Mace spars with Fox's Bartiromo about 'disgraced' McCarthy comment

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) got into a spat with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo over former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on her show Wednesday.

Bartiromo and Mace were discussing the possible ousting of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and a recent filing of a motion to vacate against Johnson by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on “Mornings with Maria Bartiromo” when tempers began to flare.

“Oh, I don’t support the motion to vacate the chair, in fact, the motion that was filed wasn't privileged, and so we're actually not even going to vote on it,” Mace said in a clip highlighted by Mediaite. “And so, you know, Mike Johnson was dealt a bad hand — the former Speaker, and disgraced former Speaker, setups a —”

“Kevin McCarthy is not disgraced,” Bartiromo retorted, talking over Mace. “Congresswoman, Kevin McCarthy is not disgraced.”

“I consider him disgraced, absolutely,” Mace responded.

“Why?” Bartiromo responded.

“Because, he wouldn’t tell the truth to the party, to the conference,” Mace said. “He lied over and over —”

“Come on,” Bartiromo interrupted Mace again, leading to the two talking over each other again.

Mace was one of eight Republicans to vote for McCarthy’s ouster with Democrats last October. She went after McCarthy for failing to “keep his word” and said the former Speaker did not follow through with promises to fund the government with no extensions.

“Today I voted for the Motion to Vacate and remove the Speaker. This isn’t about left vs right. This isn’t about ideology. This is about trust and keeping your word. This is about making Congress do its job,” Mace said in a statement at the time.

McCarthy later said in a November interview that he doesn’t think Mace has earned her reelection to her seat.

“If you’ve watched, just her philosophy and the flip-flopping, I don’t believe she wins reelection,” McCarthy said. “I don’t think she’ll probably have earned the right to get reelected.”