Hard-right firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) accused House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) of paying social media influencers to drag him online, Gaetz told reporters Thursday, a claim vehemently denied by McCarthy—as Gaetz leads right-wing opposition to a McCarthy-backed budget proposal and threatens to oust McCarthy as speaker.
U.S. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) (L) talks to Rep.-elect Matt Gaetz (R-FL) in the ... [+]
Gaetz said McCarthy denied the unproven allegations when he confronted him during a closed-door Republican meeting on Thursday, telling CNN, “I asked him whether or not he was paying those influencers to post negative things about me online.”
Gaetz was referring to uncorroborated allegations that proliferated on social media earlier this week by users like the right-wing DC Draino account, who tweeted a screenshot of a message he claimed was from a “McCarthy proxy” asking about his interest in “paid posts” as part of an “advocacy campaign with [the]
budget” involving “Gaetz and the government shutdown.”McCarthy’s office has denied any involvement in the supposed social media campaign, according to multiple reports, and his outside legal counsel sent a cease-and-desist letter earlier this week to one of the entities his lawyers believe is participating in the alleged scheme, Notorious LLC, which describes itself as “a global content studio and network that empowers bold voices everywhere.”
The letter, written by lawyer Elliot S. Berke, reportedly accuses Notorious LLC of “reaching out to social media influencers about a ‘Against Gaetz and government shutdown [campaign] and claiming it is in on behalf of Speaker McCarthy.”
Forbes has reached out to McCarthy’s and Gaetz’s offices and Notorious LLC for comment.
"We've done more legislating in the last 48 hours than we've done in the last eight months," Gaetz told The Messenger about the budget negotiations. "And we've had to do it with a political gun to the speaker's head.”
Gaetz has repeatedly threatened to file a motion that would kickstart the process to remove McCarthy as speaker, citing what he claims are violations of the agreement McCarthy reached with his hard-right detractors to win the speaker’s gavel in January. Gaetz has cited a string of demands he says McCarthy has fallen short of, including passing a balanced budget and holding a vote on term limits for lawmakers. Gaetz amplified his threat earlier this month as budget negotiations heated up, delivering a speech on the House floor in which he accused McCarthy of being “out of compliance” with the agreement “It’s put up for shut up time for McCarthy.” Gaetz is among a coalition of far-right House members who said they will vote against a McCarthy-backed continuing resolution that would keep the government up and running temporarily to give lawmakers more time to negotiate a full-year spending plan for fiscal year 2024.
Congress must pass, and the president must sign, 12 annual appropriations bills that make up the government spending plan every year before the current fiscal year expires on September 30. With just two days left before a government shutdown, neither chamber has passed a budget or a temporary resolution to keep the government open past Saturday. Right-wing resistance in the GOP-controlled House has effectively halted budget negotiations as they can afford to lose just four Republican votes to pass any legislation without the support of Democrats. In addition to the Republicans who refuse to vote on any short-term legislation, a larger GOP coalition is united behind adding anti-immigration measures and border security funding to the budget—provisions the Democratic-controlled Senate has left out of the short-term spending plan it’s advanced in the upper chamber this week.
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