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Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has made no secret of his public disdain for Rep. Matt Gaetz. But in a recent interview, he went further than ever, appearing to say that Gaetz ended his speakership while trying to prevent an ethics investigation into allegations that the Florida Republican had sexual relations with a 17-year-old, an allegation that Gaetz vehemently denies.
“I’ll give you the truth why I’m not speaker. It’s because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old,” McCarthy said at a public forum at Georgetown University on Tuesday. “An ethics complaint that started before I ever became speaker. And that’s illegal and I’m not going to get in the middle — Did he do it or not? I don’t know.”
Gaetz, who has repeatedly denied the allegations, responded on X on Wednesday morning. "Kevin McCarthy is a liar," he wrote. "That's why he is no longer speaker. Just ask the 224 people who voted to remove him."
Federal investigators declined to bring charges against Gaetz in a sex trafficking probe last year, though an investigation by the House Ethics Committee appeared to be ongoing, as of earlier this year. Gaetz has not been accused of wrongdoing.
McCarthy has made similar remarks before, telling CBS News last month that it was "based on Matt Gaetz trying to stop an ethics complaint." But he has never spoken so explicitly about the nature of the ethics complaint until now.
McCarthy, who resigned from Congress at the end of 2023, also tried to justify his controversial visit to Mar-a-Lago just weeks after he'd publicly denounced former President Donald Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. He suggested that he wanted to comfort Trump and that he didn't think the media would find out about his visit.
"Whether I like you or dislike you, if something bad happens in your life, I want to be the first person to call you," McCarthy said, adding, "I thought I was going to go by and no one was going to know about it."
Despite his openness during the talk Tuesday, McCarthy struggled with some questions about Trump, including one about the former president's violent rhetoric about immigrants "poisoning the blood" of the country.
"I have never heard him say that," McCarthy said when a student pressed him on the topic.
"Nobody's perfect in life," he continued. "People could have a difference of opinion, but I don't think that's what President Trump believes. [In] my time around him — never heard it."