‘Oh f*** off’: Kevin McCarthy allies BRAWL with Matt Gaetz over his claims the Speaker is paying influencers to smear him as shutdown chaos reaches another level

It’s less than three days before the government shuts down and tensions within the Republican Party run high.

Rep. Matt Gaetz was berated by his colleagues when he criticized Speaker Kevin McCarthy during an all-Republican meeting Thursday morning.

The Florida Republican continues to threaten to try to oust McCarthy as leaders scramble to find a path forward to fund the government for the 2024 fiscal year.

Gaetz accused McCarthy of sending his allies to pay influencers to post negative content about him.

“I’m not worried about you, Matt,” McCarthy told him, a source in the room said.

Rep. Matt Gaetz was berated by his colleagues when he criticized Speaker Kevin McCarthy during an all-Republican meeting Thursday morning

McCarthy informed Gaetz that his legal team had sent a cease and desist letter to those who offered money in exchange for negative content about Gaetz, and told them to stop claiming they were doing so on behalf of the speaker.

Later, McCarthy pledged a $5 million donation to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).

“How much of that comes from FTX or Sam Bankman-Fried,” Gaetz then noted.

“Oh fuck off,” one member shot back, the source confirmed to DailyMail.com. Punchbowl named the member Rep. French Hill, R-Ark.

“Scumbag,” said another member.

Essentially, the only option to prevent a government shutdown would be to introduce a bipartisan continuing resolution (CR), or emergency bill, in the House of Representatives and Senate to buy more time to initiate a shutdown. prevent.

Gaetz has said he would immediately file a motion to vacate, or force a vote to oust McCarthy from the presidency, if he worked with Democrats to push a relief bill through Congress.

And while the Senate advances its own bipartisan CR, McCarthy is still pushing for a CR with conservative concessions. He demands a CR with border restrictions and no Ukrainian money, in addition to sharp cuts that will surely deter Democrats.

At the same time, the House of Representatives has passed only one of the twelve budget bills that members have demanded. In recent years, Congress has resorted to passing one sweeping omnibus bill, which lumps together funding levels for every government agency.

But when Republicans captured the House of Representatives this year, they instead promised to pass 12 single-issue spending bills. Two days before the deadline, the House of Representatives passed one appropriations bill and voted on four others Thursday evening, and it is unclear whether they will actually pass.