The 12 Most ‘What Did He Just Say?’ Moments From Kevin McCarthy’s Farewell Press Conference
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) relationship with the press was always a tenuous one. While no one could argue he was not available — his impromptu walk-and-talk gaggles clogged many a Capitol hallway — he also often gave rote, seemingly focus-grouped answers to questions.
So when McCarthy gave his first press conference after being stripped of the speaker’s gavel by a combination of party dissidents and House Democrats, he was finally free to speak his mind.
McCarthy was removed on a dramatic 216-210 vote after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) offered a resolution declaring the speaker’s post vacant. The move came after a last-minute deal Saturday to keep the government open with a bill passed with Democratic votes, upsetting House GOP hardliners. Eight of them voted with Democrats to oust McCarthy.
The result of McCarthy losing the gavel was an almost hourlong display of him being wistful, sometimes charming and also combative, letting slip things he probably would not have said if he were still speaker. As one X (formerly Twitter) wag put it, “This is the Kevin McCarthy Festivus airing of grievances farewell speech?”
Below are some of the most eyebrow-raising moments:
1. He still may be miffed about not getting a Hill internship.
A large part of McCarthy’s political persona is “the kid from Bakersfield” who worked hard, made some smart moves and whose experience shows America works. In his opening remarks, McCarthy mentioned how grateful he was to be the 55th speaker of the House. But the way he couched it showed he hadn’t forgotten being rejected when he applied, back when he was in college, to be an intern for his local congressman. “I did not know this man, but I thought he’d be lucky to have me, so I applied. You know what he did? He turned me down. But you want to know the end of the story? I got elected to a seat I couldn’t get an internship for. I ended up being the 55th speaker of the House.” (His congressman was former Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas, who in 2021 called McCarthy a “hypocrite” for continuing to object to the 2020 election results on Jan. 6, 2021, after insurrectionists attacked the U.S. Capitol.)
2. He claimed Pelosi said she would have his back if an ouster was tried.
He recounted a conversation he said happened between him and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whom he told he was having trouble getting votes in his party to become speaker because he wasn’t immediately willing to bend to demands that he change House rules to allow one member to trigger the ouster process. “She said, ‘Just give it to them. I’ll always back you up. I made the same offer to Boehner, the same thing to Paul [Ryan], because I believe in the institution.’ I think today was a political decision by the Democrats,” he said after they voted with eight Republicans to oust him. “My fear is the institution fell today.” (Pelosi’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.)
3. He really, really dislikes Gaetz.
Gaetz, the ringleader of the effort to topple him, came up several times during McCarthy’s press conference — and McCarthy was often biting in his references. But the sharpest response may have been when he was asked if Gaetz’s gang represented the GOP. “You all know Matt Gaetz. You know it was personal. It had nothing to do about spending. Everything he accused somebody of, he was doing. It was all about getting attention from you,” he told the assembled reporters. “They don’t get to say they’re conservative because they’re angry and they’re chaotic.” And also: “Just because Gaetz said something, don’t believe it’s true. I haven’t heard him say one true thing yet.”
4. He’d rather see his speakership be dead than be not red.
McCarthy said he would not have wanted to be speaker at the cost of relying on Democrats to provide votes or making concessions to win their votes. “No. I’m a Republican. I win by Republicans and I lose by Republicans. It’s not that way,” he said.
5. He still thinks he did not renege on the debt ceiling deal.
In May, lawmakers agreed on a deal to suspend the debt ceiling until after the 2024 election. Democrats thought they had an agreement on the so-called topline numbers, the amount of money to be doled out for day-to-day agencies and programs for 2024. But when it came time to write funding bills putting that deal in place, McCarthy allowed Republicans to write bills pegged to a lot less than those caps, even though historically the caps have been considered floors as well. Democrats cried foul, saying they would not have agreed to the numbers as only a ceiling. “When you agree to spending levels, that’s the maximum amount you can spend. This is what is wrong with Washington. Because it’s the height you can spend, you can also spend less,” McCarthy said.
6. Note to former President Donald Trump — he doesn’t think a nonmember should be House speaker.
“First of all, you’ve got to be in the institution to understand how it works. Look, it’s legal to have somebody else. I just don’t think that would ever be good,” McCarthy said. Trump has called McCarthy “my Kevin,” but did not come to his defense during the move to oust the California Republican.
7. He basically called Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) a liar.
“Nancy Mace is a whole ’nother story,” he said after recounting how he felt blindsided by a different GOP member on the ouster vote. Mace voted for the resolution to oust McCarthy, saying he had not kept his word to her on advancing bills to convince women Republicans were not radical on reproductive rights issues. He said he’d heard her say he’d broken his word in a TV interview before the votes and tried to call her to discuss it. “You know what her chief of staff said? ‘You have kept your word, 100%.’” he said. “Her chief of staff told all of us we have kept every single one of our words and he said he’s told her that, too.” This was followed by the second time a McCarthy aide yelled “Last question!”
8. He believes Democrats hurt the institution of Congress by using the Jan. 6 attacks for political gain.
Asked if his criticism of the concerns about the institutional health of Congress might be more valid had he taken Jan. 6 more seriously, he answered, “Do I regret the Democrats playing games with Jan. 6? Yes. They played so many politics. What they did to this institution, what they did to this building was so wrong,” he said. McCarthy initially blamed Trump for the attack, but only weeks later went to meet publicly with him. When his picks for the Jan. 6 investigatory committee were not approved by Pelosi, he stopped supporting it. Democrats, he said, locked down the Capitol after Jan. 6, including placing metal detectors outside the House chamber. “I’m trying to change all that and bring the body back so they can work together. But I think they did a lot of damage.”
9. He essentially called Russian president Vladimir Putin a modern-day Hitler — just after blocking aid to Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion.
“What’s happening around looks a lot like the 1930s. A lot of actions that Putin takes is very similar to Hitler,” McCarthy said, before starting a two-minute-plus recitation of similarities between the two. But only three days before, celebrating the passage of a stopgap funding bill which removed aid to Ukraine, McCarthy said, “If we’re worried about Ukraine’s border, we should worry about America’s border, too.” He tied the two issues together again Tuesday.
10. He said he was kind of surprised by the lack of reachout from the White House.
McCarthy said he could not recall the last time he talked to President Joe Biden.“I thought we had built some respect going through the debt ceiling,” he said. Since the debt ceiling, the House, with McCarthy’s blessing, had opened an impeachment inquiry into Biden focusing on the president’s son and activities that predated Biden’s taking office as president.
11. He thinks Democrats didn’t help him keep the speakership in part because they feared his fundraising prowess.
“I was just told that by Democrats in their conference, that’s what helped them make their decision. I think their quote was, ‘Why would we help the person that becomes our executioner?’” he said. Which he followed up with another dig at Gaetz: “I’m sure Matt Gaetz will give the [National Republican Congressional Committee] a lot of money. He’s raised a lot online.”
12. He won’t miss dealing with reporters.
While McCarthy showed sometimes admirable restraint when followed by large mobs of reporters through the Capitol, it’s probably not correct to say he enjoyed mixing it up with the press, as some speakers have. He accused reporters of always being negative, of underestimating both him and House Republicans in general, and he often questioned relatively obvious premises of reporters’ questions. So his mic drop as he ended the presser was pretty much on brand: “I enjoy you. I don’t know if you’ll cover me as much, but I’m sure I won’t miss you. But see you soon.”
