"Kevin McCarthy was well aware he was going to lose his bid to become Speaker of the House of Representatives on the first ballot, three people with knowledge of the situation told Rolling Stone."

"What he was not privately predicting was that the beatings would continue for an entire week. 'He knew he was going to get fucked — he just didn’t know they were going to fuck him this many times, or this hard,' explained one congressional aide."

Writes Asawin Suebsaeng in "Sex Trafficking Row Helped Fuel Gaetz’s Hatred for McCarthy" (Rolling Stone).

Literal sex (that may not have happened) and metaphorical sex (of the gang rape kind). 

Shall we read Rolling Stone?

According to two sources familiar with the matter, Gaetz has been furious at McCarthy for the perceived lack of support [when he was 'the target of a federal investigation into the sex trafficking of a minor']— despite the fact that McCarthy did not strip him of any committee assignments during the probe.

The enmity between the two Republicans spilled into open view on the floor of the House during the 14th vote Friday night that McCarthy had bragged would finally put him over the top to secure the speaker’s gavel. Gaetz placed himself at the center of the drama. He skipped his turn in the alphabetical role call vote, setting himself up to vote at the end of the proceeding. With McCarthy needing one more yes vote, Gaetz instead voted “present” — leaving McCarthy with 50 percent of the vote, a hair short of victory.

McCarthy strode up to Gaetz on the House floor, and a the [sic] foes had a heated exchange that did not change the total. McCarthy again was left hanging....

Rolling Stone contacted members of Congress, sources on Capitol Hill, and activists in conservative organizations to ask what the root cause was. They all just knew Gaetz hated the House GOP leader.

Those last 2 sentences, together, contain an unstated proposition that can't possibly be true: Everyone contacted chose to answer. I can easily believe that everyone who did answer purported to know that Gaetz hates McCarthy. The phrase "just know" is ambiguous. It could mean either that they instinctively know or that they didn't know anything else. But I'll keep reading anyway.

The headline says the "sex trafficking row" was at the root of Gaetz's enmity, but I can't find support for that in the text of the article. I've read to the end now, and I've got to say I think the writer really did use the phrase "just know" to me they didn't know anything else. Gaetz hates McCarthy. But why?

Eventually, the article ends up using Gaetz's own account:

Asked to comment on reports that he personally despises McCarthy — and that his loathing was intensified by McCarthy’s failure to aggressively stand up for him during the sex-crimes probe — Gaetz’s office did not deny it.

They didn't affirm it either! What a pathetic basis for the headline.

Instead, they pointed Rolling Stone to a TV interview on Thursday in which the congressman said he would not vote for McCarthy “under almost any circumstance,” while insisting his motivation was principled, not personal.

In other words, they did deny it! Oh! This article is maddeningly deceptive!

“Kevin McCarthy is the masthead of the lobby core,” Gaetz told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham when asked point-blank if his grudge against McCarthy was personal. “I resent the extent to which Kevin McCarthy utilizes the lobbyists and the special interests to be able to dictate how political decisions are made, how policy decisions are made, and how leadership decisions are made. Kevin McCarthy has been in the leadership for 14 years, and he has sold shares of himself to special interests, to political action committees. And so that’s why I don’t think he is an appropriate choice.”

But Rolling Stone went with its trashy headline anyway. 

ADDED: Here's C-SPAN video of McCarthy approaching Gaetz right after his "present" vote:

 

ALSO: Gaetz moving his vote to "present" improved McCarthy's position, as the NYT article on the subject makes clear:

[On the 14th vote, t]wo Republicans who had withheld their support from Mr. McCarthy — Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida and Lauren Boebert of Colorado —voted “present,” lowering the threshold for him to win to 217 votes but still leaving him one vote short....

McCarthy won on the 15th vote not because any of the last 6 holdouts voted for him, but only because all of the 6 switched to voting "present" instead of voting for someone else. McCarthy got the same number of votes — 216 — but that number was, finally, a majority. Gaetz had the opportunity as the last person voting on the 14th vote to give McCarthy his victory. He didn't do it, but he laid the groundwork for the 15th vote.