Given that no one wants to be speaker, Representative Bill Huizenga floated the idea of a temp. "I am warming to the idea of an 'Interim' or 'caretaker' Speaker to serve thru the rest of this term. Someone who has announced retirement," he tweeted. People were joke-suggesting Donald Trump for the gig, and a few, according to PBS's Lisa Desjardins, were seriously suggesting Mitt Romney.

McCarthy was asked whether he dropped out because of the controversy over his statement last week implying the purpose of the Select Committee on Benghazi's was to hurt Hillary Clinton's poll numbers. “Well, that wasn’t help­ful," he said. But rumors were circling around the hallways, and the conservative internet, about another possible motivation for his decision: Rep. Walter Jones had sent a letter warning those running for leadership positions should withdraw if they have any issues of "moral turpitude," including adultery, that could hurt the party. Reporters asked McCarthy if the letter was a factor in his decision, and he said no.

But conservative pundit Erick Erickson explained that that Jones's letter followed a mass email alleging an affair between McCarthy and Represenative Renee Ellmers of North Carolina. Erickson does not name the emailer, but says he or she has the email addresses of many Republican members of Congress and top conservatives. "It is again worth noting that both parties deny it," Erickson wrote. "But the rumor itself may have led to McCarthy’s collapse." (A good gossip always claims to care first and foremost about the truth.) A 2011 New York Times profile of McCarthy noted McCarthy was close with Ellmers:

Sometimes when Ellmers is talking to the whip and doesn’t think she’s getting through to him, she claps her hands loudly in front of his face. Sometimes McCarthy giggles and claps back.

Matt Lewis highlighted the fact that Ellmers recently said she was backing Jason Chaffetz for speaker, saying McCarthy hadn't called her, so "I’m apparently not high on his priority list."