Shortly after the House approved a stopgap spending bill to prevent a government shutdown, Rep. Matt Gaetz stood at his party’s podium on the chamber’s floor. The Florida Republican tried to get the attention of Rep. Steve Womack, who was presiding at the time. “Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker,” Gaetz shouted.

The Arkansas Republican either didn’t hear Gaetz or chose not to recognize him. Either way, as the Floridian tried to be heard, Womack brought down the gavel and the House was adjourned.

It’s difficult to say with certainty what Gaetz would’ve said had Womack recognized him, but it seems likely that Gaetz would’ve filed a motion to vacate the chair in the hopes of ousting House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. When that didn’t happen, many observers assumed Gaetz would try again after the weekend. Indeed, those assumptions were reinforced when the Florida Republican appeared on two Sunday shows and explicitly said he would, in fact, file a motion in the hopes of stripping McCarthy of his gavel.

It was against this backdrop that Gaetz appeared on the House floor this morning, at which point he did not file the motion. The GOP congressman had plenty to say — “It is going to be difficult for my Republican friends to keep calling President Biden ‘feeble’ while he continues to take Speaker McCarthy’s lunch money in every negotiation,” Gaetz told his colleagues — but he then walked away without saying what many expected him to say.

He instead alluded to “what may happen later this week.”

Soon after, Gaetz spoke to a sizable group of reporters on the Capitol steps, and NBC News’ Ali Vitali asked him who he wants to succeed McCarthy as speaker. The Floridian said there are 100 members of the GOP conference he’d consider. When Vitali tried to follow up with a second question, the congressman responded:

Recommended

MS NOW Opinion

James Comey’s anti-Trump message is protected speech

Jessica Levinson

Latest

Law enforcement probes protester who printed Stephen and Katie Miller’s address

Ja’han Jones

“Hold on, hold on. I’m finishing answering your question, but if you interrupt it, then the other people can’t use my answer. It just gets you asking questions, and they don’t want to put you on.”

At that point, Gaetz started over, delivering the same answer anew — presumably for easy packaging on broadcast outlets.

One of the more common criticisms of Gaetz is that he’s a fundamentally unserious grandstander who’s desperate for attention. This afternoon, he took a painfully obvious step toward proving his critics right.

Indeed, as NBC News’ Garrett Haake told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell soon after, the congressman effectively gave away the game: “He had a lot of eyeballs on him on the floor here this morning. McCarthy’s line on Gaetz is that he’s doing this all for the television hits. And to do something like that floor speech, without actually filing the documents, and then to try to mansplain how television news works to Ali Vitali, kind of does make the argument that it’s all about doing this for television.”

That doesn’t mean we won’t see a motion to vacate the chair. In fact, all things considered, that vote effort still appears quite likely. But when it comes to the congressman’s motivations, today’s developments brought Gaetz’s perspective into sharper focus.