The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to unseat Kevin McCarthy as speaker, marking the first time in the chamber that a speaker has been removed through a resolution to oust them.
“The U.S. House of Representatives voted 216 to 210 on Tuesday to oust California Republican Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker. Throughout his short tenure, McCarthy has faced persistent opposition from the right for compromising with Democrats on government funding and aid to Ukraine.
Florida Republican Matt Gaetz introduced a motion to oust McCarthy on Monday, two days after McCarthy rallied GOP lawmakers to pass a bill funding the U.S. government until November 17th. Gaetz and a cohort of hardline conservatives opposed any attempt to combine funding for different government agencies into a single bill, with Gaetz warning that he would move to oust McCarthy if the bill passed.
Gaetz was able to launch the removal of McCarthy thanks to a compromise reached between the California Republican and Gaetz’ ‘Freedom Caucus’ allies in January, in which the hardliners agreed to back his bid for speakership in exchange for the ability to remove him from office if they lost confidence in his leadership.
Gaetz denounced McCarthy as ‘a feature of the swamp’ shortly after the vote. ‘It’s the benefit of this country that we have a better speaker of the House than Kevin McCarthy’, he told reporters.
By agreeing to pass a last-minute 45-day stopgap spending bill on Saturday night, the Republicans averted a looming government shutdown. ‘I kept [the] government open so the families of our troops and border agents could get paid’, McCarthy said, while defending his record. ‘If a handful of Republicans side with Democrats to remove me for that it's – a fight worth having’.
Patrick McHenry, a Republican from North Carolina, was declared acting speaker until the election of McCarthy’s replacement.
McCarthy’s 269 days as House speaker is the second-shortest tenure in U.S. history after Michael C. Kerr, who served as speaker for 257 days and died in office in 1876”. -RT
While at the moment, the nominee to replace McCarthy remains unclear, Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina will serve as interim speaker.
Congressman Matt Gaetz reportedly made his decision to follow through with the motion to remove McCarthy in response to the stopgap funding bill that was passed by the House to avert a government shutdown.
While the majority of Republicans in Congress still support the proxy war in Ukraine, staunch opposition to continuous authorized spending on Ukraine, like Gaetz, being given more influence over House leadership than in the past could potentially cause support for the policy of providing additional funding Kiev while sanctioning Moscow to wane as the conflict persists.