McCarthy not worried about Gaetz threats to speaker’s gavel: ‘Go ahead and do it’

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said he is not worried about losing the speaker’s gavel as at least one conservative Republican is making veiled threats to bring a motion to vacate.

Fresh off a “busy, busy” recess, McCarthy is forced to deal with threats to his speakership from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who has taken to X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, and implied that he might bring a motion to vacate.

OVERSIGHT RANKING MEMBER RASKIN SAYS GOP’S BIDEN INVESTIGATION IS A ‘TOTAL BUST’

When asked if he was worried about losing his gavel following Gaetz’s posts, McCarthy said, “Not at all” and that the Florida Republican should “go ahead and do it.”

“Matt’s Matt,” he said.

Gaetz’s motion to vacate threats comes as the House prepares to tackle its remaining 11 appropriations bills. Hard-line conservatives, such as Gaetz, are adamant that McCarthy must cut spending and not cave to Democrats in agreeing to more spending. Their number in the sand over the course of this process has been $1.471 trillion. McCarthy faced similar threats from his right fringe during the debt ceiling negotiations when he presented a bill to raise the debt ceiling that some members of his conference felt wasn’t suitable enough.

It only takes a single member to call a motion to vacate, and with Republicans having a slim majority, it would only take a handful of them to join Democrats to oust him.

“Hi, Eric. If I make a motion to remove Kevin, how [many] democrat votes can I count on? Asking for a friend,” Gaetz said in response to a post on X from Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who had criticized the Florida Republican for making “empty threats” to remove McCarthy as speaker.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Gaetz then asked Swalwell to act as a whip among his Democratic counterparts.

“Are all Democrats so willing, [Swalwell]? Will my NorCal twitter troll have the courage and efficacy to become my dem whip?? If I’ll work with [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] to ban congressional stock trading I’ll absolutely work with [Swalwell] to rid the House of ineffective leadership,” Gaetz said. “How many votes can you deliver against a Motion to Table a Motion to Vacate, eric? Asking for (many) friends!”