Days before Rep. Matt Gaetz led an effort to oust Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, Gaetz and Rep. Matt Rosendale, a fellow Freedom Caucus member, denounced as a political stunt Republicans’ high-stakes effort to impeach President Joe Biden, according to a video obtained by NBC News. At an invitation-only fundraiser held over Zoom last week, Gaetz, R-Fla., and Rosendale, who is said to be plotting another Senate run next year, heaped skepticism on the probe. “I don’t believe that we are endeavoring upon a legitimate impeachment of Joe Biden,” Gaetz told Steve Bannon, a podcaster and onetime political adviser to former President Donald Trump, who was moderating the discussion. “They’re trying to engage in a, like, ‘forever war’ of impeachment,” Gaetz said. “And like many of our forever wars, it will drag on forever and end in a bloody draw.” As they fielded questions from high-dollar conservative donors, Gaetz and Rosendale were just days away from moving to end McCarthy’s speakership — and tipping the Republican caucus into its own protracted battle over who will lead the conference.
