Kevin McCarthy shoots back at Matt Gaetz’s trolling: ‘Paid an underage girl’

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., video-bombed former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s interview on CNN during Tuesday evening’s Republican National Convention. 

“What you’re seeing here is a more united Republican Party,” the former California representative told anchor Kaitlan Collins on the convention floor before Gaetz, his Republican political enemy, interrupted the interview. 

In a clip, McCarthy appeared to be talking about his ouster as speaker when Gaetz leaned into the frame.

“What night are you speaking? Are you speaking tonight?” Gaetz mocked.

“[The] person who raised the issue, he‘s got an ethics complaint about paying, sleeping with a 17-year-old. That‘s the way they would go, so that‘s the biggest challenge we have,” McCarthy continued to Collins, referring to Gaetz while ignoring his taunts.

“If you took that stage you would get booed off of it,” Gaetz added. 

McCarthy was asked about the confrontation on NBC News Now and said, “I think it shows exactly who Matt Gaetz is.”

“Well, it’s all about, he had an ethics complaint four years ago that he paid an underage girl and she has come to [the House Ethics Committee],” McCarthy said. “And he came to me to try to leverage me to stop the ethics investigation. That’s illegal, I’m not doing that. If I had to lose my job over holding up the law. He tried to utilize that I kept government open. Think about that, I kept government open and he tried to make a motion to remove me.”

“Look, everybody has different people in their party. Unfortunately, Matt happens to be here. I think at the end of the day, he probably shouldn’t be on the streets,” he added.

Gaetz and McCarthy have had an infamously tumultuous relationship. Notably, Gaetz led to his ouster as speaker while questioning McCarthy’s commitment to conservative principles. 

Gaetz filed a “motion to vacate” in October, accusing McCarthy of poor leadership, cooperating with Democrats and abandoning conservative ideals. The House voted 216-210 in favor of the motion, marking the first time in U.S. history that a sitting speaker was removed by such a vote. 

“We’re concerned about the future of the conservative agenda in the House,” Gaetz said at the time. “I would say that the conservative agenda was being paralyzed by Speaker McCarthy.”

McCarthy called the Republican coalition that joined Democrats in removing him “The Gaetz Eight.”

“What Matt Gaetz did has broken the Republican majority. He’s now created ‘Lord of the Flies.’ Ask anybody inside our conference; they actually know it,” he said. 

Two months after his historic ouster as U.S. Speaker of the House, McCarthy announced he would be resigning by December 2023. 

In June, the House Ethics Committee announced it was delving further into accusations Gaetz “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”

Gaetz has been under a years-long House investigation, spurred by the Department of Justice (DOJ), looking into reports in early 2021 that he had a relationship with an underage girl. The DOJ declined to charge Gaetz in 2023.

The committee also noted that Gaetz denies all allegations. 

The Associated Press and Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.