Rep. Matt Gaetz on Monday moved to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy from the top House leadership post, offering a motion to vacate the chair on the House floor – a rare procedural move that can be used to force a vote to remove the speaker.

It’s not yet clear how the challenge to McCarthy will play out, but the effort represents the most serious threat to his speakership to date. A floor vote to oust McCarthy would require a majority to succeed.

“Bring it on,” the California Republican wrote on X shortly after the motion. Gaetz responded to the post with one of his own, writing, “Just did.”

The move marks a major escalation in tensions for a House GOP conference that has been mired in in-fighting and could be thrown into chaos if McCarthy is pushed out of the speakership. It comes as a bloc of House conservatives have continued to thwart McCarthy, voting against key priorities of GOP leadership and repeatedly throwing up roadblocks to the speaker’s agenda.

  • gregorum
    link
    fedilink
    English
    31
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    … in most predictable motion in Congressional history.

    • @KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      10
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Nah, a Biden impeachment attempt was even more predictable. Though they flat out said that was the plan so I don’t know if that counts.

    • FuglyDuck
      link
      fedilink
      English
      5
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Pretty sure that award goes to “raises? Yes.” But this is a very close second

  • @SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    221 year ago

    Any chance we could see mccarthy unseated and gaetz removed? That would be pretty fantastic to watch. Not great for the country, mind, as it would lead to another week or two of endless voting for a new speaker, but hilarious to watch nonetheless.

  • Chainweasel
    link
    fedilink
    English
    51 year ago

    The more they fight amongst themselves the less damage they can do to the rest of us. Good for them.

  • AutoTL;DRB
    link
    English
    31 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    It comes as a bloc of House conservatives have continued to thwart McCarthy, voting against key priorities of GOP leadership and repeatedly throwing up roadblocks to the speaker’s agenda.

    McCarthy is expected to make a procedural move in an attempt to kill the measure to remove him as speaker, potentially as soon as Tuesday, several sources told CNN, in a vote that would be the first sign of where his support lies.

    The group then discussed the pros and cons of supporting the motion to vacate, with one of the downsides being it could hinder their ability to finish work on spending bills ahead of the November 17 deadline.

    South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman, who is still undecided on his vote, confirmed that there was a meeting with a “good many” GOP members, where they discussed their options and Gaetz addressed the room.

    “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.

    In Sunday remarks responding to the thwarted government shutdown, President Joe Biden called on McCarthy and other Republican leaders to follow through on a commitment to hold a standalone vote on funding for Ukraine as it attempts to fight off Russia’s invasion.


    The original article contains 1,684 words, the summary contains 219 words. Saved 87%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!