Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy claimed Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) needs to “straighten out her life” during an appearance on Capitol Hill this week.
McCarthy, who was in the nation’s capital for an event honoring former House Clerk Cheryl Johnson, commented on Mace’s reelection chances amid a tumultuous term.
“I hope Nancy gets the help she needs. I really do,” McCarthy told reporters. “I just hope she gets the help to straighten out her life. I mean, she’s got a lot of challenges. No one will stay working for her. You can’t have somebody who just flips and flops based upon what TV station she gets put on. You want someone who’s willing to work, and so I hope she gets that kind of help.”
Mace, who was one of eight Republicans that sided with Democrats to remove McCarthy as speaker, has dealt with an exodus of senior staffers recently. Among Mace’s controversies were a sex joke she made during a prayer meeting and a decision to wear a scarlet “A” on her shirt in a nod to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book The Scarlet Letter.
The comment comes after McCarthy slammed Mace in an interview with the Washington Examiner last week, shooting down speculation that she could be chosen as former President Donald Trump’s running mate.
McCarthy also attacked Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on Tuesday, claiming the congressman was not as close to Trump as Gaetz led people to believe. Gaetz rejected the allegation, stating he was invited to campaign for Trump in New Hampshire and Iowa.
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“The ghost of Christmas past visited us here in the halls of the Capitol, and Kevin McCarthy apparently said that I wasn’t as well-liked by President Trump as I thought, but I recall President Trump asking me to go campaign for him in Iowa and New Hampshire,” Gaetz told the Hill. “And there’s a reason President Trump hasn’t asked Kevin McCarthy to go campaign for him anywhere. It’s because, on almost any stage in the Trump campaign, Kevin McCarthy would be booed off of it.”
Mace also rebutted McCarthy’s attacks in a statement to the Washington Examiner last week, claiming she knows two things to be true in next year’s Congress: “I’ll be there serving my constituents as I always have, and he won’t be there at all.”