Matt Gaetz Speaks to Reporters After House Votes to Oust Speaker Transcript

Mr. Gaetz, what have you achieved today?

Well, I mean, we heard your party say, “That you wanted us to bring it on, so I guess we did.”

When I spoke with you yesterday-

Excuse me, you got to give me a little room.

Yeah, yeah.

Hold on, hold on one second.

Yeah, yeah.

One second. You’re going to push me off.

Yeah, yeah.

You’re getting real close, buddy.

Yeah, yeah.

You can’t be on the mat.

Yeah, yeah.

When I talked with you yesterday, before you introduced the motion, you didn’t sound confident that you would have the votes. Now you do. What does that tell you about where your conference is at?

What it tells me is that you’re very poor at reading confidence.

You said you didn’t think they were going to succeed.

Patterson, at this point, do you think?

Sir, you have paralyzed the House of Representatives today to whose? Benefit people have called you a narcissist. People say, “This that it your benefit alone, to the benefit of you and to Donald Trump.”

It’s to the benefit of this country that we have a better Speaker of the House than Kevin McCarthy. Kevin McCarthy couldn’t keep his word. He made an agreement in January regarding the way Washington would work, and he violated that agreement.

(00:50)
We are $33 trillion in debt. We are facing $2.2 trillion annual deficits. We face a de-dollarization globally that will crush Americans, working class Americans. Kevin McCarthy is a feature of the swamp. He has risen to power by collecting special interest money and redistributing that money in exchange for favors. We are breaking the fever now and we should elect a speaker whose better.

Congressman Gaetz-

You said last night, “That Steve Scalise was a name that you floated to potentially be speaker.” Where do things stand right now? If not McCarthy, then who?

Well, the stages of grief I think are in progress right now with some of my colleagues. I think there was a stage of denial and I’ve certainly experienced a good amount of their anger and now we appear to be headed toward bargaining. I think the world of Steve Scalise, I think he’d make a phenomenal speaker.

Congressman Gaetz at this point do you think that the Speaker should-

Are you afraid of getting expelled? Are you afraid of getting expelled?

I’m afraid of $33 trillion in debt crushing the working people in my district. I’m afraid of the dollar losing its status as the global reserve currency. If they want to expel me, let me know when they have to vote.

Congressman Gaetz, at this point-

Because I know they talked about that with you-

Congressman Gaetz, at this point-

45 days left before we-

Sorry, go ahead.

We’ve got less than 45 days left before you have to pass a budget which is something that you’ve been wanting to do. Doesn’t this just completely paralyze the House? I mean, we could see 15 more rounds.

I don’t think we will. I think Kevin McCarthy should take a hint after 15 ballots to become speaker, after eight months of a failed speakership and after removal in this historic manner, I think we should move on and find somebody else.

(02:22)
What’s paralyzed the House of Representatives has been the failure of Speaker McCarthy. What paralyzed the House of Representatives was not taking up appropriations bills. We left for a six-week vacation while the appropriations process hung in the balance, and because I forced these people to take a few votes. You think I’m paralyzing the House of Representatives? I think the House of Representatives has been paralyzed for the last several decades as we’ve refused to pass a budget, as we’ve governed by continuing resolution and omnibus bill. So I think that this represents the ripping off of the bandaid and that’s what we need to do to get back on track.

Congressman Gaetz-

But how can you pass anything if 200 Republicans-

What do you say to your-

How do you pass anything?

Congressman Gaetz what do you say to your colleagues who argue, “You don’t have another name right now, you don’t have someone else who could get 218 votes.” What do you tell those colleagues?

Well, I would tell them that for certain Kevin McCarthy can’t get 218 votes, so let’s try the next person.

Congressman-

Would you be okay with McHenry?

With Rutha [inaudible 00:03:15] obviously.

There would have to be a real meeting of the minds there.

How do you pass something if there’s 200-

I’m sorry, someone else? You’ve had a question I was going let somebody else ask me a question.

Are you going to ask for a guarantee from whoever is floated as a candidate for the next speaker for them to actually move the appropriations process along in the speed that satisfies you?

Yes.

Congressman.

Sir, will you be putting yourself forward for the Speakership?

Absolutely not. I have no desire to be Speaker.

[inaudible 00:03:45] with respect, how pass if you don’t have 200 Republicans behind you?

What’s your question?

