Matt Gaetz, Kevin McCarthy renew tawdry feud on floor of Republican National Convention

In a GOP convention marked by singular unity, the one public moment of disharmony involved a … Florida man.

The exchange took place as former U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was being interviewed by CNN's Kaitlan Collins about party unity. That's when Congressman Matt Gaetz, a Pensacola Republican, interrupted the discussion.

Gaetz took the opportunity to taunt McCarthy by asking: "What night are you speaking? Are you speaking tonight?"

McCarthy was ousted from the chamber's top post in a challenge led by Gaetz. The Californian does not have a speaking slot in this week's Republican National Convention.

As Gaetz spoke, a bystander put his arm around him and ushered the lawmaker away from the Californian.

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McCarthy did not flinch. But as Collins asked about his firing, he took a serious dig at Gaetz, noting the allegation of improper conduct that has swirled around the Panhandle lawmaker for years.

"That was all the Democrats and eight Republicans," McCarthy said. "One who's not coming back. And the other part that you have is one person who raised the issue, he's got an ethics complaint about paying, sleeping with a 17-year-old."

Gaetz then shot back: "If you took that stage, you'd get booed off it. You would get booed off the stage."

McCarthy later said, in another network interview, that he would not get booed off the RNC stage and that the feud stems from an ethics complaint alleging that Gaetz paid for sex with an underage girl. It is a claim Gaetz has vociferously denied.

"He came to me to try to leverage me to stop the ethics investigation," McCarthy related. "That's illegal. I'm not doing that."

Asked if today's current GOP is more in line with him or Gaetz, McCarthy sounded off.

"I would hope there wouldn't be another Matt Gaetz in the Republican Party. I mean, paying underage women. The other people who are involved in that are in jail. So, I mean, look, everybody has different people in their party. Unfortunately, Matt happens to be here. I think at the end of the day, he probably shouldn't be on the streets."

Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: RNC feud: Gaetz taunting McCarthy lone public moment of disunity