GOP rep calls Gaetz a ‘little b‑‑‑‑’ after McCarthy exchange

Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) appeared to call Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) a “little b‑‑‑‑” after an awkward exchange with former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) at the Republican National Convention.

Gaetz taunted McCarthy on the floor of the convention Tuesday night, telling the former Speaker that he would “get booed off the stage” if he were to speak at the event. Van Orden reacted to a clip of the exchange on social platform X, where he pushed back on a description of the incident that said Gaetz needed to be “physically held back” by security.

“I just saw this. Tubby did not need to ‘physically held back’ he pulled a ‘Hold me back bro’ move to look like a tough guy because he is in fact, is a little b‑‑‑‑,” Van Orden wrote on X.

McCarthy and Gaetz were involved in a months-long feud before the Florida Republican spearheaded the effort to oust McCarthy from the Speakership last fall. McCarthy later resigned from the House and has maintained that Gaetz only wanted to remove him over an ethics complaint Gaetz was facing.

Gaetz appeared to still want to target McCarthy by mocking him at the convention.

“What night are you speaking? Are you speaking tonight?” Gaetz asked McCarthy on the floor of the convention Tuesday.

“If you took that stage, you would get booed off of it,” he told McCarthy. “You would get booed off the stage.”

The man standing behind Gaetz, Illinois GOP National Committeeman Richard Porter, could be heard telling the lawmaker to “shut up” and “don’t be an a‑‑hole.”

“It doesn’t f‑‑‑ing matter who I am, don’t be an a‑‑hole,” Porter said after Gaetz told him he did not know who he was.

Gaetz defended his comments in an interview with The Hill.

“He was saying something very untrue and nasty about me to CNN. So, this is a convention floor. I thought it’d be OK to convene a little bit,” he said.

In response to Van Orden, Gaetz told The Hill, “When is Derrick Van Orden speaking at the convention in his home state?”

The Hill has reached out to Van Orden for comment.