While Gaetz and his allies delayed McCarthy’s smooth ascension to House speaker, a series of concessions appeared to persuade him and the others, with changes allegedly around limits on spending and bigger committee roles for hardliners.

But was there more behind why Gaetz changed his tune? Videos and stills shared on social media suggested that a word in his ear might have had a persuasive effect.

The Claim

A number of tweets and Reddit posts, shared starting Sunday, claimed that Florida Representative Matt Gaetz voted for Kevin McCarthy as House speaker after a conversation with a colleague whose face is obscured.

The still from C-SPAN was used to promote numerous unevidenced narratives and conspiracy theories, in left- and right-leaning online communities, receiving hundreds of thousands of interactions.

The Facts

Gaetz went on record saying he would “never” vote for McCarthy, and throughout the more than a dozen votes he backed other candidates, including former President Donald Trump.

Nonetheless, during a Fox News interview on Friday before the House reconvened at 10 p.m. ET, Gaetz hinted that McCarthy had made significant concessions in order to secure the speaker’s gavel.

“I am excited and encouraged,” Gaetz told host Sean Hannity. “I am grateful that Speaker-designate McCarthy has been so receptive to each and every change that we have demanded. And Sean, we’re at the stage right now where I’m running out of stuff to ask for.”

McCarthy was subsequently elected on the 15th ballot, when six Republican holdouts, including Gaetz and Colorado’s Lauren Boebert, voted “present.” That lowered the threshold for a majority and McCarthy won with 216 votes to Democrat Hakeem Jeffries’ 212.

The video shared on Twitter and elsewhere of Gaetz being whispered to, with no other information or context, suggested that perhaps there was another motivation that might have compelled him to change tack.

However, the truth is far more prosaic than the social media posts suggest.

First, the person talking to Gaetz is not as much of a mystery as some of the social media posts suggest. It was Representative Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican who has recently grown a beard, as video footage from C-SPAN showed.

Burchett has since made a number of comments on social media addressing his appearance, and the clip itself.

Burchett recently commented on the apparent altercation between Gaetz and another Republican, Alabama Representative Mike Rodgers, calling the latter a “redneck” and accusing him of drinking on the House floor. Rodgers has since apologized for the incident.

While the incident, which took place moments earlier, could have been the subject of the conversation between Gaetz and Burchett, there is no evidence to confirm it.

In a response for comment to Newsweek, a spokesman for Burchett appeared to acknowledge that it was him in the video but did not provide further details

“Rep. Burchett’s conversation with Matt Gaetz was private, and we intend to keep it that way,” Burchett’s representative told Newsweek in an email.

Likewise, Gaetz also did not elaborate on the details of the conversation but denied that he had been pressured into the vote.

“Tim Burchett is one of my best friends in Congress,” Gaetz told Newsweek in an email. “We sit next to each other during virtually every vote. That said, the speaker’s race ended due to concessions on process, policy, and personnel—not pressure.”

Regardless of the topic discussed, it is a matter of public record (as seen in the C-SPAN footage) that the conversation between the two congressmen happened after the 14th vote for speaker, in which Gaetz had already voted “present.”

So, not only was the person talking to Gaetz not a mystery, but whatever the conversation was about, Gaetz had already changed from voting for alternative candidates to simply voting “present.”

Eventually, by early on January 7, the number of members voting “present” had increased so that the threshold to become speaker fell, meaning McCarthy could be elected with 216, not 218, votes.

While we don’t know what was said to Gaetz, it is evident, based on the available timeline and footage taken from C-SPAN, that the conversation was not one to have changed Gaetz’s thinking, and unlikely to have had any influence on the 15th vote.

Without actually casting a vote for McCarthy, Gaetz appeared to have been dissuaded from blocking the nomination further thanks to a series of concessions. They included allowing one lawmaker to trigger a speakership election, which might ultimately put McCarthy in a precarious position should he fail to enact decisions the Freedom Caucus approves of.

The Ruling

Misleading Material.

Whatever the video shared on social media actually depicted, Matt Gaetz did not technically vote for Kevin McCarthy.

He voted “present” from the 14th vote, which preceded the conversation captured and shared on social media between what turned out to be Gaetz and Tennessee colleague Tim Burchett.

In any case, the video could not have shown Gaetz being influenced to change his vote as he had already begun voting “present” by the time the chat took place.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team