Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida may be the most talked-about representative in Congress right now on both sides of the aisle.
But a new poll shows the American people like what he’s doing, and former President Trump agrees.
On Thursday, speaking with Brian Kilmeade, former President Donald Trump told Kilmeade that Gaetz may have done a ‘tremendous favor’ for the GOP.
“Well, he was upset that Kevin was doing a lot of the Obama work, he was working on the budget and getting something approved that, you know, we could have gotten a lot for, and the debt ceiling, everybody was hurt with that,” said Trump.
“At the same time, Kevin’s a great guy, he is a wonderful guy, but people were hurt by that. It depends, I mean, on how good the new speaker, whoever that may be, how good he does. Maybe we’ll end up with one of the great speakers of all time, in which case Matt Gaetz did a tremendous favor,” said Trump.
A CBS News poll taken late last week revealed that 60% of respondents agreed with Gaetz and a majority of lawmakers in Congress that former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy needed to go.
That included clear majorities on both sides of the aisle.
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“We are winning the argument,” the Fort Walton Beach Republican said on X (formerly Twitter) in response to the poll.
Overall, 53% of Republicans supported McCarthy’s ouster, as did 67% of Democrats and 61% of independents.
Concerning ideology, 54% of self-described conservatives backed the change in leadership, while 70% of liberals and 58% of moderates concurred.
As to the reason, 75% of all respondents, and 80% of conservatives and 80% of Republicans, said McCarthy was not effective as speaker.
Meanwhile, 54% of Republicans and 54% of conservatives added that they wanted McCarthy out because he worked too much with Democrats.
As for the effect of McCarthy’s ouster, just 23% of total respondents, and 25% each of Republicans and conservatives believe ditching the former speaker will be “bad” for the country.
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Gaetz has maintained that the driving force of the rebellion he led against McCarthy was his broken promises, especially on allowing single-subject bills, cutting spending, and controlling the national debt.
Respondents to the CBS poll agreed with that as well.
While the majority of Democrats and liberals did not want the next speaker to cut spending, those on the right and middle definitely want that.
On the right, 87% of conservatives and 84% of Republicans want the new speaker to lead efforts to reduce spending, as do 63% of moderates and 68% of independents.
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