Kevin McCarthy reflects on time in office and airs grievances on his way out the door

After nearly 17 years in Congress, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) cast his last vote in the House on Thursday as he prepares to leave the House at the end of this year.

McCarthy’s final day on the Hill rounded out a career that saw him rise to the position of speaker before a historic ending that saw him removed from the position he had long sought.

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During an interview with a small group of reporters, McCarthy aired his grievances, reflected on his time as speaker, and delved into some of his plans post-public office.

McCarthy lost his top House position after only nine months, when eight Republicans, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), joined with all the Democrats to oust McCarthy as speaker on Oct. 3.

Gaetz claimed his reason for ousting McCarthy was purely rooted in differing policy stances, denying on the record multiple times that it was personal. But McCarthy has a different take.

“In the end, history will write what’s true,” McCarthy said. “We all know it’s the ethics complaint on Gaetz. He’s doing everything to make sure it doesn’t come out, and that means he doesn’t care about anything else.”

Gaetz is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, and the former speaker argues that this is why Gaetz kick-started the campaign to get rid of him.

“He’s just, you know, there’s people that study that type of crazy, right, mainly the FBI,” McCarthy said.

In response to McCarthy’s statements, Gaetz said, “Thoughts and prayers to the former congressman.”

After his ouster, McCarthy decided to leave Congress at the end of the year, and with the House scheduled to recess until the end of the year, Thursday marked the California Republican’s final day in the lower chamber.

McCarthy said he has “no regrets” about the decisions he made while he was speaker and plans to stay involved and help elect Republicans across the country. He would also be open to returning to public service and serving in a future Republican administration, he said.

But right now, he’s a free agent sitting on a lot of cash in his campaign account.

When asked about those eight who ousted him from the speakership and if he plans to use some of that money to fund primary challengers to them, McCarthy alluded that it might be a possibility.

“I’m going to raise a lot more money. I want to find conservatives who want to govern. Chaos doesn’t help us, and so, people who are willing to govern, I’m willing to help,” he said.

During McCarthy’s speakership, there were occasions that a rule vote failed under his watch or a bill was brought down due to opposition from hard-line conservatives. The opposition on the House floor brought the harsh divisions of the GOP conference to the public eye. But, the former speaker said, at times, this was purposeful and a way to get all members on the record so he could sniff out exactly what the problem was.

“Lots of times, I did that on purpose,” he said. “You wanted to isolate people. You wanted to find where the problem was.”

Under his leadership, the problem came from one place, the far right, whereas currently, the opposition is on a spectrum ranging from centrists to more hard-liners.

“It was never a problem as someone who’s going to vote against something, but they all came from the same make of the conference because you could figure out the problem,” he said. “Now, you’re finding it’s people who are moderate and conservative voting against. Well, you can’t fix that problem.”

“So, the conference itself has to fix themselves,” he continued. “There’s got to become consequences. Otherwise, there are no rules.”

He also gave some soft praise to his successor, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who he said is doing “a good job.”

But McCarthy says one thing he would have done differently than Johnson is the handling of providing aid to Israel amid its war against terrorist organization Hamas, saying that he would’ve handled it in a way that would’ve gotten aid to the country immediately.

“What I would have done is never put a pay for on Israel,” he said.

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Regardless, he recognizes that Johnson came into a tough situation, leading a divided conference with no experience. The leader should not fear what members might do to him if he makes a decision they don’t like, just do what’s best for the country.

“Mike hasn’t been the majority leader. He hasn’t been the minority leader. He didn’t get to build up to be speaker; he’s thrown in the middle. … That’s a tough place to be in,” McCarthy said. “My advice would be, if he asked me, ‘Do not be afraid of a motion to vacate. They cannot do it. I don’t think the Democrats would.’”