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‘I just don’t want to put her in a position that she makes decisions,’ Kevin McCarthy told Fox News.
Justin Baragonain New YorkTuesday 25 November 2025 15:36 GMTComments
CloseFormer GOP House leader blasts Nancy Mace and says he hopes she ‘get the help she needs’
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Two years after Nancy Mace joined seven other Republicans in ousting Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House, the former GOP leader appears to still be holding a grudge against the South Carolina lawmaker.
McCarthy, who now spends much of his free time commenting about politics on cable news, described Mace as one of the “least ethical” and “least respected” members of Congress during his Monday night appearance on Fox News.
Besides questioning the Republican congresswoman’s ethics, McCarthy also expressed concern for Mace’s mental well-being, telling Fox News star Jesse Watters that he hopes that she gets “the help she needs.”
Initially brought on by Watters to mock the “next generation of Democrats” who could be vying for Senate, gubernatorial and presidential runs, McCarthy took some pointed shots at Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who recently joined the race for California governor.
“When I became speaker, I tried to raise the bar in Congress,” McCarthy declared before referencing Swalwell’s relationship with a Chinese national suspected of spying on the United States. “It’s not a high bar, but the first thing I did was remove Swalwell from the [House Intelligence] committee. If you get top-secret knowledge, the very least is you can’t sleep with a Chinese spy.”
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open image in galleryKevin McCarthy told Fox News that Nancy Mace is one of the ‘least ethical’ members of Congress, that he wants her to ‘get the help she needs’ and not be in a position of power. (Fox News)Amid his criticism of Swalwell, however, McCarthy took the opportunity to invoke Mace and assert that her House colleagues held her in low regard.
“I can only hope the Democrats nominate him because every time in Congress [when] we would vote on a bipartisan basis who was the least ethical, who was the least respected, it was always a tie between Swalwell and Nancy Mace,” the former speaker stated. “And I just don’t see these people leading anywhere.”
Reacting with a bit of shock, Watters exclaimed that McCarthy must “hate Nancy Mace,” prompting the ex-Republican leader to insist that wasn’t the case. Instead, according to McCarthy, he was actually worried about his one-time House cohort.
“No, no, I don’t. I want her to get the help she needs,” he responded. “I just don’t want to put her in a position that she makes decisions.”
After Mace joined the 2023 GOP insurgency to remove McCarthy from leadership, which was led by MAGA firebrand Matt Gaetz, the ex-speaker went on a “revenge tour” to damage the political careers of the Republicans who took the gavel from him.
His first target among the “crazy eight,” as McCarthy had called the Republicans who voted against him, was Mace. However, despite him and his allies raising over $5 million for Mace’s primary challenger last year, the congresswoman easily won her party’s nomination and was eventually re-elected for another term.
open image in galleryMcCarthy isn’t the only politician who has urged Mace to seek professional help. (Getty Images)Mace, who has morphed from an anti-Trump moderate who preached bipartisanship to an ultra-MAGA culture warrior over the past couple of years, has long set “quotas” for her staff on how much national media attention she requires.
According to a handbook that became public after McCarthy’s ouster, Mace – who dubbed herself “National Nancy” – told staffers that they needed to book her “on a national TV outlet between one and three times per day.”
Meanwhile, during a recent appearance on Newsmax, Mace revealed that she isn’t exactly popular on Capitol Hill. “I’m an island of one,” she said. “I don’t get invited to parties. I don’t have any friends. I have a dog.”
McCarthy isn’t the only politician who has expressed a desire for Mace to go seek professional help. After Mace’s failed attempt to have Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) censured over comments made about assassinated right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, Omar told the GOP lawmaker: “Would love to see you get the help you need next. You belong in rehab, not Congress.”
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