Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) called for the prosecution and conviction of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla) on Sunday.
“I just don’t think Gaetz is a conservative,” McCarthy said on CNN when asked why he’s supporting Gaetz’s primary opponent. “If you think about it, if there’s anybody who should go to trial, I mean, Gaetz is one who should be convicted in a trial.”
“Why? asked CNN’s Manu Raju. “Why do you say that?”
“We all know the challenge here,” McCarthy said. “You can’t sleep with underage women and think you can get away with it.”
“He denies that,” Raju pointed out.
“Well, the women don’t,” McCarthy said. “And so there’s people in jail because of it.”
Joel Greenberg, a former Gaetz friend once described as his “wingman,” is serving an 11-year sentence for a number of charges, including sex trafficking a 17-year-old girl.
He has claimed he witnessed Gaetz’s alleged underage sexual encounter, and is reportedly cooperating with a House investigation.
Gaetz has denied the allegation.
“Kevin McCarthy is a sad, broken man,” Gaetz wrote on X shortly after the interview aired. “I hope he gets help.”
McCarthy last year became the first-ever House speaker forced out by a motion to vacate in a maneuver orchestrated by Gaetz. McCarthy said in April it was because Gaetz was trying to block an ethics investigation.
“I’ll give you the truth why I’m not speaker,” McCarthy said. “It’s because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old. An ethics complaint that started before I ever became speaker … Did he do it or not? I don’t know.”
On Sunday, however, he went further.
See more of his conversation with Raju below:
