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.”
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.
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.
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.