The media got the Matt Gaetz story completely wrong today
When Matt Gaetz first announced that he was moving forward with trying to oust Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, I wrote that if Gaetz succeeded, the entire media and pundit class (on both sides) would then begin hyping Gaetz as the most powerful person in Washington. It wouldn’t be true, but the media would jump on the ratings opportunity anyway. Right wing media would hail Gaetz’s supposed ascent as a great thing, while mainstream media outlets would hype Gaetz’s supposed ascent as a reason why we should all stare at our screen in fear.
Sure enough, Gaetz got his way today, and McCarthy is no longer Speaker. But while Gaetz succeeded in causing trouble, he certainly didn’t succeed in terms of gaining power or influence within the Republican Party. Gaetz called for McCarthy to be ousted, and only eight of Gaetz’s fellow House Republicans (out of more than two hundred) went along with him.
Eight votes happened to be enough to get the job done today. But Gaetz only managed to get about three percent of the House Republican caucus to support what he was trying to do. House Republicans voted overwhelmingly against Gaetz today. This guy has no power or influence whatsoever over the House Republican caucus. Today proved just how much of an isolated pariah Gaetz is. After all, 97% of House Republicans voted against Gaetz today, on the most important motion he’s ever put forward.
Because of the math involved, Gaetz and his handful of House Republicans will be able to reject any Republican Speaker candidate that the rest of his party puts forward. But that’s only because of the specific math involved. Any five House Republicans could have banded together and ousted McCarthy at any point this year. In fact it’s fairly obvious that McCarthy only caved and agreed to a budget deal over the weekend because the House Republicans in toss-up districts forced him to do it under threat of ouster. If McCarthy hadn’t gone along with it, they might have been the ones ousting him today, instead of Gaetz.
On top of it all, McCarthy’s allies already informed Gaetz through a media leak over the weekend that if he kept pushing forward with this, they’d produce a House Ethics Committee report against him and then expel him. So if they meant it, then Gaetz’s career is now over. McCarthy has lost the Speakership but still has his seat in the House. Gaetz could soon be unemployed. He’s on track to be the biggest loser in all of this.
Yet because a stunt clown like Gaetz is good for ratings (on both sides), the media is now going to hype Gaetz as if he’s now running Washington. Nevermind that 97% of his fellow House Republicans just tried to vote him down, and they’re vowing to expel him.
Of course the media is simply making up narratives about how Gaetz’s expulsion will somehow magically be good for him. At one point this evening, MSNBC was hyping Gaetz as a supposed candidate for Governor of Florida in 2026. Even though Florida is Republican-leaning, the idea of Gaetz somehow becoming Governor is laughable. He’s a pariah outside of his own far-right district. He’d never be able to compete in the Republican primary race – especially after he’s expelled from the House by his fellow Republicans for alleged underage sex trafficking and has that hanging around his neck.
But none of those facts seem to matter. We all knew going into today that if Matt Gaetz managed to get just a small handful of House Republicans to go along with his stupid plan, the entire media on both sides would crown him the new king of Washington DC, with the only difference being whether it was spun as a good thing or a bad thing. Nevermind that 97% of the Republican House rejected Gaetz today, proving that his influence – even within his own party – is close to zero.