And what’s the top four? I know we’ve already have names, about Emmer and others?

I think the world of Tom Emmer, he’d make a great Speaker.

[inaudible 00:03:54] Have you spoken with Scalise, have you spoken with Emmer?

I’ve spoken with him, but I’ll probably keep our conversations between us.

Congressman Gaetz-

Are you going to require-

Matt, what was going through your head once the vote gathered down and it was official McCarthy wasn’t Speaker? Just how do you feel?

We got to move to the next step. We are not at the end of this process, okay? At most we’re approaching halftime. We’ve got to be able to assemble a governing coalition. We have to build from a place of trust.

(04:18)
The reason Kevin McCarthy went down today is because nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy. Kevin McCarthy has made multiple contradictory promises and when they all came due, he lost votes of people who maybe don’t even ideologically agree with me on everything. Take for example, my colleague from South Carolina, Ms. Mace, she has different views than I do on a variety of subjects, but what we had in common, Kevin McCarthy lied to all of us.

But Congressman, hold on a second. You’re saying that nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy, but you’re talking about, including yourself, about seven Republicans compared to about 200 and about some odd Republicans who actually do trust him. So can you kind explain that here?

Well, as it turns out, getting 200 Republicans to trust you isn’t enough to stay Speaker.

But compared to seven Republicans here.

Congressman, at this point, at this point, would you require that any-

Have spoken to former President Trump about this since the ousting? Was he supportive of what you were doing?

I have spoken to President Trump over the last several days. The ousting only occurred several minutes ago, so we haven’t spoken very.

Congressman Gaetz, are going to require that-

Former President Trump Truth Social that he didn’t think this was a good idea? He didn’t want to see Republicans fighting with other Republicans. How do you respond to the former president?

I would say that my conversations with the former president leave me with great confidence that I’m doing the right thing.

[inaudible 00:05:35] What’s your message to Americans who are concerned about the future of the conservative agenda in the House GOP?

I would say that the conservative agenda was being paralyzed by Speaker McCarthy. We hadn’t even sent subpoena to Hunter Biden. Our oversight was lackluster. Our spending priorities were misaligned. The top line budget was going to lead to more inflation, more debt, more challenges. So the best way to advance the conservative agenda is to move forward with a new Speaker.

Are you going to require that any future Speaker elected allows the motion to vacate the stay at a one person threshold?

Yes.

Considering that Steve Scalise votes in line with Speaker McCarthy most of the time, why should he want the job after this just happened?

Well, that’s a question for him. I guess not me.

He’s already said, “He’s uninterested.” He’s already said, “He’s uninterested.”

I haven’t heard him say that.

No, no, he’s already come out publicly.

Well, here’s what I would say. Here’s what I say. I think a lot of members are going to reflect on their thinking after this historic moment. I think anything that people have said before, the McCarthy ouster is probably bearing less weight than the way people may be thinking about these questions after the McCarthy.

Positive comments about Steve Scalise yesterday and today, will you yourself nominate Steve Scalise for Speaker of the House?

Maybe. I want to see, I want to hear from him. I mean, I am not here to make a judgment on where Mr. Scalise stands with his rehabilitation and recovery. I would give him the deference to be able to decide whether or not he’d like to put himself forward as a candidate, but he’d be the type of person that I could see myself supporting.

(07:06)
There are many people though. I could see myself supporting Tom Ember. I could see myself supporting Mike Johnson of Louisiana. I could see myself supporting Jodey Arrington of Texas. I could see myself supporting Kevin Hern of Oklahoma. And there are even people outside of the United States Congress like Lee Zeldin, who are well thought of across every aspect of our conference. And I may give Lee Zeldin a call and see if he’s interested in that gig.

[inaudible 00:07:28] You’ve succeeded at pushing the has to move forward with the appropriations processes you wanted. You succeeding in ousting-

Thank you for that acknowledgement because I just heard on the floor a bunch of these McCarthy allies say, “Well, gosh, it’s Kevin McCarthy who led us to this moment with a single subject appropriations bills.” And in fact, the only work we’ve gotten done has been with a political gun to the Speaker.

So you’ve gotten that accomplished.

The former Speaker I should say.

You’ve gotten the speaker ousted, what’s next?

Oh, next. We’ve got to elect a new Speaker. Sorry guys I’m rolling.

Thank you, sir.

Are you ready for Florida in 2026?

No. Excuse me.