McCarthy says he’s not Speaker because ‘one person’ in Congress wanted to avoid ethics complaint

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said at an event Tuesday that he is no longer the leader of the House because “one person” in Congress wanted to avoid an ethics complaint about sexual misconduct.

Speaking at an event at Georgetown University, McCarthy linked his historic ousting as Speaker to the allegations against Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

“I’ll give you the truth why I’m not Speaker. Because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old,” McCarthy said.

The former Speaker said the ethics complaint started before he became Speaker.

“Did he do it or not? I don’t know,” he said.

Last October, Gaetz introduced a motion to vacate McCarthy, resulting in the historic ousting and several weeks of chaos that left the lower chamber without leadership.

The Florida lawmaker has long been an opponent of McCarthy, refusing to back his Speakership bid in January 2023.

Gaetz is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over allegations that he engaged in sexual misconduct and did drugs. The Department of Justice declined to prosecute Gaetz on sex trafficking allegations last February.

Since leaving office in December, McCarthy has maintained that the Republican caucus would be better off without Gaetz in office.

Gaetz was joined by seven other Republicans who voted out McCarthy last fall. At the event Tuesday, the California Republican said he made the choice to have them vote him out because “historically, it’ll be viewed as a very bad thing that happened to our Congress.”