Expelling George Santos from Congress was a mistake, according to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who is set to retire from the chamber by the end of the year.
“I would have leaned to some other punishment for him,” said McCarthy, who was out of town during the Dec. 1 Santos expulsion and did not cast a vote.
The disgraced Long Island pol should have been able to “have his day in court” before the House of Representatives took action, McCarthy added.
A censure — like the one recently doled out to Rep. Jamaal Bowman for illegally pulling a House fire alarm — would have been more appropriate, the California Republican said.
The former speaker, now on a farewell media tour, said he had received congratulatory calls and messages from world leaders and high powered CEOs. But one person he hasn’t heard from is his replacement, current Speaker Mike Johnson.
“He hasn’t called for advice,” McCarthy said. “I wrote a note for whoever became speaker and left it there with some advice.
“He was at the table with me a long time, he knows what to do,” said McCarthy, who refused to divulge the contents of his letter. “My job is to help him be successful in any way I can.”
Someone McCarthy will not miss is his old House nemesis, Rep. Matt Gaetz. The outgoing speaker has spent weeks on a war path against the Florida firebrand.
McCarthy has zeroed in on an ongoing probe by the House Ethics Committee against Gaetz, which has been lingering since 2021. Last week, the committee called a new witness to schedule an interview, suggesting the inquiry remains alive heading into 2024, CNN reported.
Gaetz faced a yearslong federal sex-trafficking investigation by the Department of Justice, which said in February it would not bring any charges against him.
McCarthy warned the Ethics Committee wouldn’t be as generous.
“He doesn’t want whatever’s in that ethics complaint to come forward,” McCarthy said, insisting the root of Gaetz’s animus towards him was a misplaced view that he was responsible for instigating the probe. “He’s willing to destroy the Congress if that’s what it takes. So it must be something very serious and it seems much more serious than whatever Santos [did].”
McCarthy said he believed the committee would uncover “criminal behavior” assuming there was “no deal made” with Speaker Johnson to try and bury it.
Reached for response, Gaetz offered his “thoughts and prayers to the former congressman.”
McCarthy said he had no regrets about how his final months in Congress went down and believes next year former President Trump will retake the White House and the Republicans will expand their House majority.
“Joe Biden is not the same Joe Biden I knew and worked with when he was vice president,” McCarthy said. “And if we treated this as a company or anything else, he would not be in the running to be our president.”
The ex-Speaker said he was looking forward to whatever the future holds, and tamped down reports he might go to work for Elon Musk as “kind of crazy.”
“My background has always been in business. I’ve got an MBA and I love entrepreneurship, so I’ll probably do something in the business world,” McCarthy said.