Matt Gaetz

But he turned back around when he heard a scuffle behind him. Alabama Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican ally of McCarthy, had angrily confronted Gaetz, telling him ...

Ken Buck, a McCarthy supporter who was standing nearby, said the exchange between the two men was pleasant, and that McCarthy just asked him to change his vote. Gaetz said his “present” vote was as far as he was going, Buck said. But Gaetz could only be partially swayed, and stood to say “present” when the roll call reached his name. McCarthy and his allies seemed confident walking in, but as the votes ticked off, it became clear he would be one short. Matt Gaetz to change his vote from “present” to “McCarthy.” In the days afterward, McCarthy blamed then-President Donald Trump for encouraging his supporters who attacked the building and interrupted the certification of President Joe Biden.

Chaos reigned during the final House speaker vote on Friday night, as Rep Mike Rogers had to be physically restrained after apparently lunging towards ...

Mr McCarthy said afterward that Mr Gaetz had eventually “got everybody there to the point that nobody voted against me,” persuading some of his fellow colleagues to vote “present” as well. As a dejected Mr McCarthy walked back to his seat, Mr Rogers then angrily confronted Mr Gaetz, with the pair nearly coming to blows. The House fell silent as the GOP leader appeared to plead with Mr Gaetz to switch his vote to “McCarthy”, but the bombastic Florida lawmaker remained defiant.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) confronted Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) after he refused to vote for Kevin McCarthy to be the next House speaker and had to be restrained ...

This was the dramatic moment when tensions flared on the floor of the House of Representatives after 14 rounds of voting for a new Speaker.

During the vast majority of the House speaker roll call votes, Gaetz chose to back an array of conservative alternatives to Rep. Kevin McCarthy.

Mike Rogers of Alabama after the 14th round of voting then confronted Gaetz and And the new rules would also empower conservatives in the lower chamber, giving them more representation on critical congressional committees. While the move represented a breakthrough for Gaetz, it generated anger from many members within the larger caucus as McCarthy remained one vote shy of winning the speaker's gavel. During Kevin McCarthy's protracted battle to secure the speakership in the new Republican-controlled House of Representatives, Rep. Gaetz came into the original January 3 vote seeking new leadership, which he expressed through a succession of speaker votes cast for Reps. - Gaetz told CNN that he "ran out of things" to ask for by the end of the public leadership fight.

During the vast majority of the House speaker roll call votes, Gaetz chose to back an array of conservative alternatives to Rep. Kevin McCarthy.

Tensions flared when Representative Matt Gaetz sunk Kevin McCarthy's 14th effort to be elected speaker of the House.