Heated moment Matt Gaetz confronts Kevin McCarthy and tells him he would be 'booed' on stage in clash on the convention floor

Conservatives had hoped to put on a show of unity at the Republican National Convention. But one moment saw old divisions flare up as Matt Gaetz taunted Kevin McCarthy on the floor while he was being interviewed. 

'What night are you speaking? If you took that stage, you would get booed off of it. You’d get booed off the stage!' Gaetz snickered at the California Republican. 

His aide tweeted out a clip of the encounter. 

Gaetz and McCarthy have a long history of sparring. 

The Florida rabble-rouser launched the motion to vacate that resulted in McCarthy losing the job he'd worked his whole career for. 

McCarthy said in April that he lost his job because he refused to help Rep. Matt Gaetz cover up 'sleeping with a 17-year-old.' 

'I'll give you the truth why I'm not speaker,' McCarthy said at a Georgetown University talk entitled 'How Strong Is Our Democracy?'

'It's because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old,' the California Republican went on. 'Did he do it or not? I don't know.'

McCarthy has long accused Gaetz of launching the historic motion to vacate that ousted him from the speakership last year over an ongoing ethics investigation into his conduct.

Gaetz shot back to the speaker's accusation on X: 'Kevin McCarthy is a liar. That’s why he is no longer speaker. Just ask the 224 people who voted to remove him.'

In February, McCarthy suggested married Gaetz 'lies about who he sleeps with.' 

The House Ethics Committee first opened an investigation into Gaetz in April 2021, but paused it during while the Department of Justice launched their own investigation into the member.

The DOJ eventually decided not to bring charges against Gaetz.

The House Ethics Committee, however, has reopened their probe into the Floridian.

Additionally, newly reported text messages show Gaetz soliciting a young woman who his now-imprisoned pal Joel Greenberg had paid for sex to join him on a three-day excursion to the Florida Keys.

The messages, reported by ABC News, allegedly occurred in May 2017, months after the Florida Republican was sworn into office.

Texts described in detail to the outlet reportedly show Gaetz asking the woman to fly on a private plane and join him, one other woman and three other men in the Keys.

McCarthy is the only speaker to ever lose the gavel mid-term in Congress. He subsequently left the House and has left no holds barred since on the eight Republicans who voted to oust him.