy dealt with separately.
“Democrats did not have to vote for or against McCarthy. No one was asking them to vote for McCarthy. All the Democrats had to do was not vote with Gaetz in support of his motion to remove McCarthy. If Democrats had simply not voted, Gaetz’s motion would have failed 210-8, McCarthy would still be speaker, and McCarthy would have passed Ukraine aid through the House,” Carroll wrote.
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“But House Democrats took just too much joy from watching Republican dysfunction, so they joined forces with chaos, they got chaos, and now they are reaping the rewards of chaos,” he continued.
“Now, the Senate is finally moving on legislation that would fund Ukraine and Israel. This was always the only way forward, and the only reason it took four months to get here is Democrats thought it would be funny to vote with Gaetz,” Carroll added.
“Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. “
On his “Firebrand” podcast on Monday, Gaezt said, “I don’t know if I deserve the credit for it [slowing Ukraine’s aid], but I’ll take it, if they’ll give me the credit for it.”
Gaetz said Johnson is not necessarily and reflexively against funding Ukraine’s war machine. But he simply wants more information about the strategy, tactics, and endgame before signing off on it.
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Curt Mills, executive director of the American Conservative magazine, who appeared on Gaetz’s podcast, said the Examiner report showed Gaetz wanted McCarthy booted for policy differences and different approach in Ukraine and was not driven by personal animus.
“The idea that this is all personal has been contradicted by events,” Mills told Gaetz
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