Matt Gaetz achieved what appears to be, to this point, arguably his greatest political ambition when he spearheaded the removal of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House this week. However, doing so appears to have angered the vast majority of his Republican colleagues (over 200 of which voted to keep McCarthy), and the proverbial hammer is coming down on Gaetz in the form of Republicans spilling salacious rumors about the Florida congressman.

Gaetz is in the midst of a sexual misconduct investigation regarding his alleged trafficking of a minor across state lines. As Gaetz banged the drum about expelling McCarthy, there were rumors that the House would vote to expel Gaetz should their ethics committee find him guilty of those charges. Perhaps the timeline for mobilizing the Republican war machine against Gaetz has been moved up.

Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin, a Republican, spoke to CNN about Gaetz and did not mince words. He claimed that when the allegations about Gaetz came out, "no one" came to defend him because they'd "all seen the videos" Gaetz would show of girls he slept with. He also claimed Gaetz bragged about "crushing ED pills" and that he would "chase it with an energy drink" so he could "go all night."

Mullin: Gaetz bragged about how he would crush E.D. Medicine and chase it with energy drinks so he could go all night pic.twitter.com/MbbG1nvryc

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 5, 2023

Political theorists on social media are drawing parallels between the lurid accusation and what happened to Madison Cawthorn. In March 2022, Cawthorn bizarrely suggested that some of his Republican colleagues had invited him to drug-fueled parties.

Over the course of April, a number of scandals came out about Cawthorn, including images of him in lingerie, a video of him naked and thrusting in a male friend's face and rumors that he had an inappropriately incestuous relationship with his aide Stephen Smith, his second cousin.

Cawthorn accused Republicans of generating all these scandals, saying old-guard Republicans hated him because he "threatened the status quo." In May, Cawthorn then lost in the Republican primary in his bid for reelection.

Mullin's story, as well as other lurid insults about Gaetz coming from other Republicans, could be the first step in what political commenters on social media are calling "Getting Cawthorned."

Before the removal of McCarthy, when rumors that Republicans would work to expel Gaetz began spreading, Gaetz notably posted a meme of himself as John Wick, seemingly alluding to this recent development.