Republican Representative Matt Gaetz cast his vote for former president Donald Trump in the seventh attempt for the House of Representatives to nominate a speaker, an effort to thwart Kevin McCarthy.
Mr Gaetz is leading the Republican opposition to Mr McCarthy, who currently leads the House Republican conference. The four-term Republican from Florida is also one of the former president’s most outspoken supporters in Congress.
In response, Mr Trump’s spokesman Liz Harrington retweeted a video of Mr Gaetz’s vote.
“Let’s GOOOOO!” he tweeted.
On Monday, Mr Gaetz delivered a speech to nominate Representative Jim Jordan right after Mr Jordan, who is set to become the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, gave a speech to nominate Mr McCarthy.
“Jim Jordan is humble, perhaps today, humble to a fault,” he said on Monday. “Maybe the right person for the job of speaker of the House is someone who wants it so bad.”
Similarly, throughout the week, Mr Gaetz was seen chatting up various members on the floor, including Democrats like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Mr Gaetz delivered his speech while seated next to Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Despite the fact that both of them are members of the House Freedom Caucus and close friends, the speaker vote has split them.
“Matt Gaetz is my friend and he'll always be my friend, but I'm not willing to go along with a plan that doesn't exist,” she said. “so I've explained to Matt, I'm like you you need to find a way out of this. there needs to be an off ramp, and it needs to happen and you know we're friends, nothing will ever change that. But this he said he's doing this for the country, this isn't for the country.”
