Gaetz, keeping promise, moves to oust McCarthy
Far-right angered over House speaker’s deal to keep government open
RWASHINGTON ep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., moved Monday to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his post in an act of vengeance that posed the clearest threat yet to McCarthy’s tenure and could plunge the House into chaos.
After days of warnings, Gaetz rose Monday evening to bring up a resolution declaring the speakership vacant. That started a process that would force a vote within days on whether to keep McCarthy in his post. In doing so, Gaetz sought to subject McCarthy to a rare form of political punishment experienced by only two other speakers in the history of the House of Representatives.
The move came just days after McCarthy opted to avert a government shutdown the only way he could — by relying on Democratic votes to push through a stopgap spending bill over the objections of an unmovable bloc of hard-liners in his own party, including Gaetz.
It was a brief but tense interruption of the day-to-day proceedings of the House. McCarthy was not present on the House floor when Gaetz made his motion, but scores of Democrats crowded in the aisles to watch the spectacle. The House adjourned shortly afterward, but under the chamber’s rules, McCarthy and his leadership team will need to address it within two legislative days.
“It is becoming increasingly clear who the speaker of the House already works for, and it’s not the Republican conference,” Gaetz said earlier Monday, making the case for McCarthy’s ouster. He added McCarthy had allowed President Joe Biden to take his “lunch money in every negotiation.”
Gaetz cited McCarthy’s dependence on Democrats to pass the funding bill — which was necessary to avert a shutdown because Gaetz and 20 of his colleagues opposed a temporary funding bill.
And he accused McCarthy of lying to his Republican members during spending negotiations and making a “secret deal” with Democrats about funding for Ukraine, which he and dozens of other conservatives have opposed.
The move is a significant escalation of the long-simmering power struggle between McCarthy and a clutch of conservative hard-liners in his party. They have dangled the threat of dethroning the speaker since he was elected, after they subjected him to a painful round of 15 votes.
Minutes after Gaetz filed the resolution, McCarthy wrote on social media, “Bring it on.”
“I think it’s disruptive to the country, and my focus is only on getting our work done,” McCarthy said earlier Monday. “I want to win the vote so I can finish the job for the American people. There are certain people who have done this since the day we came in.”
It was to appease Gaetz and the 19 other Republicans who opposed his speakership that McCarthy agreed to change the rules of the House to allow any one lawmaker to call a snap vote for his ouster.
After McCarthy struck a bipartisan deal with Biden in the spring to suspend the debt ceiling, there were rumblings among the far right about moving forward on a motion to vacate. They settled for shutting down the House floor instead.
It was unclear how many Republicans planned to join Gaetz in his attempt to dethrone McCarthy. Some archconservatives who have been critical of the speaker have said in recent days they would not support removing him now.
But Gaetz told reporters at the Capitol he had sufficient GOP backing to prevail — unless Democrats voted to save McCarthy.
It remained to be seen whether Democrats would help McCarthy maintain his post. Some representing moderate and conservative-leaning districts have indicated that they would be hard-pressed to punish McCarthy for working across the aisle to prevent a shutdown.
But others said they saw no reason to bail him out, pointing to the string of concessions McCarthy has made to appease his right flank.