Florida Republican escalates feud with McCarthy
On September 13, after Republican Speaker of the House - Kevin McCarthy - finally initiated an impeachment enquiry into President Joe Biden, Florida's most outspoken Republican - Congressman Matt Gaetz - did not appear content, nor willing to cease his frequent attacks on McCarthy.
Instead, he appeared on MSNBC and told host Ari Melber that in his opinion, McCarthy is:
"...a sad and pathetic man who lies to hold on to power."
In recent weeks, the Florida 'firebrand' Gaetz has been motivated to see the launch of an impeachment enquiry into Biden, and has called out House Republicans, Speaker McCarthy and even himself for not doing this as quickly as it should have been done.
Since it finally happened however, Gaetz has first argued in public with fellow MAGA-Republican Marjorie Taylor-Greene over who should take credit, and has then called for McCarthy to be removed from his position for having failed to deliver in his role since taking it on earlier this year.
The recent attack by Gaetz on McCarthy, appears to have stemmed from the Speaker of the House speculating that he had been hounded by the Florida Republican as a means of improving his standing in relation to an investigation by the House Ethics Committee who are investigating complaints against him.
Gaetz colluding with Democrats?
McCarthy has also suggested that there may be collusion between Gaetz and certain House Democrats, and indicated that this too was part of a conspiracy to have him removed from the Speaker's chair.
On September 10, Gaetz shared on Twitter that he had reached across the political aisle challenging a long-time adversary- California Democrat Eric Swalwell - to help him to oust Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House.
As if to demonstrate his willingness to collaborate with Democrats, Gaetz used the same tweet to point out that he has previously cosponsored a bill with New York Democrat - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, intended to prevent sitting politicians from exploiting privileged information to make money via insider trading.
He might feel less favorably disposed to AOC now, after the New York Democrat voiced on September 13 that "chaos vibes" appear to be prevailing within the Republican Party given recent actions and decisions made by Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor-Greene and others within the GOP.
Will Gaetz relent?
It's hard to imagine that Florida's Matt Gaetz will let-up with the pressure he's been applying against Speaker Kevin McCarthy, especially now that McCarthy seems willing to fire back towards Gaetz.
Gaetz has been a long-standing critic of McCarthy and did everything he could to prevent the California Republican from securing the role of Speaker of the House back in January.
It took multiple rounds of voting, and various confrontations between House Republicans before McCarthy was appointed. Now that he's weathered repeated attacks from within his own party it seems likely that McCarthy will do whatever he can to remain in the position.
This seems like one feud between Republicans, that is set to continue.
Do you think that Florida's Matt Gaetz should show more unity with Kevin McCarthy? Does Gaetz have other motives on his mind, rather than serving the people of Florida effectively? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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