Rep. Nancy Mace (S.C.) branded fellow Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fla.) a “political D-Lister” and knocked him for his opposition to Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) during Tuesday’s Speaker votes.
“@RepMattGaetz full ego was on display today. He’s going to screw around and get another [Rep. Nancy] Pelosi [D-Calif.] elected Speaker. I’ll have a lot more to say about this political D-Lister tomorrow,” Mace said on Twitter.
The 118th Congress sat through three rounds of voting on Tuesday and adjourned without a Speaker after no nominee clinched a required majority of lawmakers’ votes.
McCarthy lost the three consecutive votes to Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.). In the third tally, the Republican secured 202 votes to Jeffries’s 212.
Nineteen Republicans defected to cast their ballots for Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), respectively, in the first two votes, and 20 Republicans voted for Jordan in the third round.
Gaetz was among those in the GOP who turned their backs on McCarthy, along with Biggs and Reps. Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.) and others.
Gaetz, who nominated Jordan during the votes, on Tuesday wrote a letter to the Architect of the Capitol questioning why McCarthy was holing up in the Speaker’s office in the Capitol complex before the top leadership slot had been filled.
