Matt Gaetz, flamethrower and historymaker who ousted US House Speaker McCarthy

The coiffured 41-year-old seemed not even to break a sweat as he led the charge to remove his Republican Party colleague from one of the most powerful roles in the United States government.

But he has built his career on railing against the establishment, first in Florida’s state house, and – after a cakewalk in the deeply conservative First District of Florida in 2016 – in recent years as a US Congressman. Just months into his freshman term, he began casting himself as a “tireless defender” of the former reality TV star, and was soon running with the House Freedom Caucus, a Republican Party awkward squad that routinely rails against the very notion of government.

Few of his colleagues came to his defence when in 2021 he faced a Justice Department investigation into claims he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl, and that he paid for her to travel – a federal crime. He has denied the claims, and has not been charged. “He handed McCarthy a blunt knife and forced him to castrate himself on national television,” one political activist said.

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