Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) took to national television Sunday to call Rep. Matt Gaetz “a fraud” for his antics during the protracted House speaker election.
Mace accused Gaetz of turning his repeated rejections of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) into a fundraising plea. Joining other far-right dissenters, Gaetz voted against McCarthy 14 times before capitulating in the 15th round Friday by voting “present,” allowing McCarthy to win.
“Matt Gaetz is a fraud,” Mace said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” with Margaret Brennan. “Every time he voted against Kevin McCarthy last week he sent out a fundraising email. What you saw last week was a constitutional process diminished by those kinds of political actions. I don’t support that kind of behavior.”
“I have no regrets about casting my vote on the House floor against Kevin McCarthy for Speaker!” one Gaetz fundraising outreach read, Axios reported.
Mace also fumed that Gaetz and other Republican holdouts squeezed a concession out of McCarthy to allow for a third of the rules committee to consist of ultraconservatives from the Freedom Caucus. The rules committee determines which bills make it to the floor.
“I am concerned that commonsense legislation will not get through to get a vote on the floor,” Mace said.
Mace, who calls herself “pro-life” with “many exceptions,” noted upcoming abortion bills that will never get approved by the Senate or President Joe Biden. She said that “if we’re going to be serious about protecting life,” the GOP should entertain more centrist views that promote birth control so the need for abortions could be diminished.
Mace said she was “on the fence” over approving the rules that will facilitate actual legislation. That vote comes on Monday.
Mace, who has accused Gaetz of fraudulent behavior previously, wasn’t the only Republican to express frustration with the Florida conservative. Some walked out on Gaetz’s floor speech on Friday, and Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama had to be restrained from physically going after Gaetz at one point.
Gaetz’s office did not immediately respond to a HuffPost request for comment.