I’m not that Kevin McCarthy! Mean posts confuse FOX 5’s entertainment reporter with former House Speaker

WASHINGTON - FOX 5's Kevin McCarthy has been dealing with mix-ups surrounding his name for years, so it's no surprise that he has learned how to find humor in otherwise downright mean social media posts from people who think he's the former House Speaker.

The posts come on X, formerly known as Twitter. Kevin says he's been getting nasty messages as far back as 2017. He says they tend to get nastier and even more disturbing than usual when there is a big story in the news regarding the politician.

That's just what happened earlier this month when Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out of the job.

"@KevinMcCarthyTV is a POS traitor. Ignore all he says, because none of it is in US citizen's best interest," read a recent message.

"The is only ONE person to blame for the shutdown. #KevinMcCarthy. @kevinomccarthy @KevinMcCarthyTV He's waited 10 hours before shutdown to vote. #Democrats wanted 90-mins to read it, normally 72 hours. Kevin said #no," read another one mistakenly directed toward our Kevin.

But he doesn't fight fire with fire. FOX's Kevin always redirects the rage and gives the hater a sarcastic movie-related tidbit in return.

"This must be because I said Taylor Swift's Eras Tour movie is, next to Oppenheimer, my favorite theatrical experience of 2023," he wrote in response to being called a traitor.

"Wait, is this because I saw Oppenheimer 8 times in theaters? Listen, when Christopher Nolan releases a new film, it feels like an event that I want to experience over and over again," he quipped when he was told he waited too long to vote to prevent the government shutdown. "Saw it in 70mm, 70mm IMAX, 1.90 digital IMAX and 1.43 digital IMAX. I was busy, sorry."

Typically, the writer apologies for their mistake. Sometimes though, the tweets get deleted.

"I do it for two reasons. One, because I want to call them out. I think people hide behind their keyboards and say things to people they would never say to somebody's face and I think it's just interesting to call them out and put them on display and say ‘look what you're doing,'" Kevin told us back in 2017. "And…I also like being condescending and sending them a movie review back."