SAVAGE: Representative Matt Gaetz Goes After House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Steve Scalise Over Leaked Audio; Calling Them “Weak Men”

It has been reported that Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has shredded House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Steve Scalise as “weak men” after audio of them criticizing Rep. Gaeta and others was discovered.

“Rep. McCarthy and Rep. Scalise held views about President Trump and me that they shared on sniveling calls with Liz Cheney, not us,” the representative said.

“This is the behavior of weak men, not leaders,” he said. “Folks know what I think because I tell them clearly, directly, as I did when I held the largest event in Wyoming political history (without a rodeo element) days after these recordings were taken.

“While I was protecting President Trump from impeachment, they were protecting Liz Cheney from criticism. They deemed it incendiary or illegal to call Cheney and [Adam] Kinzinger ‘Anti-Trump,’ a label both proudly advertise today,” the representative said.

“On the bright side, you no longer have to be a lobbyist with a $5,000 check to know what McCarthy and Scalise really think. You just have to listen to their own words as they disparage Trump and the Republicans in Congress who fight for him,” he said.

ABC News reported:

In a new report Tuesday, New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns released recordings of McCarthy and other GOP leaders made in January 2021 after the riot, discussing comments made before and after the Capitol attack by far-right lawmakers and their concerns over how those comments could potentially provoke violence against other legislators.

“He’s putting people in jeopardy,” McCarthy said of Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a Trump loyalist who criticized other Republicans for being insufficiently supportive of Trump, according to the recording of the Jan. 10 call published by The Times. “And he doesn’t need to be doing this. We saw what people would do in the Capitol, you know, and these people came prepared with rope, with everything else.”

McCarthy declined to answer multiple questions from reporters as he walked from his office to the House floor for votes Tuesday evening. But when asked by ABC News if he was worried about the comments jeopardizing his bid for speaker if Republicans retake the House in the upcoming midterm elections, he had a simple answer.

“Nope,” he said.

Some Republicans gave their thoughts on the new audio of Rep. McCarthy.

“He’s going to explain it, and we’ll go from there,” Rep. Debbie Lesko said. “Let’s see what he says.”

“Trust is not a thing to be measured by one incident,” Rep. Clay Higgins said.

As for voting for Rep. McCarthy as Speaker of the House Rep. Higgins said, “I certainly have a vote and we shall see.”

“If he had just been honest and truthful with us way back then, this would not be an issue for us today,” Rep. Andy Biggs said. “We don’t want it to be an issue because we don’t want it to be a distraction.”

This week Rep. McCarthy has had to address more than one issue involving leaked audio of him.

Former President Donald Trump has reportedly heard the audio of what Republican House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy said about him and his response was not what many expected.

The former president was said to not be furious, as many assumed he would be, with the minority leader after revelations that McCarthy talked negatively about him in private after the January 6, 2021 incident at the Capitol, The Washington Post reported.

McCarthy phoned Trump on Thursday night to discuss the revelations on the audio recordings and, according to three people with knowledge of the conversation, the former president assured him that everything was good between them.

In fact, The Post said, the sources said that Trump was “glad McCarthy didn’t follow through” with asking him to resign.