Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy predicted Thursday that the Senate won’t allow the man who took away his speaker’s gavel to become attorney general.
McCarthy has long feuded with now-former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who resigned from Congress Wednesday after President-elect Donald Trump announced plans to nominate him to lead the Department of Justice. It was Gaetz who initiated and led the historic efforts to oust McCarthy from the speakership last year, dragging into the open bitter feelings that have not softened in the months since.
“I think the choices are very good, except one. Gaetz won’t get confirmed, everybody knows that,” McCarthy told Bloomberg’s Haslinda Amin on “The Asia Trade” on Thursday morning, referring to Trump’s Cabinet and administration nominations.
When Amin pressed him on why Trump chose Gaetz, McCarthy said “it’s a good deflection from others” but stopped himself from going into detail. “You’d have to ask the president, but Gaetz couldn’t win in a Republican conference, so it doesn’t matter,” he said.
Even amid a bevy of controversial picks to join Trump’s Cabinet, Gaetz’s selection to be attorney general has sparked particular concern at the agency he’s been named to lead. The Florida Republican was also the subject of a House Ethics Committee probe into multiple allegations, including that he had sex with a minor, which he has denied. GOP colleagues of Gaetz suggested that his immediate resignation from Congress may have been an effort to head off the official release of the Ethics Committee’s report, which they expected in the coming days.
But besides Gaetz, McCarthy praised Trump’s other picks, especially Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of State. The former speaker said the president-elect had learned from his previous experience in the White House and will “hit the ground running” this time.
McCarthy also praised Trump for tapping Elon Musk to help lead a new department to spearhead efforts to shrink the federal government, calling Musk a “Thomas Edison.”
“Elon was texting me this morning. Think about having the brain of Elon Musk to sacrifice his time away from his businesses to help every single American make government more efficient, more accountable, and actually deliver the job that we are supposed to do,” McCarthy told Bloomberg.