Kevin McCarthy ousted as House speaker, thrusting Congress into chaos
Kevin McCarthy made the wrong kind of history Tuesday — becoming the first speaker of the House of Representatives to be ousted by a floor vote driven by members of his own party.
Eight Republicans — Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Eli Crane of Arizona, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Bob Good of Virginia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and Matt Rosendale of Montana — banded together with a united Democrat conference to declare the office of speaker vacant by a vote of 216-210, removing McCarthy (R-Calif.) from power and plunging the chamber into uncertainty as it faces a grinding process to pick his replacement.
McCarthy, who ruled himself out of trying for the job again Tuesday night, was booted three days shy of the nine-month anniversary of his election as speaker on the 15th ballot this past January.
Now lawmakers face a rerun of that marathon process, with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) the early favorite to succeed McCarthy.
“I don’t regret my efforts to build coalitions and find solutions. I was raised to solve problems,” McCarthy told reporters after an all-GOP meeting, describing his time in office as “one of the greatest honors.”
“I may have lost the vote today, but as I walk out of this chamber I feel fortunate to have served the American people,” he added. “I believe I can continue to fight, maybe in a different manner.”
The sudden speakership contest, which takes priority over all other business, will also burn time needed to complete work on a series of government appropriations bills and, if necessary, avoid a partial shutdown at 11:59 p.m. Nov. 17.
One of McCarthy’s allies, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), was appointed temporary speaker until a replacement is elected.
McCarthy ousted as speaker — now what?
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was removed as speaker of the House after a historic vote led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) has been appointed temporary speaker until a new speaker can be elected.
The House has never removed and replaced a speaker before in its 234-year history.
Multiple reps have been floated as potential speakers, but it is unclear who will succeed McCarthy at this time.
Nancy Pelosi has been evicted from her Capitol Hill office by the interim speaker.
McCarthy blasted Gaetz in a defiant interview with reporters, slamming the Florida congressman as a fake conservative and calling his move “personal.”
At Tuesday night’s conference meeting, McHenry announced that he planned to keep the House out of session until next week, with Oct. 11 eyed as the date a new speaker would be chosen.
A motion to vacate had never been successfully deployed in the House before, and had only been attempted once — in 1910 against then-Speaker Joseph Cannon (R-Ill.).
“I think the world of [House Majority Whip] Tom Emmer [R-Minn]. I think he’d make a great speaker,” Gaetz told reporters Tuesday evening on the steps of the Capitol when asked about the coming leadership race.
Almost exactly 24 hours earlier, the Floridian had suggested Scalise should succeed McCarthy, providing his battle against multiple myeloma allows.
“It is awkward to talk about names until we understand how Mr. Scalise comes out of his treatment for blood cancer,” he said Monday night. “I am not the type of person that just says you blow by somebody because they’re getting a medical treatment.”
Gaetz had dangled the prospect of a revolt against McCarthy almost from the moment the Californian took the gavel.
The 41-year-old finally went ahead with the motion to vacate Monday night, after a weekend of stewing over the now-former speaker’s decision to call up a stopgap spending bill to avoid a partial government shutdown — and rely on Democratic votes to get the measure through.
“I’m confident I’ll hold on,” McCarthy told reporters Tuesday morning, but his political demise became a matter of time when a motion to block Gaetz’s effort failed 218-208.
Reps. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), Cory Mills (R-Fla.) and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) voted against the motion to table, but to keep McCarthy in place.
With only 426 House members casting votes, however, McCarthy needed 214 supporters to keep his speakership.
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The failed motion to table triggered one hour of debate between McCarthy’s supporters and opponents in the Republican party, with the latter group debating from the Democratic side of the House floor.
“We need a speaker who will fight for something, anything besides staying or becoming speaker,” declared Good, who assailed McCarthy for both the debt limit deal he reached with the Biden administration earlier this year and the maneuvering to avoid a shutdown.
“We need a speaker — ideally somebody who doesn’t want to be speaker and hasn’t pursued that at all costs for his entire adult life — who will meet the moment, and do everything possible to fight for the country.”
McCarthy’s ally, House Rules Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) followed Good with an impassioned defense of the former speaker.
“This is a very sad day, and certainly a day I never expected to have to live through,” Cole bemoaned.
“The overwhelming majority of my party supports the speaker that we elected. We’re proud of the leadership he’s shown,” he continued. “There’s a second group — a small group — honestly they’re willing to plunge this body into chaos.”
Gaetz later fired back at Cole, claiming that Republican inaction on the nation’s financial woes was plunging the US into dire straits.
“The thing we have in common [is] Kevin McCarthy said something to all of us at one point or another that he didn’t really mean and never intended to live up to,” Gaetz jabbed.
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) ticked through many of the overtures McCarthy had made to members of the conference during his tenure.
“Now more than ever, the Republicans must unify. The stakes are too high. We need to save our country, which is why this conference is proud to strongly support Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House,” she proclaimed.
The sternest rebuke to Gaetz came from Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), a chief negotiator in the debt ceiling flap who admonished the Floridian for fundraising off this week’s GOP debacle.
“All of a sudden, my phone keeps sending text messages. Text messages saying, ‘Hey, give me money … I filed the motion to vacate.’ Using official actions, official actions to raise money,” Graves fumed.
“It’s disgusting. It’s what’s disgusting about Washington,” he added.
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Throughout his remarks, Gaetz was peppered with audible groans and boos, at one point urging his colleagues to “boo all you want.”
The GOP rebels were bolstered by Democratic leadership, who announced hours before the vote that they had no interest in keeping McCarthy in control of the gavel.
Democrats were already annoyed with the GOP leader, claiming he had encouraged the hard-right to push for deeper spending cuts than those set out in the debt ceiling deal he brokered with the White House back in May.
“We encourage our Republican colleagues who claim to be more traditional to break from the extremists, end the chaos, end the dysfunction, end the extremism,” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told reporters Tuesday morning. “We are ready, willing and able to work together with our Republican colleagues, but it is on them to join us to move the Congress and the country forward.”
“I think it’s safe to say there’s not a lot of good will in that room for Kevin McCarthy,” said Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) upon leaving a meeting of the Democratic conference.
Even moderate Democrats like Rep. Jared Golden of Maine turned their backs on McCarthy, with Golden saying he saw “no reason” to keep the speaker in place.
At least one liberal lawmaker took issue with comments McCarthy made to CBS’ “Face The Nation” Sunday that he was nervous about a potential partial government shutdown because “Democrats tried to do everything they can not to let” a stopgap spending bill through the chamber.
“After I saw Kevin McCarthy’s interview with Margaret Brennan,” Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) told Punchbowl News, “all magnanimity left my body.”
