With midterm in rearview, Rep. Matt Gaetz focusing in on Republican friends and foes

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz was a member of the Freedom Caucus. He is not a member.

After winning reelection by a nearly 36-point margin Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz has turned his focus to rallying the right-wing members of the GOP to reject the current House Republican leadership.

Gaetz took to his social media channels last week after the election to blast U.S. Rep Kevin McCarthy's bid to become the next House speaker if Republicans take control of the House when all the votes are counted from Tuesday's election.

Gaetz, who has long been a critic of McCarthy, said he would prefer "Freedom Caucus" member U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to become the next speaker.

"It is not always easy for a guy from the Deep South to be for someone from a Big Ten state, but I am certain that Americans didn't hand Republicans this majority in the House, just to watch the speaker's gavel get handed from one member of the California delegation to another," Gaetz said on his "Firebrand" podcast that is produced by his congressional office.

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As of Friday afternoon, Republicans had won 211 seats in the next Congress, seven seats short of the 218 needed to control the legislative body. Most political analysts were predicting Republicans will have a slim majority in the low 220s in the House, far short of a "red wave" the GOP was expecting.

The slim majority means whoever is leading the GOP in the House will need the votes of all of the party's members to move forward with any legislation.

"We don't know how many people will be in this Republican majority, but I can assure you that as of this broadcast, Kevin McCarthy does not have the 218 votes to become speaker of the House, and we should not give them to him," Gaetz said.

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Gaetz said Jordan was the "true leader" of the Republican caucus.

"With such a slim majority, we shouldn't be starting the C team," Gaetz said. "We need to put our star players in a position to shine brightest so that we can attract more people to our policies and ideas. The policies Kevin McCarthy has pushed, they are as unhelpful as they are unserious."

Gaetz campaigned over the summer with Jordan, making an appearance together in Pensacola during the primary.

The comments came after Gaetz released an op-ed in The Daily Caller on Wednesday endorsing Trump for a 2024 presidential bid.

"Only Trump can be trusted to enact the 'America First' agenda he ran on in 2016," Gaetz wrote. "We won’t accept any imitation."

In the op-ed, Gaetz also subtly went after Gov. Ron DeSantis, noting hedge fund CEO and GOP mega-donor Ken Griffin was "planning to back a Trump challenge," and linked to a POLITICO article where Griffin is quoted as saying that if DeSantis runs, he will support him.

"He has a tremendous record as governor of Florida, and our country would be well-served by him as president," Griffin said to POLITICO, regarding DeSantis.

While offering praise for Trump, Griffin said he thought it was "time to move on to the next generation."

The Gaetz op-ed came the day before Trump excoriated DeSantis for even considering a 2024 run. Trump is expected to officially announce his 2024 presidential bid on Nov. 15.

"And now, Ron DeSanctimonious is playing games!" Trump wrote. "The Fake News asks him if he’s going to run if President Trump runs, and he says, 'I’m only focused on the Governor’s race, I’m not looking into the future.' Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer."

Gaetz campaigned with DeSantis in 2018 and was named as a leader of the governor's transition team. But as controversy began to surround Gaetz over the last two years with news of a federal investigation into sex trafficking allegations, DeSantis has kept Gaetz at arm's length.

After the release of Trump's statement Thursday, Gaetz has kept his public comments focused to criticism of McCarthy but he retweeted a link to his Daily Caller op-ed on Friday.

Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com and 850-208-9827.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Matt Gaetz aligns with Trump as DeSantis presidency bid rumors grow