McCarthy says House ethics complaint about Gaetz "must be something very serious"

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy suspects that the complaint being reviewed by the House Ethics Committee in relation to Rep. Matt Gaetz “seems much more serious” than what expelled Rep. George Santos did.

The California Congressman said Gaetz “doesn’t want whatever’s in that ethics complaint to come forward,” referring to the ongoing House Ethics Committee probe.

He even added that he suspected the committee would uncover “criminal behavior” although the complaint follows the Justice Department's decision not to file charges against Gaetz as part of a purported sex-trafficking investigation.

The congressional ethics probe comes in the wake of the Justice Department's decision not to file charges against the Florida representative as part of a purported sex-trafficking investigation.

Since Gaetz spearheaded a rebellion to oust McCarthy, speculation has arisen that one of his possible motives for creating the chaos was to delay the Ethics Committee investigation into his background.

"He’s willing to destroy the Congress if that’s what it takes. So it must be something very serious and it seems much more serious than whatever Santos [did]," McCarthy said.

Gaetz, who led the effort to oust McCarthy from his position as speaker, offered his "thoughts and prayers to the former congressman" when reached for comment.

McCarthy’s comments about Gaetz were revealed as part of a story published by the New York Post on Saturday, in which the California representative said he believed Santos’ expulsion from Congress was a mistake, and that the legislative branch should have let the judicial branch exhaust due process, first.

“I would have leaned to some other punishment for him,” said McCarthy, who did not vote on the Santos expulsion since he was out of town at the time. 

McCarthy explained that a censure would have been a more appropriate punishment, like what New York Rep. Jamal Bowman received after he unlawfully pulled a House fire alarm.

McCarthy is scheduled to voluntarily resign and leave Congress by the end of this year, a move which political pundits say is edging the GOP closer to losing its razor thin majority.