We Walked Away
Kevin McCarthy Said It. On Television. With His Whole Chest. So Let’s Make the List.
On Monday evening, Kevin McCarthy appeared on Fox News to comment on the sexual assault allegations against Graham Platner, the Maine Democratic Senate candidate who was ultimately forced to withdraw from the race. McCarthy said the following, with a straight face, into a camera:
“The one thing I know about Republicans: when we had a very bad candidate and found out, we didn’t vote for that person. We walked away. When Matt Gaetz came forward, we got rid of him.”
He said this. Kevin McCarthy. On Fox News. In 2026. While Donald Trump is the President of the United States.
The internet responded with appropriate velocity. “TRUMP IS THE F—KING PRESIDENT WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?!?!” wrote left-wing streamer Hasan Piker. “THE MFING SECRETARY OF WAR HAS THE EXACT SAME RAP SHEET AS GRAHAM PLATNER!! HE WAS A HOST ON THE NETWORK YOU’RE CURRENTLY SPEAKING AT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Let us not do this quickly. Let us do this carefully, one name at a time, because Kevin McCarthy has invited us to make the list and we should honor that invitation.
Donald Trump — The President of the United States
Trump was elected to his second presidential term shortly after a $5 million civil court verdict found him liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll and subsequently defaming her. In June 2026, the Supreme Court declined to hear Trump’s appeal seeking to overturn the verdict.
That is the one everyone knows. But there is considerably more. Trump has been accused credibly of sexual misconduct by 28 women. He was caught on tape — the Access Hollywood tape — bragging about grabbing women by the genitals without their consent. The judge in the Carroll case went out of his way to explain that Trump could be considered a rapist based on the common definition of the word. He appears in the Epstein files. He has been accused of assault by women who include a former business associate, a journalist, a retail executive, a former contestant on his television show, and a former Miss USA.
In 2016, Republicans heard about the Access Hollywood tape and, mostly, walked toward him. In 2020, they heard about the E. Jean Carroll accusation and walked toward him. In 2023, a jury found him liable for sexual abuse and Republicans walked toward him. In 2024, they made him president again.
Kevin McCarthy voted for him. Kevin McCarthy campaigned for him. Kevin McCarthy walked all the way to Mar-a-Lago after January 6th to show he was still in.
Republicans walked away. Kevin McCarthy personally drove.
Matt Gaetz — The One McCarthy Cited
The House Ethics Committee found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz “regularly” paid women for sex, had sex with a 17-year-old during his tenure on Capitol Hill and possessed illegal drugs. Nevertheless, as that evidence came together, he remained a GOP member in good standing; he won re-election in 2024 with the Republican Party’s backing; and President Donald Trump thought it would be a good idea to nominate Gaetz to serve as the U.S. attorney general — a nomination endorsed by Republican senators such as South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham and Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville, even after they had seen the House Ethics Committee’s findings.
Gaetz did not get rid of himself because Republicans walked away from him. Gaetz won a fifth term in 2024 before choosing to resign after the president nominated him for Attorney General, a role from which he later withdrew his own candidacy.
Republicans didn’t walk away from Matt Gaetz. They re-elected him, nominated him for the nation’s top law enforcement post, and then watched him withdraw from that nomination when the heat got too high. McCarthy citing Gaetz as evidence of Republican virtue is like citing the arsonist as evidence of the fire department’s effectiveness.
Pete Hegseth — Secretary of War
The Secretary of War. The man who renamed the Defense Department. Two women have accused him of sexual assault, including one incident at a California Republican Women’s Federation event in 2017 that was settled with a non-disclosure agreement. When the allegation was first reported during his confirmation hearings, the Trump administration’s response was to attack the accuser and confirm him anyway. Left-wing commentator Hasan Piker noted he was a host on the very Fox News network McCarthy was speaking on when the allegation first emerged.
Republicans did not walk away from Pete Hegseth. They made him Secretary of War.
Ken Paxton — Texas Attorney General, U.S. Senate Candidate
Texas Attorney General and GOP nominee for Senate Ken Paxton has been accused of corruption, was impeached by the Republican controlled Texas House for abusing his office to help a political donor and is currently going through a divorce from his wife, Angela Paxton, on “biblical grounds” due to infidelity.
The Republican-controlled Texas House impeached him. His wife filed for divorce citing biblical grounds. He is the Republican nominee for the United States Senate from Texas.
Republicans did not walk away from Ken Paxton. They nominated him again.
Rep. Cory Mills — Florida
Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) allegedly assaulted a former girlfriend, Sarah Raviani, in D.C. last February. Another former girlfriend, Lindsey Langston, sought a restraining order against him in Florida, saying he threatened to release nude photos and videos of her.
Mills is the sitting Republican member of Congress from Florida’s 7th District. No Republican has called for his resignation. No Republican leadership figure has walked away from him. He is in good standing.
Roy Moore — The One McCarthy Forgot
In 2017, during the Alabama Senate special election, multiple women credibly accused Roy Moore of pursuing sexual relationships with them when they were teenagers — some as young as 14 — while he was in his thirties. Trump endorsed former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore when he ran for Senate in 2017, despite multiple accusations of child molestation.
Trump walked toward Roy Moore. With an endorsement.
George Santos, Herschel Walker, and the Full Catalog
The Republican Party has a long history of fervently backing highly controversial candidates. In recent years, the party has put its weight behind Herschel Walker, the 2022 Georgia Senate candidate who faced alarming domestic violence allegations; and George Santos, the New York lawmaker who fabricated practically everything he shared about himself and was later ousted from Congress and sentenced to 87 months in prison.
Santos was not removed by Republicans walking away from him. He was removed when enough evidence of fraud accumulated that even Republican leadership could no longer protect him. He was then sentenced to 87 months in prison. Republicans did not walk away from George Santos. The legal system removed him.
What Actually Happened With Graham Platner
Here is the accurate version of events, for comparison.
Graham Platner, the Maine Democratic candidate for Senate, was accused of sexual assault by a former girlfriend. Within days, leading Democrats — including Ro Khanna, Elizabeth Warren, and others who had endorsed him — publicly withdrew their support and called on him to exit the race. Democratic lawmakers, among them some of Platner’s most ardent supporters, frantically jumped ship and backtracked on their endorsements amid the allegations. The Maine Democratic Party asked him to withdraw before the filing deadline. He withdrew.
Democrats walked away from Graham Platner. Quickly, publicly, and at political cost to themselves.
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance put it clearly: “The contrast here is hard to ignore. Democrats have shown that when credible allegations of sexual misconduct emerge against one of their own, the conversation turns quickly to accountability. Republicans have made a different choice. That’s not a partisan talking point; it’s a difference in how the two parties have approached questions of character and fitness for office over the last 10 years.”
That is the accurate account. Democrats walked away from Platner in real time. Republicans have spent ten years walking toward Trump, Gaetz, Hegseth, Paxton, Mills, Moore, and the rest of the catalog.
Kevin McCarthy sat on Fox News and said the quiet part backward.
“You made a ‘very bad candidate’ President, Kevin.”
Yes. And then you drove to Florida to make sure he knew you were still on board.