MILWAUKEE — Two of Kevin McCarthy’s foes will be given speaking slots at Wednesday’s Republican National Convention as tensions linger over his removal as House speaker.
Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Nancy Mace (R-SC), among the eight House Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy in October, will be in the first group of speakers opening the third day of festivities in Milwaukee.
McCarthy is not expected to speak, an observation Gaetz alluded to in a moment of drama Tuesday on the convention floor.
“What night are you speaking? Are you speaking tonight?” Gaetz said, interrupting McCarthy’s interview on CNN. “If you took that stage, you would get booed off of it.”
Gaetz has been reviled by his House colleagues since initiating the ouster vote, which sent the House into three weeks of chaos as Republicans struggled to find a new leader for their conference.
But the speaking slot underscores the prominent place he maintains in the party as a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump.
Gaetz considers McCarthy to be a fake conservative and voiced outrage at the deals he cut on the debt limit and government funding as speaker. But McCarthy claims Gaetz’s beef is really over a House ethics investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.
“I think at the end of the day, he probably shouldn’t be on the streets,” McCarthy told NBC News in a post-altercation interview.
Mace, too, has stuck close to Trump, though the two had a rocky patch following Jan. 6, when she called the former president culpable for the Capitol riot.
Trump ultimately helped her overcome a so-called revenge tour by McCarthy, who is funding primary opponents against what he calls the “Gaetz Eight.”
She received Trump’s endorsement ahead of the GOP primary for her district last month, paving the wave for her return to Congress next year.
McCarthy retired from Congress following his removal, but he has maintained a deep well of support within the party. Richard Porter, a Republican national committeeman from Illinois, confronted Gaetz in the moments after their altercation.
“Shut up, Gaetz,” Porter said in a viral clip from the convention floor. “Get out of here. Don’t be an a**hole.”
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Porter called the stunt a “sideshow” distracting from the support Republicans are supposed to be showing Trump at the convention.
“I think it’s important for us to be unified and to pull everybody together and push them to bury the hatchet,” he said.
In that context, he said McCarthy not speaking was appropriate given the situation is still “fresh” among House lawmakers.
“If I was Kevin, I wouldn’t speak at the convention. I would make sure Mike has the spotlight,” he said, referring to the new speaker, Mike Johnson (R-LA).
Nonetheless, Porter predicted Gaetz will “rise to the moment” and deliver a unifying speech.
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“I think they’re trying to show a broad spectrum of Republicans and recognizing that not all Republicans agree with each other, and each of them speak to a different constituency or potential constituency,” Porter said.
“So, it’s not like everybody who speaks has to be beloved by all elements of the party,” he added.
