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In a somewhat surprising move, the official White House X—formerly Twitter—account reposted Fox News reporter Liz Elkind's quotes from Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz.
While speaking to the press, Gaetz—an "America First" MAGA Republican—attacked GOP Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, blaming the California Republican for the impending government shutdown.
The federal fiscal year ends at midnight on September 30. Without an approved budget or a continuing resolution authority (CRA) passed by then, all but essential functions will have to cease operations.
Gaetz told reporters:
“We will have a government shutdown and it is absolutely Speaker McCarthy’s fault.”
In a rare move for a member of the GOP, Gaetz added:
“We cannot blame Joe Biden for not having moved our individual spending bills."
"We cannot blame House Democrats. We can’t even blame Chuck Schumer in the Senate.”
Taking note of the veracity of Gaetz's comments to the press, the White House X account shared the post with an added meme.
It read:
"Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point"
People concurred with Gaetz's assessment of McCarthy.
@WhiteHouse The only never changing bipartisan consensus is that McCarthy sucks.— DCS (@DCS) 1695245606
@DCSYYC @WhiteHouse Kevin McCarthy: bringing people together with his mediocrity— Reneducation (@Reneducation) 1695262373
@WhiteHouse— Glen (@Glen) 1695250009
@artemasyeah @WhiteHouse Seems more bipartisan than nonpartisan— Counselor Nachos (@Counselor Nachos) 1695245757
Others had nothing but love for the White House's trolling.
@The_Games_Afoot @notcapnamerica @WhiteHouse Whoever is running the WH Twitter needs a raise and an all-expense paid 4-day weekend to their choice of destination.— Beth (@Beth) 1695250184
@notcapnamerica @WhiteHouse The way I cackled— Courtney K but it's always Tw*tter (@Courtney K but it's always Tw*tter) 1695246795
@Victorshi2020 @WhiteHouse Whoever runs this account is brilliant.— dawn sickles \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\udf3b (@dawn sickles \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\udf3b) 1695248298
@WhiteHouse The only appropriate response\u2026.— KerrBear (@KerrBear) 1695265953
@LauraFlowD @WhiteHouse where have you been.....they've had quite a few— Story of bas Monde (@Story of bas Monde) 1695250746
@FerfeLaBat @WhiteHouse— Kev (@Kev) 1695245715
@WhiteHouse Best tweet from a gov account in forever.— max (e/lfg) (@max (e/lfg)) 1695247799
Gaetz has been on the offensive against McCarthy for the past few weeks.
During a Tuesday appearance on Fox News’ Hannity, Gaetz said:
"Speaker McCarthy deserves all the criticism and more because it's his fault that we haven't considered individual appropriations bills up to this point—[like he said we would in January]."
"That's not a bug in the system. It's a feature."
"They want to jam us under the time pressure of the government running out of money and the fear of a shutdown so that the lobbyists and special interests who own Kevin McCarthy get to make the decisions."
.@SpeakerMcCarthy deserves all the criticism and more because it's his fault that we haven't considered individual appropriations bills up to this point - like he said we would in January.\n\nThat's not a bug in the system. It's a feature.\n\nThey want to jam us under the time\u2026— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@Rep. Matt Gaetz) 1695175295
Gaetz and his fellow conservative House Freedom Caucus members stalled McCarthy’s election as House Speaker in January. McCarthy’s ultimate one-vote win came after a record 15th round of voting.
They eventually agreed not to continue to block McCarthy—with many voting present—after he agreed to restore a rule on the procedure for removing a sitting Speaker to allow one House member to force a recall vote at any time.
Pundits have speculated Gaetz's offensive against McCarthy may precipitate the Freedom Caucus asking for a recall vote.