The Affair Rumor Kevin McCarthy Faced Involving Another Politician
In October 2023, Kevin McCarthy took the third shortest House Speaker term when his fellow House Representatives ousted him, which only reminded folks that McCarthy's last speaker run was squashed due to affair allegations.
Per CNN, McCarthy's term was a mere 269 days long. McCarthy adamantly opposed rumors that he would be resigning from Congress and even reaffirmed his desire to run for re-election before his time expired in 2025 (via CBS). Furthermore, the outlet reported that McCarthy has served since 2007 during the George W. Bush administration.
"I am not resigning. I got a lot more work to do," McCarthy said, per NBC. "We're going to keep the majority. I'm going to help the people I got here, and we're going to expand it further." His final comment was believed to have been in reference to the 2024 election, according to NBC. While a bygone allegation from 2015, let's revisit the affair rumor that trailed McCarthy to his failed bid for Speaker of the House.
Kevin McCarthy's rumored affair was with another House member
Right before the vote for the next Speaker of the House took place in October 2015, Kevin McCarthy withdrew his candidacy. His withdrawal came as rumors swirled of an affair between McCarthy, who is married, and another married House member. Per the New York Post, rumors put McCarthy and Renee Ellmers together. The outlet further reported that a site called GotNews claimed Ellmers and McCarthy had been together for a long time — and even former Speaker of the House John Boehner told them to end it.
At the time, many outlets wouldn't touch the rumor, to which conservative columnist Matt Lewis had this to say to HuffPost: "I think that the new media errs sometimes in being overzealous and imprudent and the old media errs in being stodgy and not fulfilling its responsibly to viewers and readers. It was stunning what happened today and people are looking for answers to something that seems unexplainable." He added, "[T]he truth is that insiders and media elites all over DC are talking about these rumors — and some fairly prominent people are blogging about it. So I do think there's a responsibility to be prudent in the way we present the story, but that needs to be balanced with the responsibility we have to our readers."
Both Ellmers and McCarthy denied the allegation.
Kevin McCarthy faced another affair rumor
A few months into his tenure as Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy found himself wrapped up in another affair rumor. Former Fox News head of booking Abby Grossberg filed two lawsuits against the network in April 2023. Per court documents provided to Radar Online, Grossberg was subjected to harassment from "Tucker Carlson Tonight" producers Justin Wells and Alexander McCaskill, specifically referencing sexual harassment from Wells and McCaskill.
"The next day, Mr. Wells called Ms. Grossberg into his office, where Mr. McCaskill was present, and asked her an uncomfortable sexual question about her former boss: 'Is Maria Bartiromo [a then-Fox News host] f—–g Kevin McCarthy?' Shocked, Ms. Grossberg replied 'No,' and quickly left the room," the lawsuit read, per the outlet.
At the time of this incident between Grossberg, Wells, and McCaskill, McCarthy was the House Minority Leader. Grossberg told Yahoo she was stunned by the question. As far as we can tell, nothing ever came of the allegations.