During an appearance on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show this Thursday, Florida GOP Rep. and anti-Kevin McCarthy holdout Matt Gaetz took a rare jab at former President Donald Trump, saying his skills for nominating quality people for government positions is lacking.
Ingraham grilled Gaetz over his choice to vote against GOP Leader McCarthy’s bid for House Speaker, to which Gaetz replied that he won’t be voting for McCarty “under almost any circumstances.”
“So it’s personal then?” Ingraham interjected.
“You can’t have it both ways,” she later said. “You can’t say, ‘I’m a man of principle and I believe in x,y, and z, but if he gives me x,y, and z, I’m not going to vote fore him.’ What? How does that make sense?”
After Gaetz went into a speech about McCarthy’s alleged descent into the “lobby core,” Ingraham asked him how he squares his anti-McCarthy stance with Trump, who has urged Republicans to unify in support of McCarthy.
“I love President Trump and I defended him a great deal in Congress, but HR wasn’t always his strong suit,” Gaetz said. “President Trump got us folks like Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr and Jim Mattis and Mark Esper — people who didn’t always advance America First policies.”
“So you say he’s wrong on that?” Ingraham asked.
“I do,” Gaetz replied. “I think President Trump is wrong to the extent that he supports Kevin McCarthy. I’m going to support President Trump if he runs for reelection in 2024, but I’m not gonna back him on this play.”
Earlier this Thursday, Gaetz once again nominated Trump for the House Speaker role.
Watch the videos below:
Matt Gaetz: "President Trump got us folks like Jeff Sessions, and Bill Barr, and Jim Mattis, and Mark Esper … I think President Trump is wrong to the extent he supports Kevin McCarthy" pic.twitter.com/cIWRr9FnN5
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 6, 2023
