Gaetz on Plans to Oust McCarthy as Speaker of the House: This Isn’t Personal

KARL: “So, I know you say this is not personal with Kevin McCarthy, but it sure sounds personal.”
GAETZ: “I’m only talking about substantive de-dollarization.”
KARL: “Okay. But let me ask you about the relationship. When was the last time you talked with him one-on-one? I mean, have you had a — “
GAETZ: “Well, a matter of fact, just a couple weeks ago, Kevin McCarthy appointed me to the National Defense Conference Committee on the NDAA, and we spoke about some of our alliance and defense priorities. So, this isn’t personal. Some people make policy disagreements personal because their own policy failures are so personally embarrassing to them. I hold no personal animus to any — with any of my Republican colleagues, by the way, including my Republican colleague you’re about to have on next, who’s had some pretty terse words for me. But at the end of the day, this is about spending. This is about the deal Kevin made in January. I do resent the fact that Kevin is like owned by lobbyists and special interests — “
KARL: “That sounds personal, by the way.”
GAETZ: “No, it’s not personal. It’s substantive.”
KARL: “That’s an attack on a guy’s integrity.”
GAETZ: “Well, it is an attack on the system that he has used to obtain the speakership. I am fighting for a different system, one based on spending guardrails, agreements on process. Kevin promised us 72 hours to read the bill. We didn’t have it. He promised us $100 million wouldn’t go on to the suspension agenda without the opportunity for amendments. Broke that deal, too. And he promised us we could return to pre-Covid spending levels. There’s almost no promise he hasn’t violated.”
KARL: “So you’re not accomplishing anything here.”
GAETZ: “That’s not true.”
KARL: “You don’t have the votes to remove him.”
GAETZ: “By the way, I don’t know until we have them. And by the way, I might not have them the first time, but I might have them before the 15th ballot. That’s the number of ballots Kevin McCarthy needed.”
KARL: “So you’re going to do this every day, like you had suggested? You’ll, lik,E go through this process of voting over and over and over again?”
GAETZ: “I am relentless, and I will continue to pursue this objective. And if all the American people see that it is a uniparty that governs them and that it is always the Biden, McCarthy, Jeffries government that makes dispositive decisions on spending, then I am seeding the field of future primary contests to get better Republicans in Washington who will actually tackle these deficits and debts.”