AOC ‘absolutely’ plans to vote to oust McCarthy, while Pelosi raises doubts
Progressive darling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Sunday she “absolutely” intends to back a motion to topple House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
“Absolutely. I think Kevin McCarthy is a very weak speaker. He clearly has lost control of his caucus,” the New York Democrat told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Her remarks were a slight departure from those Sunday of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who implored Democrats to take their cues from Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).
The congressman has been keeping his cards close to the vest on the issue, at least in public.
“Follow the leader,” Pelosi told CNN.
Privately, Pelosi has warned Jeffries to be cautious about throwing McCarthy a lifeline because of concerns the Republican can’t be trusted, Politico reported.
Jeffries is reportedly keen on Democrats at least sticking together on the matter.
Democrats have been vexed by McCarthy reneging on top-line discretionary spending numbers agreed to during the debt limit debacle.
Ocasio-Cortez posited her party would likely be reticent to bail out the embattled speaker.
“I certainly don’t think that we would expect to see that unless there’s a real conversation between the Republican and Democratic caucuses,” she said. “I don’t think we [will] give up votes for free.”
GOP agitator Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) announced his intent Sunday to file a motion to vacate the chair — in other words, to oust McCarthy.
His threat comes on the heels of McCarthy putting a “continuing resolution” to fund the government for 47 days and avert a shutdown with effectively no strings attached up for a floor vote Saturday, rankling his right flank.
To be successful, the motion will need to garner a majority of votes. Republicans have a four-seat majority.
Democrats could bail him out by voting “present” to lower the threshold for him to prevail.
They didn’t do that back in January when he faced a historically unprecedented 15 votes to lock down the gavel.
Back then, Republicans had a five-seat majority, and McCarthy didn’t have a vote to spare when he clinched the speakership. Former Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) stepped down in the time since, and the spot hasn’t been filled yet.
Some Democrats have been privately floating their demands in exchange for hypothetically giving McCarthy a lifeline.
For instance, AOC’s fellow female progressive “Squad” member, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), recently told MSNBC some of her colleagues might be amenable to a rescue if McCarthy agrees to a 50-50 power sharing agreement.
McCarthy, for his part, has publicly and privately sought to downplay the threat of a motion to vacate.
“You guys think I’m scared of a motion to vacate. Go f–king ahead and do it. I’m not scared,” McCarthy reportedly dared his conference earlier this month.
He spent weeks gauging support for multiple iterations of a continuing resolution to keep the government’s lights on.
Many of them featured conservative wishlist items such as deep spending cuts and bolstered border security.
But he couldn’t peel off enough hard-liners and opted to pass a “clean” continuing resolution instead.
That measure, which featured no funding for Ukraine but $16 billion in domestic disaster relief, passed the House 335 to 91, with one Democrat and then only Republicans opposed.
Critics such as Gaetz have railed against the government funding process, citing the fast-growing $33 trillion national debt.
Ocasio-Cortez stressed that progressives seek to be stewards of fiscal responsibility.
“I vociferously disagree with any assertion that progressivism is somehow incompatible with fiscal responsibility,” she said. “Progressivism believes in making investments that actually have returns.”
