The feud between former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) is reaching a fever pitch after the former speaker endorsed Gaetz's primary opponent.
McCarthy recently announced his endorsement of Aaron Dimmock, who is a former aviator in the U.S. Navy challenging Gaetz in the Republican primary for Florida's 1st Congressional District. In an interview with Politico, McCarthy praised Dimmock's military service while blasting Gaetz over his ongoing House Ethics Committee investigation.
“Gaetz is the Hunter Biden of the Republican Party,” McCarthy said. “He’s got an opponent who is pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, trained at Pensacola, went to the Naval Academy and flew jets to defend us while Gaetz was getting kicked out of high school, buying coke and paying minors for sex.”
In response to McCarthy's attack, Gaetz tweeted a challenge to McCarthy to come to his district and campaign alongside Dimmock. The Florida Republican referenced his opponent's past support for the Black Lives Matter demonstrations and diversity, calling him "DEI Dimmock," which is a reference to diversity, equity and inclusion programming that seeks to educate people on issues of race and opportunity.
"Who thinks Kev and DEI Dimmock should campaign together in Northwest Florida?" Gaetz tweeted. "I sure do!"
Dimmock, who entered the primary last month just before the deadline, will face off against Gaetz in the August 20 primary. He didn't push back against Gaetz's assertions that he was supportive of diversity initiatives, but he did lob attacks of his own, calling out Gaetz for being a "career politician" (Gaetz has been in public office since getting elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2010).
“Matt Gaetz’s desperation oozes out of every baseless claim he makes as he attempts to distract voters from his disastrous tenure in Congress," the Dimmock campaign told Politico. "The voters of this district are going to have a clear choice in August: a true conservative outsider with a history of service to country or a desperate career politician who will say anything to hold on to power.”
READ MORE: GOP-led committee revives investigation into Matt Gaetz's alleged sex trafficking and corruption
The public spat between McCarthy and Gaetz began with Gaetz spearheading the effort to remove McCarthy as speaker via a motion to vacate last fall. Gaetz and seven other Republicans — along with all Democrats — voted for Gaetz's motion, making McCarthy the first sitting Speaker of the House in U.S. history to be removed by a motion to vacate from his own party. McCarthy then left Congress altogether in December of 2023.
Gaetz has notably not backed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-Georgia) effort to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), even though he said he agrees with her on the principle of Johnson not delivering enough wins for the GOP's far-right fringe. She brought her motion to vacate to the floor of the House of Representatives for an official vote on Wednesday afternoon, though House Democrats and a number of House Republicans voted to table it.
READ MORE: Kevin McCarthy delivers scathing rebuke of Gaetz ethics probe: 'He slept with a 17-year-old'
Click here to read Politico's full report.
