Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) introduced a resolution Monday evening to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from his seat, triggering an expected intraparty clash and setting up a showdown for the House to decide whether to depose McCarthy likely within 48 hours.
Gaetz and a handful of hard-right Republicans have repeatedly threatened to go after McCarthy’s speakership if he relied on Democratic votes to pass any spending legislation, which happened Saturday after McCarthy could not get a majority of Republicans to support various proposals to fund the government with only GOP votes. Using a motion to vacate, a single person can force the House to consider removing the speaker. McCarthy agreed to lowering the threshold for bringing the motion to win over enough support to become speaker in January.
“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,” Gaetz said. "Members of the Republican Party might vote differently on a motion to vacate if they heard what the speaker had to share with us about his secret side deal with Joe Biden on Ukraine. I’ll be listening. Stay tuned.”
But it’s not clear Gaetz has 218 votes needed to remove McCarthy without himself relying on Democratic votes. If successful, the motion would not remove McCarthy from the House, but from his leadership position alone. If McCarthy is successfully removed, both Democrats and Republicans worry they will be in a speakership election fight that could drag on for days, blunting progress on passing full year appropriation bills before government funding runs out in mid-November.
The pursuit to depose McCarthy as speaker has alarmed many House Republicans, possibly setting up an internal civil war between staunch allies of McCarthy and those who have pressured him repeatedly with a variety of, at times unrealistic, demands. The effort also likely would force McCarthy and his allies to strategize with Democrats, further irritating the hard-right, because the minority party will play a determinative role in whether McCarthy can hold onto his leadership seat.
House Democrats have begun to discuss how they would handle a potential challenge to McCarthy’s speakership. House Minority Whip Rep. Katherine M. Clark (Mass.), in a note to Democrats Sunday told them to be ready for a motion to oust McCarthy as speaker “at any time, including Monday.” She did not indicate any preference in how to vote, adding that “we will have a Caucus wide discussion on how to address the motion to best meet the needs of the American people.”
So we all agree that conservatives are now the obstructionist party, right? Like…. We’re done pretending that they have anyone’s interest in mind aside from their own?
Or are we still allowing a small benefit of doubt that there’s even so much as one of them that actually cares about anyone other than themselves?
conservatives are now the obstructionist party, right?
Only now? It’s has been their modus operandi for at least a decade…
Just now? They’ve been obstructionist to change since Strom Thurman turned the Dixiecrats red following the Civil Rights Act passage
Gaslight, Obstruct, Project
They’ve been know as the party of obstruction for a long, long time.
I swear I’ve read this entire comment chain during whatever the last GOP debacle was
Let’s say he fends off this attack and keeps his seat.
What’s to stop Gaetz from just doing it again over and over and stall things like that cuck in the senate is blocking group military nominations
If he becomes speaker again by making the same stupid deal that any one person can oust him, we’re basically guaranteeing this will happen again. But that was not a normal thing in the house prior to Kevin’s desperate plea to get the job
Oh right, he’d have to make that exact same deal again which I can’t imagine he’d do again.
He wants the job badly enough, I can see him making this same power-in-name-only deal.
Being kicked out of Congress.
Never let a good crisis go to waste. The Dems should seek concessions in exchange for propping up the McCarthy speakership. Unfortunately, if you can count on one thing it’s that the Dems will find a way to fuck it up.
Love that to get anything done we have to appease a child sex trafficker. What a wonderful government, I don’t want to drop out of society at all because of this shit.
Don’t worry he’ll be the governor of Florida within 2 years, so he’ll be out of the senate real soon!
finally 🍿
No way McCarthy hasn’t already talked to the same Dems who voted for keeping the govt open to keep him in his seat. This is really good honestly. If he stays in with help from the left then the whole system just moves left. Not enough but it’s a start
Democrats need to demand concessions in writing for any help they give to McCarthy to save him the crazies.
Agreed. I’m happy they actually held out this time but they need to really put the screws to the clown show that is the current GOP. It seems like there is a lot of leverage not being used
I believe this is orchestrated by Trump.
If I was super conspiracy minded I would posit that Gaetz will try to have Trump installed as speaker of the house and then some ‘lone wolf’ types will try to assassinate Biden and Harris at the same time, installing Trump as president followed by martial law, cancelling of elections, the works.
I’m probably listening to too much Knowledge Fight.
Is anyone else nervous about the ramifications of this? Republicans had a tough enough time electing McCarthy. I can’t imagine things are going to be less divisive, and we only have like 40 something days to avoid the shutdown.
Republicans have to cross party lines for a speaker…
What that should mean is a moderate (conservative fiscal, no desire to change socially) Dem becoming speaker, instead it’ll likely be someone exactly like McCarthy from the Republican party getting D votes.
If it’s gonna be a D, it’s gonna be Jeffries.
He was taught by Pelosi, I’m sure he has that caucus all knotted up.
Yeah, it should be Jeffries, that’s what I said.
But I think instead of finding the 6 votes he needs for himself, he’ll immediately conceded to finding 12 Dems to elect a Republican after the 15 rabble rousers refuse to vote with their party.
Like you said, Jeffries was taught be Pelosi. And he’ll do what she’d have done…
Man Jeffries as speaker because Republicans can’t get their shit together would be amazing.
Even if Jeffries because Speaker, the GOP would still be the majority party. The House would still be dysfunctional, but the GOP would use the Black Democrat for their talking heads as the scapegoat. It’s better to keep a Repub as Speaker because it keeps their idiocy and ineptitude front and center.
Better to give them a rope to hang themselves, than give them ammunition to attack you with.
I don’t see Pelosi doing that. I think she’d watch him swing.
But she’s still there giving advice, so whatever they end up doing is gonna have the sign off from her. We’ll know soon enough.
This would be the best outcome.
Why would any Dem vote for a Rep?
Honest question, as I truly have no clue.
They put off a shutdown for 45 days, so there’s going to need to be bipartisan support in November guaranteed. If Dems help keep McCarthy as speaker, then they can bargain for a better deal on the upcoming vote. It’s clear McCarthy can’t rely on the bat shit crazy Republicans, so he needs the Democrats.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
I get that on the surface, but we all know McCarthy cannot be trusted to keep his word on any deal.
Because Gaetz and the other 14 make unrealistic demands the rest won’t go along with.
If neither side budges, then the only way we get a speaker is cross party votes.
It should be Rs voting D, but instead I expect Dem leadership to try and round up enough Ds to vote an R into power.
It has begun.
And so it begins
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Gaetz and a handful of hard-right Republicans have repeatedly threatened to go after McCarthy’s speakership if he relied on Democratic votes to pass any spending legislation, which happened Saturday after McCarthy could not get a majority of Republicans to support various proposals to fund the government with only GOP votes.
McCarthy agreed to lowering the threshold for bringing the motion to win over enough support to become speaker in January.
“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,” Gaetz said.
"Members of the Republican Party might vote differently on a motion to vacate if they heard what the speaker had to share with us about his secret side deal with Joe Biden on Ukraine.
If McCarthy is successfully removed, both Democrats and Republicans worry they will be in a speakership election fight that could drag on for days, blunting progress on passing full year appropriation bills before government funding runs out in mid-November.
), in a note to Democrats Sunday told them to be ready for a motion to oust McCarthy as speaker “at any time, including Monday.” She did not indicate any preference in how to vote, adding that “we will have a Caucus wide discussion on how to address the motion to best meet the needs of the American people.”
The original article contains 425 words, the summary contains 229 words. Saved 46%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
