It was "definitely worth" ousting former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year, but more Republicans than only his replacement, Speaker Mike Johnson, will find themselves out of work if a spending deal that includes border security is not reached, Rep. Matt Gaetz said on Newsmax Sunday.
"Johnson was able to claw back more than $20 billion of the McCarthy secret, corrupt side deals that no one even knew about," the Florida Republican, speaking from former President Donald Trump's campaign trail in New Jersey, told Newsmax's "Sunday Agenda."
But if a border security deal is not reached, that will mean "our entire majority" will lose, said Gaetz.
"It's going to be all of our jobs because the American people want us to stand up and fight for something," said Gaetz. "That's what I'm trying to get Congress to do every day."
Johnson, meanwhile, is operating with only a one-seat majority, while McCarthy had a four-seat majority, with the former speaker "diminishing our power by just taking his marbles and going home after he was no longer the speaker, so we've got to fight with the team we have."
Meanwhile, Gaetz attacked the national media, including MSNBC star Joy Reid, who last week criticized "white Christians" for leading to Trump's win in Iowa's caucuses.
"Rage is a feature of the left-wing media right now," he said. "That isn't speaking to people's problems. Right here in this diner, I'm talking to folks who are comparing the economy that they had under President Trump and the economy that they're living in today.
"Whether it's roofers or pipe fitters or people who have been airline pilots, they believe that we can have more prosperity for our country, higher wages, and more economic opportunity for the next generation."
Americans want answers and results, he added, but Congress has "failed in this regard," Gaetz said.
"We shouldn't be funding the government in the absence of real demands on the border, so that our people are not being poisoned, and it's happening in every community," he said. "I think President Trump's tough stance toward drug dealers hit home in the speech that he gave in Manchester last night."
He further predicted that Trump could get more than 50% of the voters in New Hampshire, but only if former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's efforts to get independents and Democrats to vote in the primary succeed.
Such efforts are being made for Haley to "create a mirage" of momentum as the voting heads to her home state, he said.
"We've got a firewall, but we've also got a really energetic campaign here and a lot of great folks we're happy to spend time with," Gaetz said.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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