Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has resurfaced following the appointment of his chief rival, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to head the Department of Justice (DOJ).
During a recent interview with Bloomberg TV host Haslinda Amin, the former speaker weighed in on President-elect Donald Trump’s choices for his Cabinet, saying they were “very good, except one,” in reference to the Florida Republican.
“Look, Gaetz won’t get confirmed,” McCarthy said. “Everybody knows that.”
READ MORE: ‘I got nothing for you’: GOP senators already souring on Matt Gaetz’s nomination
Amin asked McCarthy to elaborate, though he demurred, saying: “You’d have to ask the president, but Gaetz couldn’t win in a Republican conference, so it doesn’t matter.”
McCarthy has been openly hostile toward Gaetz ever since he led the effort to remove him as House speaker in late 2023. Politico described the relationship between the two as a “never-ending feud.” The ex-speaker once called Gaetz the “Hunter Biden of the Republican Party,” accusing him of “buying coke and paying minors for sex.”
The former speaker is right in that Gaetz is deeply unpopular even among his fellow Republicans. Multiple Republican senators expressed to the Washington Post on Wednesday that the potential next attorney general would have an uphill battle in the upper chamber of Congress. In order to get confirmed, Gaetz would have to make it through a confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, before getting an up-or-down vote by the full Senate.
Assuming all 47 Democrats — or 48, depending on the outcome of the recount in Sen. Bob Casey’s (D-Pa.) race — vote no, Gaetz could only afford three Republican defections or abstentions. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) all expressed doubt about Gaetz’s ability to lead the DOJ. Even Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), who delivered the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address earlier this year, told the Post: “I got nothing for you” when asked to give her opinion on Gaetz.
READ MORE: ‘What if government went Joker’: Experts slam ‘extremist’ Gaetz AG pick
In announcing Gaetz as his pick for attorney general on his Truth Social account, Trump praised the Florida congressman for his work toward “desperately needed reform at the Department of Justice.”
“Few issues in America are more important than ending the partisan Weaponization of our Justice System,” Trump wrote. “Matt will end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department.”
Watch McCarthy’s full interview on Bloomberg TV below, or by clicking this link.
READ MORE: McCarthy accuses Gaetz of ‘buying coke and paying minors for sex’: ‘Hunter Biden of the GOP’
