The seething former speaker Kevin McCarthy finally exploded on the topic of his ouster Rep. Matt Gaetz yesterday, angrily asserting the Florida lawmaker "slept with a 17-year-old."
"I'll give you the truth why I'm not speaker. Because one person — a member of Congress — wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old," the bitter McCarthy said at a Georgetown University event, obviously referring to Gaetz, who for years has been investigated for sex trafficking and sleeping with a minor.
"And that's illegal and I'm not gonna get in the middle of it," he continued, before realizing he may have gone too far. (See video below, posted by The Recount.)
Catching himself, the out-of-work Republican then backpedaled. "Did he do it? I don't know, but ethics is looking at it. There's other people in jail because of it. And he wanted me to influence it."
Although this was the most direct accusation McCarthy has made about Gaetz and his tawdry scandal, it's not his first. In February, McCarthy accused Gaetz of lying about his close relationship to Donald Trump, before saying, "He probably lies about who he sleeps with, too."
