Gaetz vs. Mullin: Why two conservatives are feuding over the foreign aid bill

Two of the GOP’s biggest personalities on the Hill are in a war of words over the $95 billion foreign aid bill that recently passed the Senate.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) blasted Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as a “liar” on Wednesday for claiming that he’s talking to House Republicans about signing onto a Hail Mary strategy for forcing a vote on the foreign aid plan — a bill that Mullin voted against in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

“.@MattGaetzis a liar,” Mullin wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Those of us who have worked with him already know that. He should focus on his own ethics issues instead of spreading false Hill rumors.”

Mullin’s use of the term “ethics issues” is almost certainly a subtle nod to the House’s ongoing internal inquiry into allegations of sexual encounters between Gaetz and teenage girls, the subject of a federal investigation that ended without charges about a year ago. The Oklahoman hit back after Gaetz referred to Mullin, a former House member who’s close to ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, as a “neoconservative” who “didn’t have the guts to vote for” the aid package.

Gaetz’s claim that Mullin is secretly working to pass a bill he voted against appears to stem from a report in The Washington Post where Mullin described “different scenarios” to pass the bill through the House. Some interpreted that comment to mean a Democratic-led discharge petition that would circumvent GOP leadership.

Mullin rebutted the idea he was supportive of a discharge petition on Tuesday as “fake news,” saying he’d instead “spoken to @SpeakerJohnson about ways to enact President Trump’s loan ideas for foreign aid.”

There’s no love lost between Mullin and Gaetz, to put it mildly. Mullin made a series of X-rated accusations to CNN about the Florida Republican after Gaetz helped spearhead the ouster of McCarthy in October.

The since-resigned McCarthy, in remarks to reporters on Tuesday on Capitol Hill, said Gaetz was “very concerned about” the Ethics Committee probe “and wanted me to do something about it. I wouldn’t. It’d be illegal.”

Olivia Beavers contributed.