Rep. Dave Joyce is warning that threats to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy are strictly about private vengeance.

The Ohio Republican stated that Rep. Matt Gaetz’s push to take away Mr. McCarthy is about “grudges.”

“The idea that somehow the speaker’s responsible for his having an ethics investigation, I could tell you is completely false,” Mr. Joyce, who's a member of the Ethics Committee, stated at a Politico occasion.

There has been hypothesis on Capitol Hill that Mr. Gaetz’s beef with the speaker is about an ongoing ethics probe.

The House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into Mr. Gaetz in 2021 over allegations of sexual misconduct, drug use and lobbying violations. Investigators began contacting witnesses in July.

“I think it’s important to remember that people have grudges against him for whatever reason and they use this to take it out on Kevin,” Mr. Joyce stated. “And it’s not fair.”

Mr. Gaetz, Florida Republican, has stated the ethics probe is politically motivated.

“The Ethics Committee is a captive vassal state of Washington’s uniparty leadership,” he stated in an announcement to the Washington Examiner. “They will never pressure me to back down.”

Mr. McCarthy informed CNN Wednesday that Mr. Gaetz was working with Rep. Eric Swalwell, California Democrat, to oust him. He stated Mr. Gaetz is motivated by the ethics probe.

Let me be very clear with you. Matt is upset about an ethics grievance. I don’t care what they threaten in opposition to me, I'm not going to interject into an unbiased committee like Ethics. And I’m not going to place Swalwell again on the Intel Committee. So, they'll do no matter they need,” Mr. McCarthy stated.

Mr. Gaetz fired again in an interview on MSNBC, saying Mr. McCarthy was “lying like a dead dog.”

“This is about term limits, a balanced budget amendment and single-subject spending bills,” Mr. Gaetz stated. “I am the most investigated man in the entire Congress. And right there, you saw Kevin McCarthy lying like a dead dog, because I have never asked him to interfere in any ethics matter.”

Mr. Gaetz informed reporters earlier this week that he doesn’t count on to “get compliance” on sure spending payments, and would name a vote often known as a movement to vacate to take away Mr. McCarthy as speaker.

“We’re either going to get compliance, or we’re going to start having votes on motions to vacate and we’re gonna have it regularly,” he stated. 

Fed up with the threats, Mr. McCarthy informed a closed-door GOP convention assembly Thursday: “If you think you scare me because you want to file a motion to vacate, move the f—-ing motion.”

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